Defeating an Enemy Imposes the Ultimate Cost

Porcupines are still prey despite their quills.

Sure, NATO needs more than just meeting its 2% defense goal to defeat Russia. But I reject this:

The role of technology in the Ukraine war must be integrated, from the use of drones and Starlink satellite internet for communications to dazzlingly shortened timeframes to field new types of weapons. All this should be incorporated in a “porcupine defense” that would raise the costs of any Russian attack on NATO to make it unacceptable.  

Oh, not the tech integration. There's no cheap silver bullet for victory. But sure, tech integration helps. 

The problem is the "porcupine defense" twists the concept of combined arms into a magical formula that pretends we can use cheap "asymmetric" weapons to make the price of conquest so high for an aggressor that it won't attack. 

I do believe that the Russian invasion of Ukraine shows we have no idea how much an enemy will sacrifice to get its objective. I certainly had no idea.

The problem is that if the enemy decides it will pay the price, the porcupine is in no condition to push the lion--or bear--out.

And if the theater is the NATO Baltic states that were former Soviet republics, the porcupine might be trapped in a kill sack for later, leisurely consumption.

Clever ways to win on the cheap will fail. Let's focus on building up NATO militaries that can fight the Russians until we defeat and drive back their military in battle to win any war Russia starts.

NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.

NOTE: I'm adding updates on the Last Hamas War in this post.