Russian President Vladimir Putin and his generals are not alone in believing that the more ruthless, hyper-masculine and systematically brutal an army is, the more effective it is on the battlefield. This vision also has supporters in the United States.
Last year, Republican Senator Ted Cruz circulated a TikTok video that contrasted a Russian army recruiting spot, which showed a soldier preparing to kill people, with its American equivalent, which told in cartoon the he story of a soldier – daughter of two mothers – who joined the army, among other things, to challenge stereotypes. “Maybe a woke, emasculated army isn’t the best idea,” Cruz tweeted sarcastically.
“Too feminine” armed forces
It’s not just the Texas Republican who speaks out for a Putinian ideal. Months earlier, Fox News host Tucker Carlson had also complained about the allegedly woke side of the Pentagon, which he compared to the anthropology department at Wesleyan University. [institution progressiste de Middletown, dans le Connecticut]. By promoting diversity and inclusion, he argued, military officials were destroying the US armed forces, supposedly the last great bastion of merit in the country. Lately, Carlson lamented that the American armed forces were becoming “more feminine, whatever the meaning of that word now”, while those of China, they became “more masculine”.
Arguments like this were easier to defend before Putin unleashed his muscular and certainly anything but woke war machine against the ostensibly weak Ukrainians, with catastrophic results.
More than seven months into the war, the Ukrainian military continues to grow in strength, confidence and operational skills, while the Russian military struggles desperately. Its recent failures raise many questions about the nature of military power.
“Strategic Catatonia”
Before Putin sent him to Ukraine, many analysts considered his army to be fast and powerful and predicted that it would inflict a “strategic catatonia” to overwhelmed defenders. In the opinion of a majority of them, the Ukrainian armed forces would be incapable of resisting in the open against the formidable Russians; their only solution, it was said, would be to retreat to their cities, where they would wage a kind of guerrilla warfare against the invaders.
The successes of the Ukrainian military in recent months, as well as the evolution of the Ukrainian state itself towards a more tolerant and liberal society, reveals what makes a military more effective in today’s world. today. Brains matter more than brawn, and adaptability matters more than reckless aggression. Openness to new ideas and new equipment, as well as the ability to learn quickly, is much more