Why does the US choose to fight wars this way?

Post Reply New Topic

Oh okay, sorry for the confusion. Maybe I am being too pessimistic, but I just feel that Putin is not reasonable enough to be able to crack.

What if NATO chose to supply Ukraine with satelite video feeds, so they can use so they can see where the Russians are coming in over the border? Is NATO at least doing that?

Yes, NATO has been providing significant intelligence to Ukraine including satellite imagery.

Can the Ukraine launch missiles or bombs towards the Russians that are coming in, as a result of the imagery?

US chooses to go to war with weaker and undeveloped nations, much like the way Will Smith chooses to slap weaker and undeveloped persons.

I think I've gotta give an indirect answer to cover the topic well.

The imagery isn't in real-time, satellites pass over at certain intervals and the photos they take can be provided.
By the time that intel is received it's already hours old meaning it might no longer be accurate. Other NATO recon assets might also be in use, such as planes that use radar to map the ground, as well as planes equipped for electronic intelligence gathering (ElInt/SigInt).

Generally speaking, that intel would be used to try to determine where might be best to invest other recon assets that can provide real-time imagery, like drones. Drones can be used to direct artillery or to help infantry plan operations, they're also being used to drop grenades and deliver small precision guided ordinance. They're also using loitering munitions which are like a drone crossed with a cruise missile.

So, tl;dr: not directly, but kinda.

Oh okay I see. Why can't they supply the Ukrainians with live video feed?

Because that's not something recon satellites can do. They fly over once every 128 minutes or so because they're in Low Earth Orbit.

Oh okay. So they cannot give the Ukrainians enough to see the entire country at once then?

I'm not quite sure how wide of area they can cover but they can't loiter or maneuver so they only provide snapshots. There's a window while the recon asset is overhead and then it's over somewhere else and won't be back for 2 hours. Even if it can photograph the entire theatre of operations at once, let's say 1000 km square (not a real number, just hypothetical), it's only going to have the area it needs to gather information on under it briefly before something else is under it.

Oh okay, I see, thanks. Well it seems so far, the biggest thing that NATO wants to do sanctions, hoping that will work, but will it really stop Putin though? I mean if sanctions stop terrorist dictators, why didn't the US just use them on Hitler, or Hiroshima, instead of actually fighting, if sanctions are enough?

The West very much don't want to repeat WWII.
Cold War has been won with economy.
Sanctions are aimed at repeating this.

BTW, US did not join WWII for quite a long time. Things can change many times from now - it's been only a month so far.

Japan was provoked into attacking Pearl Harbor by sanctions, but economies were simpler in those days and also Japan made the strategic calculation that it basically now or never, that the sanctions would weaken then relative to America so they might as well strike right away.

What I mean by economies being simpler is think of how many items you own are made all over the world. Now think of how many items you own that are made with parts from more than one country, besides the one it's made in. That level of interconnectedness didn't exist in the '40s.

Sanctions don't always work, there's a lot of factors in play including how self-sufficient a nation's economy is. Russia isn't self-sufficient enough because just like every other advanced economy they rely on imports of things they depend on and don't do well themselves. Much of what they do well depends on imports of things they don't do well.

Russia doesn't make computer chips, they also don't make the sorts of industrial robots common in a lot of manufacturing. There's all sorts of oil and mining related equipment they don't locally manufacture. There's subsystems on a number of Russian airplanes that aren't made locally. Some of it those things can probably slowly be started to be built locally, but it'll take awhile. Some of it might not be replaceable and that will have serious impacts on the Russian economy.

The west believes that will be enough to exert pressure. Whether or not it will has yet to be seen. It hasn't caused the Iranian government to fall, for example. Same with North Korea. That said, those aren't exactly replacement trade partners for many of the things Russia needs to import in order for their economy to function and grow.

I'm not entirely certain they will work, although it's not impossible. They will have impacts for Russia's ability to rebuild their military too, so even if they don't cause a change in Russian leadership they will weaken Russia that way.

I hear the boys will be home by Christmas.

Here, it can have ominous undertones

Well, I'm not making the mistake militaries of the past have always made and preparing for the last war. I've already got my jagged rock attached to a stick ready to go. I'm equipped for WW4.