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Comment by rcurry | Hacker News Reader

I’m sure the US and allies will make that happen. This isn’t Afghanistan - even if the Russians occupy the Ukraine we will be supplying the insurgent forces with technology that will make the Russians feel like they’re fighting the Martians.

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"we will be supplying the insurgent forces with technology that will make the Russians feel like they’re fighting the Martians"

Would be nice if the West supplied Ukraine with all this technology before the war began in the 8 years prior - their airforce and Air defence are tiny and dated.

So far the rich nations of the west mostly left Ukraine to the wolves - supplying only short-ranged squad level weapons and dated equipment.

There’s 0% chance this is accurate. While Russia is an aging and rusted military power their elite forces are still equipped exceedingly well.

Having elite forces with fancy equipment only matters if you use them well. If your only strategy is to yeet them far behind enemy lines while your main front with support is still bogged down then you won't have elite forces or fancy equipment much longer

Where does this portrait of Russia as an incompetent troop army come from? I thought we learned with ww1 that portraying your enemy as weak and incompetent only created morale issues when they were tougher than expected?

The war going on right now is a good place to start. They did a massive air assault with elite VDV units without proper support, which caused them to lose Antonov Airport like six hours after capturing it, and are now wandering armor through urban areas that have AT nests camping out every window. Really the only reason they managed to do as well as have is their focus on shutting down Ukranian air in the initial missile wave and their sheer numbers.

Ironically that train of thought is what is hampering Russia now, since their actions seem to communicate an expectation that they would have been able to just walk into Kyiv like they did for Crimea, and didn't expect the actual resistance of an army fighting for their home

Have you read the original article? It's coming from Chechnya.

I sincerely hope it doesn’t come to that.

And I’m right there with you.

> This isn’t Afghanistan

Afghanistan was the USSR’s Vietnam, so I don't know why you'd say this isn’t Afghanistan in this context.

I think the parent comment means there’s kit that could be given to the Ukrainians that’s way better than what the Russians have without having to worry about bigger things like shoulder fired missiles a la Afghanistan in the 80s.

What I mean is that it will be a thousand times worse.

I just saw that irregulars/volunteers are live-streaming the KIA that the Russians are leaving behind. It’s unbearably grisly.

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