Russian soldiers who bring the army’s tactics to bear are “very much complicit in any brutalisation”, writes Patrick Sullivan, an American army colonel, in a guest essay
THE INCREASING brutality of Russia’s armed forces in Ukraine has prompted alarm in the West. That is understandable. But keep a sobering historical lesson in mind: brutality can be militarily effective. As such, it is premature, if not a mistake outright, to dismiss Russian savagery as indicative of operational desperation—however upsetting such an idea might be. It is a savagery consistent with Russia’s successful military operations in Chechnya and Syria.
As a colonel in the US Army, I imagine that most professional military commanders would deem Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine to be unacceptable, tactically, because of their costs. But what are the costs of brutality, militarily speaking? Russia risks becoming a pariah state. The political and economic limitations that result from this will almost certainly translate into military problems. Pariah states are dysfunctional, and dysfunctional states tend to not do anything well. Russia will retain its status as a nuclear power come what may in Ukraine, and will continue to employ nuclear brinkmanship in pursuit of political ends.
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