I would disagree that it’s more pragmatic. Decentralised autonomous cells are a key part of modern military strategy, and there are examples of horizontally organised militias being extremely effective against nominally superior centralised forces. Rojava and the Zapatistas are two excellent examples of societies without a ruling class that have defended themselves in spite of extreme opposition.
The centralised command structure is necessary to maintain a military that are goons for the ruling class.
The interesting part of this development is not that they are goons - you’re right that that’s implicit in the command structure - but that the government has said out loud that they should be goons and nothing else. It’s one of those moments where the mask of civility slipped.
Well said. The complexity of the modern battlefield, frankly, completely necessitates the professionalism the other commenter was mentioning, to even be able to deliver competent results.
This is one lesson that could be taken from the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Oof that is true. Turns out hardline centralised authority can result in an absolute clusterfuck on the battlefield, whereas units motivated by an intrinsic desire to do the right thing - like repel invaders - can be extremely effective despite a numerical disadvantage.
Actually one interesting thing I heard from an interview with a returned volunteer in Ukraine was that professional soldiers aren’t always the best volunteer soldiers. People with no background were easier to train, but if they trained in an imperial military like the US has for instance, they couldn’t understand why they didn’t have air support, to which the answer was, “You’re not the brass, you’re a grunt, you don’t get air support.” Apparently they tended to give up and go home when they were asked to fight without overwhelming firepower on their side.
I would disagree that it’s more pragmatic. Decentralised autonomous cells are a key part of modern military strategy, and there are examples of horizontally organised militias being extremely effective against nominally superior centralised forces. Rojava and the Zapatistas are two excellent examples of societies without a ruling class that have defended themselves in spite of extreme opposition.
The centralised command structure is necessary to maintain a military that are goons for the ruling class.
The interesting part of this development is not that they are goons - you’re right that that’s implicit in the command structure - but that the government has said out loud that they should be goons and nothing else. It’s one of those moments where the mask of civility slipped.
Well said. The complexity of the modern battlefield, frankly, completely necessitates the professionalism the other commenter was mentioning, to even be able to deliver competent results.
This is one lesson that could be taken from the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Oof that is true. Turns out hardline centralised authority can result in an absolute clusterfuck on the battlefield, whereas units motivated by an intrinsic desire to do the right thing - like repel invaders - can be extremely effective despite a numerical disadvantage.
Actually one interesting thing I heard from an interview with a returned volunteer in Ukraine was that professional soldiers aren’t always the best volunteer soldiers. People with no background were easier to train, but if they trained in an imperial military like the US has for instance, they couldn’t understand why they didn’t have air support, to which the answer was, “You’re not the brass, you’re a grunt, you don’t get air support.” Apparently they tended to give up and go home when they were asked to fight without overwhelming firepower on their side.