The people next in line behind Putin are rife with hypernationalist hawks. I highly doubt you're going to find someone who would both sell out to the west after all this and live long enough around their compatriots to accomplish much before getting couped.

We can only do terrible things permanently. Good things are always temporary and we are powerless to change that. Children have to starve because otherwise politicians might have to actually do some work for a change. This is a very good and serious political system and we should just accept it as it is and ignore any alternative.

"How much map have you explored so far? How full are your pickers? About half, right? I'm a mid boss, a forgettable nobody! It's all rigged against me!"

Which just highlights the issue at the heart of my point: all these western weapons systems are utterly reliant on some magic sauce working perfectly, and if their opponents figure out what that sauce is and either develop a countermeasure or figure out the flaws and exploit them, the systems are fundamentally no better than their (significantly cheaper and easier to maintain) counterparts. It's Security Through Obscurity implemented as a strategic doctrine.

I've been on a Wunderwaffen kick recently, but we'll keep it up: this is a preview of every major NATO weapons system that hasn't already seen extensive combat the second it goes up against anyone capable of shooting back with something larger than small arms fire. Anyone telling you otherwise is drinking the koolaid or selling it.

You win wars through producing high quality, reliable, simple weapon systems and then making sure your troops know how to use them and that you can continue to produce and ship replacements + ammo to the front lines. That's it. No plane will ever be invisible to enemy radar, no tank will ever be invincible, no anti-missile defense will ever shoot down even half of incoming fire reliably. It all boils down to a numbers game in the end.

How the fuck did I miss that we already had the perfect emoji for this?

Seems simple enough to me.

I mean, I'm pretty sure DRPK produces more artillery shells than the US does, so that wouldn't even be a big deal for Russia

The funny thing about nuclear warheads is that you don't have to be terribly accurate with them.

That's what 70 years of exclusively using your military as the enforcers of neo-colonialism does. Turns out what works for leveling a low-tech guerilla hideout in Vietnam or Afghanistan isn't so effective when your opponent has comprehensive SAM networks.

No no, you see, having your weapon systems cost 5 times as much money as the opposing side's is a good thing actually. Clearly it means it's 150 times more effective, according to this marketing presentation I found from the for-profit corporation that makes it and then sells it to the military and this press release from the general whose entire career is intrinsically tied to it, both of whom couldn't possibly be biased in any way!

That's not entirely fair. Those buildings are the useless luxury malls built around their respective stations; the actual platforms are just as shit and barely functional as the rest of NYC.