It comes down to blood. Which side can bleed more. And the answer is Russia. Someone can correct me on this story, but it goes like this… A country goes to war agains China. Every day the Chinese lose one million fighters. After 100 days the enemy surrenders to China. Suffering and dying is part of the Russian psyche. They will bleed their own country dry and consider it a patriotic gesture.
They actually still believe they are dying in droves, just naruto running into the bullets in human wave attacks.
I hear chuds parrot that line, inserting Russia instead of Slavic brainpan, and people including libs nod along because they saw Jude Law in Enemy at the Gates in the early oughts.
They used to say it about China during the Korean War. Boomers will swear up and down that the PLA sent waves of guys to die until the Americans ran out of bullets as a deliberate tactic.
Those [SLURS] didn't stop assaulting our position when they began taking losses! Why would anyone fight to the death for a cause?!?!?!!
That said, I've heard that one of the real reasons for the brutal assault waves was bad field communications - The PLA sends 100 guys forward. There aren't enough radios to go around, so the officer has orders to retreat if they can't advance, and if they don't hear from him they'll send another assault wave to back him up and push the assault in 10 minutes.
Well, the officer and his company get wrecked by American defenses, everyone's either dead or fighting, no one goes back to say "it's no good here, we can't advance", so the next wave gets to go ahead ten minutes later to advance. And all these PLA troops get stuck in and aren't able to convey information back to their assembly area to stop the assault bc of all the chaos. Doubly so for night assaults or in shitty weather or shitty terrain.
Every war is literally a sacrifice lol. Whether the war is cynical or for defense or for revolution, your purpose as a soldier is to sacrifice yourself if necessary, and your purpose as a commander is to efficiently sacrifice your soldiers.