tell that to the japanese.

Russia definitely has it’s own struggles. A regular Russian Army unit cannot come close to the combat capability of a US Army unit. Rather than looking at WWII you should look at Afghanistan and Chechnya. Russian performance was not that great. Also they won’t have the stores to sustain a conflict. Politically Putin…

I’m just getting around to reading Tyler’s links. The Washington post one very clearly states that the US has ample stockpiles. It’s the fact that European fighters aren’t compatible with everything that was the issue. Particularly the French and British.

No shit. Right? Hell, that same winter (and the inept Russian rulers) killed more Russian civilians than the war, itself. Fuck me, I have no idea where people (othe than Russians) come up with these ideas that the “Great Bear” is so formidable.

All you have done, up close, is confirm that their military has a high opinion of itself. As does ours. What you haven’t done (because it’s not possible) is construct a valid argument that they do, in fact, have a superior fighting force.

I agree. And who know’s exactly what he meant? My point was that the quote, along with Tyler’s follow up, make it appear as though this is some major revelation.

I’d argue it to infinity and back again. The Russian military is mostly conscript. They also have a completely different doctrine that centers all of their experience and capability around professional officers. Time and time again it’s been proven that Western militaries with extreme amount of depth and experience in…

Why would anyone want to invade a country where over 200 million people are armed? What is the strategy for that? Not to mention active military, National Guard, and Police. It would take us less time than watching “Red Dawn.” I mean this seriously. It’s also the same problem if the Government tried to take…

Russia has NEVER cared about it’s citizens/soldiers, so we would have to kill 10s of millions of them before they would even think about capitulating. I don’t think we lack the capability to do it, but I am almost sure we lack the will to do it. Putin and his cronies are too busy robbing the country blind to seriously…

Pretty much this hits the nail on the head.


Additional notes: russia may have some new stuff being brought into service and may look flashy and nice. But for every t-14 there’s at least a hundred refitted t-72s that may or may not have era plates that are refitted claymores on a hair trigger, that an for every squad of…

Emperor Meiji did ok

These are the same things that were said during the Reagan administration to spend the Soviets into oblivion. Russia’s forces are not as prepared as they would have us think with their Air Force being in a shocking state of disrepair. The fact is that Russia would run out of cash long before the engagement could be…

If they’re defending their own turf. The Japanese beat the Russians in the russo-japanese war pretty well. The Russians are good at defending themselves (as any country that size should be) but if they tried to invade western Europe they’d be beaten handily.

Good stuff and you’re 100% right. One little correction though, Russia has been, and continues to commit warships to anti-piracy operations.

They’d play both sides while remaining neutral; waiting on the side lines to do business with the winner.

I’m not sure the facts (simulations show that the US would have difficult time fighting a European-based war against Russia) justify the conclusion (the US government has bungled military spending).

The only reason Russia was willing to “go deep” in WWII was because they were being invaded by the Nazis. People like to pretend they were / are any stronger or more ferocious fighters than our armed forces. I would argue not at all.

I dunno what Gen. Odierno is talking about. The fact that Russia uses a different gauge has been a very well known fact for a very long time. Hell, I think they make reference to it in a late 1980s/early 1990s Tom Clancy movie. Maybe I’m thinking of something else, but different rail gauges has been something the DoD…

This is nothing more than a company protecting its interests in a completely expected, completely acceptable, and completely standard way. It should be more of a shock that this person thought what he was doing was acceptable or appropriate than that he was fired.

Even Taco Bell will fire you on the spot if you went and spoke to media without getting the okey from PR or headquaders. Every single place on earth is like this.