The first modernization war is to fight for weapons and equipment, and the second is to fight for the financial resources of a country, which the US military can be said to have deeply understood. The Outbreak of the Iraq War in 2003, from the military transfer before the war to the withdrawal of all combatants from Iraq by the US military at the end of 2011, the 8-year Iraq War cost the United States 2 trillion US dollars, in 2003 the US military invested 700 billion US dollars in this war, and the 25-day major combat operations burned the United States 23 billion US dollars, an average of more than 900 million US dollars per day!
The 8-year Iraq War overwhelmed the wealthy United States
It can be seen that the modernization war is simply a bottomless pit for the consumption of funds, a large-scale local war, even for the victorious side will also cause a heavy financial burden, the United States because of the Iraq war caused by the extreme financial tension, it can be seen that the modernization of large-scale war, even the United States such a rich country is difficult to bear, then for Russia, which has a GDP of only 7% of the United States, can it withstand the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict financially?
War is a bottomless pit, and even the richest countries will be dragged down by a long war
Although the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict is similar to that of the Iraq war of that year, it is very different. First of all, Iraq is thousands of miles away from the United States, not to mention the cost of the war, before the war began, the cost of the US military to mobilize 180,000 troops to the vicinity of Iraq is an astronomical number, and the Russian army deployed to the Russian-Ukrainian border before the war is similar to the US military investment in the Iraq War that year, but Russia and Ukraine are neighbors to each other, and the Russian army assembly is much more convenient than the US military at that time, which is a lot less expensive than the US military.
U.S. satellite photograph of a Russian military-level battle group camp
Secondly, in the 2003 Iraq War, the purpose of the US military was to destroy the Saddam regime at that time, the war began with all its strength, its own 180,000 troops plus tens of thousands of troops from NATO member states were all put into combat, and at present, although Russia has gathered 7 group armies on the Russian-Ukrainian border with a total of about 120 battalion-level battle groups and hundreds of fighters, but so far the Russian army has invested less than 20 battalion-level combat groups in actual operations, and the actual combat strength is much less than that of the US military. The cost is naturally much lower.
The Russian Army's elite, The Fourth Tank Division of the Guards has been engaged in combat in the direction of Kharkov
Moreover, the US military invested 2 trillion US dollars in the Iraq War refers to the total cost of combat expenses from the pre-war military transfer to the withdrawal of the army in 2011, the high war subsidies of soldiers, and the physical, psychological, disability care, etc. of the veterans who have left the war, and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Russian army did not fully conquer the rhythm of Ukraine, but only the attack and competition for some key targets, the main purpose is to let Ukraine sit at the negotiating table, such a combat purpose will soon end with the start of the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations Even if there are twists and turns in the negotiations, the war will not last for 8 years, and the Russian army has no intention of stationing troops in Ukraine for a long time, so it will not be dragged into the financial quagmire by the long war.
Although the Russian army has gathered nearly 200,000 troops on the Russian-Ukrainian border, most of them have not been put into combat, and these russian troops who are stationary can easily and easily obtain logistical supplies from the rear, and the US troops stationed in Iraq and even bottled drinking water have to be airlifted from the US mainland, and the cost of logistics supplies is huge, compared with the current deployment of the Russian army on the Russian-Ukrainian border The consumption of logistics supplies is several orders of magnitude lower than that of the US troops in the Iraq War.
Russian Iskander surface-to-surface missiles
The main consumption of funds by the Russian army began in actual operations, during the 25-day main combat operation of the Iraq War in 2003, the US military consumed a total of 23 billion US dollars, the reason why so much money was spent first, because of the large number of troops invested, and second, the US military invested more high-cost weapons and equipment in the operation, including the launch of more than 800 cruise missiles, tens of thousands of precision-guided munitions, 6 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, dozens of bombers and hundreds of land-based fighters, which are all millions of dollars at will. Tens of millions of dollars in equipment.
U.S. destroyers fire Tomahawk cruise missiles
In the days after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Russian army's operations are mainly based on ground operations, although the Russian Navy has three cruisers staring at the US Navy's "Truman" aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, but this consumption is much lower than the consumption of the US 6 aircraft carriers in the Iraq War, and the Russian army's consumption of long-range precision guided weapons is not much, basically just launching a wave of long-range cruise missiles and surface-to-ground tactical ballistic missiles every morning, and the number of air force fighters and bombers is not much. Therefore, the current operations of the Russian army are far from the scale of the US military spending nearly $1 billion per day that year.
During the Iraq War, U.S. aircraft carriers were deploying precision-guided munitions
In fact, since entering the Syrian war in 2015, the Russian military has accumulated a wealth of experience in modern warfare, including the consumption of funds in combat. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict did not start suddenly, but experienced a long stage of confrontation, which allowed the Russian military to have sufficient time to rehearse the war process in an all-round way, including the consumption of funds after the war entered a relatively protracted war of attrition.