Quote:
Originally Posted by MarchHare
To put this 4,000 KIA number in perspective, Russia has suffered almost the same number of military deaths in less than two weeks in Ukraine as the USA suffered in nearly nine years in Iraq (4,507 American dead from Mar 2003 - Dec 2011). During US involvement in the Vietnam War (1965-1975), a total of 58,200 Americans lost their lives, an average of about 112 per week. Russian losses in Ukraine so far are nearly 10x that rate.
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The deadliness of near peer combat compounded by the sheer incompetence of the attacker against a fairly well-supplied and very motivated defender.