News that the U.S. plans to send M-1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine makes clear that our proxy war effort is definitively divorced from military reality. The Abrams, by the Pentagon’s own admission demands intensive maintenance and highly trained crews. Furthermore, unlike any other vehicle on the battlefield, it has poor mileage and runs on jet fuel, thereby necessitating a whole separate fuel supply system. (Then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld forced the Army to buy this jet-engined monstrosity back in the 1970s in order to save the failing Chrysler Corporation.) The Abrams, and the Leopards that the Germans have finally been bullied into donating, are merely the latest in a steady progression of “game changers,” magic weapons hailed, by virtue of their supposedly superior technology, as the key to a Ukrainian victory. Early in the war the Javelin anti-tank missile was cast in that role, followed by the anti-aircraft Stinger, then by the M777 howitzer, which was succeeded in turn by the HIMARS long range precision strike missile and the Patriot air defense missile. Inevitably, after initial, much touted, successes, the other side has adapted. For example, the Russians adapted to HIMARS by dispersing the ammunition dumps and other favored targets, while they soon acquired plenty of Javelins themselves, by whatever means – enough at least for Russian commanders to distribute a Russian translation of the manual to their troops early in the conflict.

An Expensive Blunder

In truth, the tanks, especially in the limited numbers being consigned, will have little decisive effect.

Spoils of War

More Magic Weapons for Ukraine!

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