Don't let admirals talk or decide strategy

Ships are nice.

Ships can stop you from losing wars. The Royal Navy was the biggest threat to Hitler’s invasion of the UK, not the RAF. Defeating the RAF would have helped neutralise the RN for a while, but an invasion would have probably still ended badly for the Germans. The RN also kept supply lines open to the UK. Where troops and bombers prepared to invade Europe. The blockade in World War 1 starved Germany and Austro-Hungary but couldn’t defeat them, it took millions of men and a million Americans to do that. The US Navy starved and cut off Japan, but again an invasion was planned for but turned out to be unnecessary because nukes and the Red Army was poised to invade.

Ships can’t win wars.

At some point you need to invade or nuke.

Stop making admirals heads of militaries or heads of staffs, chairs of committees (except logistics) or giving them a decisive say.

Their thinking is land is an obstacle to moving around.

Wars on won on land. Mahan was wrong.

Admirals think in terms of bases and strike groups. They want their lovely base and then to sortie out in magnificent groups to face the enemy in their big battle and then play Royal Navy vs Napoleon. Sniping the enemy coast line and being all invincible.

The below is naval nonsense of the type that has destroyed the British military turning it into two unarmed ships that don’t swim despite genocide war being waged abroad.

Dutch admirals (Rob Bauer), well the last war they won was probably something concerning Spanish succession or Zeeland or other 17th century nonsense. He’s sitting pretty in Holland where he can’t imagine a goddamn Bucha occurring.

Look you Dutch tulip, you’re being a disengenuous tulip at that . Who the f is demanding a NATO brigade on each border with Russia? You’re a strawmaning Dutch admiral smug in Dutchland.

Via BBC.

Let’s look at the borders:

1. Norway - they’re not demanding a brigade and good luck invading Norway via the polar regions.
2. Finland - deserves one on the longest and least accessible border in Europe but has an actual army, unlike the Dutch.
3. Baltcs - their countries can be overrun and butchered Bucha style in days. If NATO can’t afford brigades to defend them, then lets scrap some ships. Maybe some Dutch ones. Not like the Russian Navy is going to run rampant in the Atlantic or even the Baltic. Even unopposed they’d break down somewhere near Gibraltar
4. Poland - has a brigade or two because it knows the Dutch Armored Corps isn’t going to defend it.
5. Turkey - has an army. A big one. With tanks. And good luck invading Turkey through the Caucuses.

So Rob “Hero of the North Sea” Bauer basically is offended at the Balts not wanting to be rape murdered by the Russians.

Ukraine has proven that a capable brigade sized unit is a very very effective speed bump on Russian invasion routes (it’s the two Ukrainian arty and armored brigades north of Kyiv that stopped the Russians, not Chinese tires). Three of them in the Balts can stop the Russians for long enough for the Marines and then American armored divisions to arrive if the Poles don’t chase the Russians to Moscow.

Rob Bauer, go play ducky in your bath tub and let the real soldiers (land) choose strategy.

Your navy isn’t going to stop the Russians raping and pillaging and murdering the Balts no matter how many corvettes parade up and down the Dutch coast (you’re scared of getting missiled in the Baltic which proves how worthless a navy is to modern NATO - and was always worthless except to protect the US army & supplies arriving over the sea).

Painting by Abraham Storck

Admirals look nice, talk grand strategy and are masters at toilet roll distribution (logistics). They don’t win wars.

Admirals want to sink enemy ships and then expect things to work out. They suck at the teet of Mahan.

The point of a military is not to score points (ships). Its to stop your people being Bucha.

If your corvette costs as much as a brigade, I want a brigade between me and the Russian rape regiment. A battalion. A company. A platoon. A soldier with a Javelin.

Not your corvette.

Picture via defensie.nl.

Hard man Admiral Rob Bauer being all hard.

Bucha, photo by Sergei Supinsky, AFP