re:The True Meaning of "Star Trek Into Darkness", Attack is more expensive then defense

[Naddrin Kentlar]

actually I'm curious how do you come to this line of reasoning ? "Attack is more expensive then defense"

 

If both of us have 1000$.

I have to attack an objective, and you have to defend it. You need to spread that 1000$ thin over an long period of time, camera's, security guards, maintenance to defenses, while I can concentrate all my money on one single decisive attack. And the most important factor in this hypothesis is that the attacker has the freedom to choose when he attacks, while the defender has to defend 100% all the time.

 

The analogy with the US army in Iraq, is rather weak, because the US Army attacked only for like 3 weeks when the war started, and they won. After that they are trying to control Iraq, and defend it from the insurgents, that's kinda why it's expensive for the US, while the costs for the insurgents to attack is rather minimal.

 

If the US wouldn't of cared much about controling Iraq, they could've just eradicated the population and reduce the costs of defense dramatically. So it would basically mean something trying to control an unwilling population becomes quite expensive in the long run. Not the 'attack vs defense' costs.

 

[NumberSix]

Hi I was in the US Army, I was taught you need a 3 to 1 advantage to attack a prepared defensive position.  (If I remember correctly)  When you attack you have to move across open terrain with no cover or concealment, which most likely has kill zones that are covered by interlocking fields of fire from machine guns as well as having exact coordinates for mortar and artillery dialed in.  Also don't forget home court advantage of knowing the terrain and civilian help.  I wasn’t in Iraq, but their equipment was garbage compared to US.  Also US troops were way better trained. In Gulf war 1:“The Battle of 73 Easting refers narrowly to the violent armored combat action that took place in the final hours of 2nd ACR’s covering force operation in the zone of Second Squadron and in the northern third of the Third Squadron zone. In the battle, four of the 2nd ACR’s armored cavalry troops, Troops E, G, and I with Troop K contributing to I Troop’s fight (totaling about 36 M1A1 tanks), defeated two enemy brigades, the Tawakalna Division’s 18th Brigade and, later in the day, the 9th Armored Brigade.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_73_Eastinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Medina_Ridge