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Does the US have the Forces to Fight a War?

Daniel G. Jennings
Lessons from History
8 min readJan 20, 2025

The Ukraine War shows that the US military, supposedly the world’s most powerful, may not have the forces to fight a modern war.

Ukraine War casualty figures show the age of low-casualty wars could be over. I estimate the Ukraine War casualties from in 2022–2024 was 1.193 million on both sides. To explain, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy admits his nation’s military has suffered 43,000 deaths and 370,000 injuries. Meanwhile, official Ukrainian estimates of Russian losses, as of 1 January 2025, are 790,050 troops.

Indeed, former US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin estimates the Russian military has lost over 76% of its manpower in Ukraine. “Russian casualties in Ukraine now surpass two-thirds of the total strength of the Russian military at the start of Putin’s war of choice,” Austin speculates.

Enormous Casualties

“Since 2022, Russia has suffered more than 700,000 casualties in Ukraine,” Austin claims. Now, that’s more than Moscow has endured in all of its conflicts since World War II — combined. “In November 2024 alone, Russia lost nearly 1,500 troops a day.”

The enormous casualty figures are why commanders on both sides are taking desperate measures to find soldiers to fight the war. For example, the Russian Army has transferred Aerospace Forces…

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Lessons from History
Lessons from History

Published in Lessons from History

Lessons from History is a platform for writers who share ideas and inspirational stories from world history. The objective is to promote history on Medium and demonstrate the value of historical writing.

Daniel G. Jennings
Daniel G. Jennings

Written by Daniel G. Jennings

Daniel G. Jennings is a writer who lives and works in Colorado. He is a lifelong history buff who is fascinated by stocks, politics, and cryptocurrency.

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