Good little analysis, tbh. I haven't been able to keep up with the specifics of how "well" or "poorly" Russia is doing, fighting-wise, nor do I think it matters much- it's just a matter of how long it will take them, and what they will do once they get Ukraine the state to surrender. Are they just doing the whole invasion to annex the Donbass (and Crimea) with the consent of the Ukrainian government? If so, this move seems justifiable, especially if Russia is only annexing the Russian portions of the Donbass.
To answer OP's question- the truth is, EVERY modern military is a paper tiger- on the OFFENSIVE front. Modern militaries, it seems, just aren't capable of great offenses anymore, against other nation-states. Part of this is the UN-backed cartographic border-order, making it impossible to challenge the established shitty borders drawn by Europeans over the past 100 years or so, informed by conflicts of interest all the way down.
But a huge, and oft-undiscussed part of the reason why has to do with the fact that no one has the energy, the motivation, the drive, the will, necessary to launch a true great offensive. Globally. People DO retain these things on the defensive front-it's almost impossible not to. But offensively, not really. A huge part is a change in values, a huge part is the drop in testosterone. Defensive violence has not lost its "umph"- but the idea of aggression in general has been so universally condemned for so long that it has taken this form.
This has both its ups and downs. It SHOULD be an overwhelmingly positive development- and it normally would be. In fact, only the UN-led globalist status quo border-order could
ever fuck something up this badly- could EVER make this thing that OUGHT be (how could it NOT be?) a positive development, into a negative one? Ridiculous.
world.
