I'd love to ask a war historian about examples of losing wars being conducted without any victorious battles and how long they continued. Unless one considers terrorist actions in Crimea "successes", it doesn't appear Ukrainians have had really any victory in the past year. There have been some minor positional trades where a territory goes back and forth, and then eventually falls into the hands of Russia, but I'm wondering how long a nation can psychologically sustain a losing war. I mean, the longer they fight, the worse negotiating position they are going to be in at the end.
Are we seeing something new? Is the modern propaganda machine changing the rules of what citizens will accept? I'm not sure how many victories Japan had in 1945, but even that is something different--they waged a successful aggressive war and gained a ton of territory, and were still very far ahead even when they were being pushed back.
Ukraine is
smaller today than it has been at any point over the past 12 years when they started doing terrorism against Russian speaking citizens. It has no chance of coming out ahead, as it has never gained any territory, only lost it.
On top of the bigger picture stuff, the guys on the front lines have to know they are constantly losing, as they fight and fight and fight and then retreat. Even if most of the fighters are wiped out, and the new recruits are sent in to positions further and further back, surely they have to know the line of engagement is constantly moving back, right?
Or do they think F-16s are just that much of a game changer?
Anyone care to opine?