All my life I have watched war movies. Tactics look awesome on screens big and small. As a kid, I loved tanks. By age 22, I was a US Army tank commander. Tactics make great movies, but tactical battlefield videos, tank porn, are not the way to follow a war.
Wars are won far from the battlefield. The bigger the war, the more the outcome depends on the decisions, the beliefs, the hatreds, the prejudices of those with power.
When Hitler declared war on America after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the Nazi leader made the biggest mistake of his horrible career. Millions of Germans became dead people walking at that moment. They were just waiting for their particular B-17 Flying Fortress to reduce their home to rubble three years later.
Currently, I am sharing a house in Panama with an enthusiastic follower of the Ukraine War. My housemate is particularly fond of tank battle videos and was delighted to find I am a former tank commander. I watched a few, but my interest waned quickly.
As much as I love seeing Russian formations defeated, I know the war will be won or lost in diplomatic meetings and conferences with NATO nations that support Ukraine. Sadly, clandestine agreements among the new Axis of Evil: Russia, Iran, China, Turkey and Jihadi Arab countries with North Korea and Hungary as appendages, will also determine the outcome.
The bravery and sacrifice of the people and Ukraine is not enough by itself to defeat an enemy much greater in population with seemingly endless supplies of weapons. Ukraine will win or lose based on support from allies--or not.
The smoking wrecks of several Russian tanks hit by Ukrainian drones and direct fire delights me, but reports of Britain and Germany sending more weapons and support to Ukraine delights me more.
Tank porn, like the other kind, can be exciting, but leaves the viewer with a limp feeling afterward, and nothing accomplished.
