The British Military has a very intense view of the Ukraine-War, and likely gathering a lot of intelligence information. So Focus brought this up yesterday....from a 'release' of Brit Defense Ministry.
Topic? Dead Russian soldiers.
Typically, when you go into war.....you mostly die from bullets, rockets, or mortars. On the lesser side....friendly fire.
I would imagine from listening into conversations from Russian officer to Russian officer, they've added other categories.
A 'substantial' minority (meaning 49-percent or less, but probably definitely more than 20-percent).....are dying from 'other' causes. Those listed? Alcohol-related deaths, poor weapons handling, vehicle accidents, and cold-weather-related episodes.
Alcohol leading back to each of these? Well....yeah, you can suggest that.
It's generally accepted that 3.5 Russian men out of ten....are alcoholics (note, for Russian ladies, it's around one per ten).
On the way that they bring men into (currently) the military system....there's likely no dry-out period, and even in the combat zone....there's zero chance they halt their habit. I should also note that drug habits are a ongoing thing in Russia.
In my early years of the military (1977)....I came to realize at the first base I was stationed at....that from the 30 to 40 age group of NCOs....probably twenty-percent were serious alcoholics. They could show up at work clean, then walk off at lunch where they'd consume two shots of serious booze, with a half-liter of beer. For at least the first hour after lunch, they were half-way drunk. By 4 PM, they'd go back to the German 'cantine' to have more before driving home, or stop at the NCO club to do a pitcher of beer.
These were all Vietnam vets who spent a tour (sometimes two tours) in Nam or a nearby country. Booze settled their nerves.
With the Russian story, it wouldn't shock me if of every hundred deaths....alcohol figured into forty-percent of all deaths.
During US-Gulf War....the generals came out with general rule one....which basically said....no booze of any type allowed in the combat zone, period. They meant it. A lot of guys suddenly needed AA meetings and were cleaned up for the first time in their career.
Does the leadership back at the Kremlin grasp this statistic? I doubt it.....probably fifty-percent of these guys are boozed-up at lunch-time and non-functional from 4 PM on.
So if there are 120,000 Russian soldiers dead from the war so far....it wouldn't really be that hard to think that 40,000 of them died from a booze-connected situation (frozen in some tent, accidentally shooting their buddy, or driving a truck while drunk and flipping it over).
2 comments:
I spent two tours in Vietnam and saw a lot of booze floating around, not to mention drugs. My first day there I was involved in a fire fight and saw 2 men die because they were high or drunk. That left quite an impression on a 17 year old, I never touched a drop of booze or participated in any drugs while there. I wanted to live. To this day, I strictly regulate any alcohol intake. usually 3 beers or one shot of schnapps. I was also a participated in Desert Storm, shortly before retirement, and witnessed a substantial amount of "near beer" being consumed. I thought it was nasty, but it seemed to placate the guys I knew who had a drinking problem.
I did a tour of Gettysburg, and the historian on the bus reached some highpoint of the battle description...picking up the topic of boozing-up. Based on records and gov't purchases of booze to placate (give them courage)....he figured that three-quarters of the participants were mildly affected by the booze, and that 20-percent were fairly drunk.
I've read accounts of Americans who landed in Italy in 1944, and units having a priority of acquiring wine for 'courage' purposes.
In this case with the Russians....if the majority of this is true (even the Generals drunk and barking out stupid orders)...it'll be impossible to get any victory in the end. (Just more dead Russians)
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