Combat experience: Who has it, who may want it?

 MOST IMPORTANT COMMODITY IN WAR

ONLY RUSSIA AND UKRAINE HAVE COMBAT HARDENED TROOPS

As we see and hear the drums of war escalating from Europe to the far east, we can only assume that many are preparing for war. Most assume that manufacturing more weapons and stockpiling supplies would be a critical part of war preparation. While that is true, real combat experience is the most important and hard to aquire commodity.

While we have witnessed 30 years of war, much of it has been engaged between 1st world powers and insurgencies, often only armed with small arms and improvised weapons. The present war in Ukraine is a war not witnessed since WW2 in its degree of violence and destruction.  While Russia has retained its air power and Ukraines air power has mostly been eliminated, the other weapons in use are near equal efficiency. Both sides have improvised and adapted to the reality of the new era of drones and tactics. Anyone contemplating entering this conflict will be facing situations that they are most likely not trained for and not properly equipped. This means that there will be a learning experience on the battlefield, one that historically is often very costly.

Much is made at the NATO summit of large numbers of NATO troops on the borders of Ukraine. What has been proven fatal in this war is massing any large numbers of troops, as they are usually obliterated in short order. Armored vehicles are often disabled by cheap readily available and replaceable drones. Airpower against Russia would entail a formidable combination of air defenses that would take a heavy toll on any adversary, no matter how sophisticated or advanced.

An all out war in Ukraine will be unmatched in the violence and destruction in modern history. It will in near certainty end in the use of nuclear weapons.

With China, Iran and North Korea also in the sights of the western alliance, they most likely are preparing as never before. They seem to have the ability to build many weapons but they may have the worst depth of real combat experience. The only way they can acquire that is in real modern warfare. We can expect that we will soon see select numbers of troops from these countries as observers and potential participants in the only place on earth were they can acquire real combat experience, Ukraine.

The real reality is that the world is indeed on the brink of a real WW3. It is not puffery or paranoia, it is as real as it can get. It could be stepped back from, but it does not seem likely. The delusions and short range thinking of western leaders, guided by politics and ideology have set this disaster in motion. Only a few have attempted to halt this onrush, but so far they are just castigated as either cowards or traitors.  We will be lucky to make it to 2025.