We Have Reserves: Difference between revisions
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* During the First Gulf War, Saddam Hussein believed that the lesson from the Vietnam War was that Americans wouldn't support a war that would cost them 10,000 casualites. He, meanwhile had hundreds of thousands to spare and none of his subjects could protest the attrition. It turns out that Vietnam was a very different set of circumstances, and Hussein [[Curb Stomp Battle|suffered as many as 30,000 dead]] and his armies were all but obliterated, while only inflicting 392 deaths on the enemy.
* In nature, reproductive strategies are split between animals that have a small number of young and raise them carefully, and ones that have lots of young (or, typically, lay lots of eggs) and don't care for them at all, trusting that there are enough that ''some'' will survive. The latter strategy is a lot less energy-intensive and is generally used by more basic and short-lived species, while the former is particularly common among some birds and nearly all the larger mammals..
* A more subtle phenomenon happens in a war between comparable powers: that is powers capable of copying or countering each other, rather then having an inimitable weapon like the [[Hordes From the East]] did, when one starts with a performance advantage and one with a material advantage. The casualty rise on the first will sooner or later reach a point where it will counter the performance, because for instance officers will bleed off and the turnover will include large amounts of [[New Meat]]. In the meantime the second power will start to [[Surpassed the Teacher|learn from]], [[Sink or Swim Mentor|the First]], the excess of officers who have [[HAD to Be Sharp|seen and survived]] the first power's tricks will end up promoted. As a result performance changes until the materially superior power is also qualitatively superior.
**For instance in the beginning of the [[World War 2|Pacific War]]Japan was unquestionably superior in quality(it was also superior in material actually available but more was waiting to come on line for the Allies). They won a number of spectacular victories. In late 1942 through 1943 the odds were even but the Allies were getting better in both quality and quanity. And after that the Allies pretty much had the whip hand.
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