Talk:Thaumaturgy/@comment-5982125-20131126050615

What front would the Russians open up? A general invasion of Europe would only galvinize the American people (who are presently rather divided over the whole Alaska invasion thing). Invading China - assuming it would even draw the Japanese, and thus the U.S., in - would just create a never-ending clusterfuck, they've tried to take over China several times already and paid for it dearly. Invading Japan or the U.S. proper is impossible because they're totally overmatched by the U.S.N. Pacific Fleet and the I.J.N. (although they are in the process of trying to shorten the "naval gap" - their navy's not small, bigger than the Japanese Navy, but is technologically outclassed and, in the case of the Americans, numerically outclassed as well). They could invade Japan's mainland holdings, but what would be the point of that if they couldn't touch Japan? And it would piss the American public off enough to justify the commitment of another 100,000 troops or so to help their ally.

Russia's best bet is to somehow outwit or neutralize the U.S.N. long enough for them to funnel more ground assets into Alaska. The U.S. Government wouldn't have the political clout to ramp up their own commitments there and swing the situation back around. Or probably wouldn't. Plus the Russians have a lot more men to waste, not being restricted by things such as democratic process, term limits, Civil Rights, a constitution or, well, a free press.

And remember that altough the Alaskan war has a lot in common with the Vietnam War, it's not a relatively low intensity conflict against a completely inferior enemy where the U.S. just smashes the opposition in every open, proper engagement. It's a real war. The casualty figures are misleading for the Vietnam War. The number of wounded is extraordinarily high because it was a guerilla war, but we had combat units in there for ten years. Operation Redbeard was launched in April of 1958 and it's currently January of 1962 when the books pick up. So in terms of the actual fighting the Alaskan war is more like the Korean War, but the domestic situation is an analogue to Vietnam.

And like the Vietnamese, the Russians just hope they can keep killing Yankees long enough to make the whole war politically unmaintainable. The U.S. Army might not have that many troops - relative to its strength - committed to the war but the attrition rates are very high, they have to replace men and equipment at quite the rate. Another disaster or two like Operation Coca-Cola would probably force them to give up.