Tin foil time. As well as shoring up Russia, NK troops gain some combat experience to bring to the table should China start something with Taiwan…
Perhaps at the senior officer level, I have my doubt any field grade or enlisted will survive long enough (and be trusted enough by Kim) to ever see NK again.
But as to the concept, yes. But realistically a week or 10 days worth of combat losses by Russia is relatively unimportant (200k plus might be). Far more important under my tin foil hat is the probing effect on the west's (read US/UK/D) courage to do more than whine a little and go back to watching their favorite sport on TV.
Iranian weapons/advisors, NK troops, and Chinese hardware are all involved in a European land war, one that is rife with ethnic cleansing yet after almost 3 years the west ignores its own petrocarbon/weapons components and other sanctions and actively helps fund Putin's Imperialistic and genocidal war.
I mean seriously, Snake Sullivan/the Biden administration forbids English and French weapons that have a few US sourced chips from being used in Russia against Russians but allows Russia to use those same chips in its weapons in Ukraine against Ukrainians?
There is good reason for Putin to believe that the west is spineless, afraid to act and too in love with their own standard of living to be willing to risk anything in the present for future stability.
My unfortunate prediction after 34 months of watching this dumpster fire of foreign policy missteps and military inaction us that, absent a RADICAL, EXTENSIVE and kinetic change in policy/commitment by whichever administration starts working in January, one that will require significant public education and buy-in due to the negative affect on our personal comfort and financial situation, Russia will win.
Ukraine will continue to bleed and die in a neverending resistance, many millions more refugees will leave Ukraine for western Europe, and we will see a further expansion of Russian territorial ambitions within 30 years. And also the proliferation of openly nuclear armed states, many more regional ethnically based conflicts, likely an attempt to reunify Taiwan into China, the breakup of the proven to be impotent NATO alliance and the retreat into isolationism/protectionism of the US and regional clusters within Europe.
Bidens channeling of Chamberlain will have caused the loss of WW3 before the west even recognised it was in a war. Precisely the opposite of what the administrations advisors and 'experts' tried to achieve with their escalation management plan (I really cannot call it a 'strategy').
Metaphorically the US is the abused teenager living with an alcoholic stepfather who is afraid to say or do anything to awaken or annoy the Soviet bully even though they are strong and fit enough to thrash him and have friends from school willing to help.
It must be absolutely infuriating for any professional (and non political) military senior officer who served at all during the cold war (Ben Hodges et al) to see everything they were prepared to fight and die for thrown away by self serving and fearful politicians only concerned with their next election and staying on the gravy train.
We have put managers instead of leaders in positions of power, both civilian and military, and ceeded the initiative to authoritarianism. Where is the Biden of 30 years ago? Where are the vets of the Cold War or combat vet politicians when their insight is needed?
Selfishly I am glad I will not live long enough to see this all play out but I am afraid my niece (a 153M) and her generation will be paying for my generations political naivety.
Start at 10 minutes or so:
DECEMBER 13, 1995 - Senate Session - Sen. Joe Biden - Speech - U.S. TROOPS IN BOSNIA
www.c-span.org
And this:
I like the quote, "you are either sitting at the table or you are on the menu" - non nuclear state actors are now discovering they are on the menu while the authoritarian nuclear state actors are looking around for their next meal and the rest of the nuclear states are looking at the menu and thinking about their allergies.
Ukraine needs the bomb, soon, or a full NATO weaponry release or we (the west) will all pay far more dearly in the future. Article 5 has become a joke - just read the actual text of 5 and 6 then imagine how current political establishments will interpret them - the EU treaty is MUCH more concrete/less open to equivocation and more powerful than a NATO without the US throwing its weight into Europe.
And to those in uniform who I hear at work almost every day complaining about the billions 'given' to Ukraine and complaining about the reduction in their capabilities or training budgets etc, stop relying on the media (left or right) and open your eyes/mind. You are feeling the effects of political decisions within the defense establishment about resource allocation. Very little MONEY was given to Ukraine, and none of the announced (sometimes repeatedly with no clarification it is the same money) funding was taken back by the White House from the Pentagon.
What the much hyped billions are is funding for contracts with the US defense industry to procure replacements for outdated or expiring systems and (buzzword alert) 'effectors' that would have been spent regardless. But politically the powers that be are milking the Ukrainian situation to get jobs in their home districts and to lubricate the lobby machine (corruption in all but name).
Rant Off
(Totally not a JFKSWCS production)
Methinks F and UK should dismantle the Storm Shadows/Scalps, remove the US chips, and ship the rest to Ukraine as a demilitarised bunch of scrap parts. Pretty sure Ukraine will find a way to reactivate them. Likely with the same chips procured via the same channels Russia uses. But then they would be indigenous Ukrainian weapons and not subject to a US veto.
