Unfortunately, KIA numbers are rarely relevant when the political leadership is committed to a particular course of action. McNamara in the Kennedy administration kept careful tally of the VietCong body count and as numbers rose he became convinced that the USA would inevitably win the conflict. As we all know, the USA abandoned South VietNam in 1973 and the North VietNamese took over the entire country. McNamara's body count merely misled US planners and gave them unwarranted confidence.

We need to keep this lesson in mind when considering what Russian casualty statistics are really telling us. As Putin can likely throw millions of bodies into the fray if needs be, even 300,000 Russian troops taken out of the fight so far need not represent an unambiguous setback.