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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 5, 2022

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I don't think the "NATO forces" (that is, Western ex-military volunteers) are particularly relevant, although people on multiple sides have a weird incentive to claim that they are (for instance, the veterans themselves to talk up the significance of their "experience" and therefore personal value). In fact, I'm unconvinced that for line soldiers many things matter as much as motivation/attitude and basic discipline/impulse control, which are aspects in which I don't see why Ukrainian soldiers now should be inferior to anyone.

On the other hand, Ukraine's equipment is increasingly NATO-provided especially at the low level (I keep hearing that Ukrainian units have a fillhorn of encrypted comms and Starlink terminals while the Russians are often stuck with CB radios donated by some Telegram bloggers if they have anything at all), and I'd wager that their command-and-control stack is advised and supplied with intel by the US at every level. Given the outcome, it seems to be pretty clear to me that the conclusion should be that these things just matter more, as long as neither side outright runs out of motivated soldiers, just as I would expect a professional RTS player with an early midgame starting position to trounce a noob who doesn't know how to scroll the map viewassign unit groups even if the latter starts with a popcap-sized endgame army.

(edit: Update: The speed at which that entire stretch of the Russian front is collapsing is astonishing. Between this and "unconfirmed" (of the type that seems to wind up confirmed a day or two later all the time lately) reports of breaches even all over the Donbass, I now get the sense that this is really the beginning of a potentially very rapid end for Russia. Hope that nobody overplays their hand past the nuclear threshold.)