Changes

Each side blamed the other for mistakes or miscalculations. U.S. military officials concluded that Ukraine had fallen short in basic military tactics, including the use of ground reconnaissance to understand the density of minefields. Ukrainian officials said the Americans didn’t seem to comprehend how attack drones and other [[technology]] had transformed the battlefield.}}

Each side blamed the other for mistakes or miscalculations. U.S. military officials concluded that Ukraine had fallen short in basic military tactics, including the use of ground reconnaissance to understand the density of minefields. Ukrainian officials said the Americans didn’t seem to comprehend how attack drones and other [[technology]] had transformed the battlefield.}}

The debacle was totally the fault of the U.S. military planners. Arrogance and hubris combined to send the Ukrainians on a mission that genuinely was impossible. No army in the world can breach fortified defensive positions without air power, a fundamental principle of U.S. combined arms. And yet that is precisely what the U.S. demanded the Ukrainians do. The combat maneuvers that [[Milley]] and other U.S. commanders expected the Ukrainians to perform were difficult for U.S. soldiers who have had 14 months of training. In the case of Ukraine, the United States insisted that a collection of inexperienced recruits do this with two months of training. Part 2 of this ''Washington Post'' report clearly shows that the Ukrainian leaders had a better grasp on reality than their American counterparts:

The debacle was totally the fault of the U.S. military planners. Arrogance and [[hubris]] combined to send the Ukrainians on a mission that genuinely was impossible. No army in the world can breach fortified defensive positions without air power, a fundamental principle of U.S. combined arms. And yet that is precisely what the U.S. demanded the Ukrainians do. The combat maneuvers that [[Milley]] and other U.S. commanders expected the Ukrainians to perform were difficult for U.S. soldiers who have had 14 months of training. In the case of Ukraine, the United States insisted that a collection of inexperienced recruits do this with two months of training. Part 2 of this ''Washington Post'' report clearly shows that the Ukrainian leaders had a better grasp on reality than their American counterparts:

{{quotebox-float|The Ukrainians were insistent that [[the West]] simply wasn’t giving them the air power and other weapons needed for a combined arms strategy to succeed. “You want us to proceed with the counteroffensive, you want us to show the brilliant advances on the front line,” said Olha Stefanishyna, deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine. “But we do not have the fighter jets, meaning that you want us to throw our soldiers, you know, and accept the very fact that we cannot protect them.”

{{quotebox-float|The Ukrainians were insistent that [[the West]] simply wasn’t giving them the air power and other weapons needed for a combined arms strategy to succeed. “You want us to proceed with the counteroffensive, you want us to show the brilliant advances on the front line,” said Olha Stefanishyna, deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine. “But we do not have the fighter jets, meaning that you want us to throw our soldiers, you know, and accept the very fact that we cannot protect them.”