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posted by EllyllionsMen say, "I'll never understand women." That's a very lonely place to be if you're a woman because we don't understand half of what we do either.
posted by ALinChainz Katy, Pipe down, pump off, and fly back to your cave you old bat.
posted by EllyllionsMen say, "I'll never understand women." That's a very lonely place to be if you're a woman because we don't understand half of what we do either.
posted by ALinChainz Katy, Pipe down, pump off, and fly back to your cave you old bat.
It's not that Russia has a "Potemkin military", it's that they have had a tiered military, specifically the Army. About 1/3 to 1/4 is pretty good and properly funded with about 1/10 being actually combat ready. The rest is filled out by hapless, semi-trained conscripts using aged equipment as cannon fodder. The Russians have enjoyed an era where they could deploy and showcase a small number of special ops troops like Spetnatz and their only infantry worth a shit -the paratroops- along with a few select line units in Syria to vastly overinflate their strategic effectiveness. But any sort of major war was/is going to bite them since they have no strategic reserves or trained, follow on manpower and it seems not out of the realm of possibility that The Ukraine forces may defeat the Russians outright if the West grows their balls a bit more and provides serious logistical follow-on aid and they are able to launch serious counter offensives. Every Russian weapon system is basically an updated version of a Soviet system developed 30-40 years ago with few exceptions. They Russian Army has run out of funds to develop newer systems like the Armata Tank, supposedly a decade ahead of anything Western it's turning out to be an expensive boondoggle that will never be deployed in real numbers and the flying white elephant SU-37. It's an "offensive only" MBT that cannot fire hull down from a dug-in defensive position like the M-1A3 or Leopard II can, which is incredibly stupid since it limits its use to breakthrough attacks with a small number of less than 200 tanks.
A few years back the Rand Corporation (the tip of the military industrial complex/whores) did a wargame where Russia attacked a small former Soviet NATO country like Estonia. They swept everyone out of the way initially, but of course couldn't win a long-term war of attrition. But I questioned it at the time and now even more so. NATO detected this build up and would have responded but they made it a straight surprise blitz. The Russians have a history of fucking up logistics (during the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan) their tank armies received lots of follow-on tank shells but no food or water for a while. NATO was still a bit weaker then but they wouldn't have gotten away with that easily in the West. Maybe they've improved some but that column north of Kyiv would have been slaughtered by even a deficient NATO air force and it seems most Russians don't have a stomach for this fight...
"If the American people had ever known the truth about what we (the BCE) have done to this nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched." - Poppy Bush, 1992
Every Russian weapon system is basically an updated version of a Soviet system developed 30-40 years ago with few exceptions. They Russian Army has run out of funds to develop newer systems like the Armata Tank, supposedly a decade ahead of anything Western it's turning out to be an expensive boondoggle that will never be deployed in real numbers and the flying white elephant SU-37. It's an "offensive only" MBT that cannot fire hull down from a dug-in defensive position like the M-1A3 or Leopard II can, which is incredibly stupid since it limits its use to breakthrough attacks with a small number of less than 200 tanks.
From what I've seen the Russian military is ill-equipped and ill-trained to properly fight not only a war with NATO but all out guerilla assault against them. Outdated rations, poorly on not even maintained equipment cutting on corners so oligarchs can have yachts and Manhattan apartments. Almost non-existent communication between soldiers and command, no real discipline the battlefield, low morale, and it appears little of them had any combat training against NATO forces. It would not take much for NATO to destroy Putin's military with conventional aircraft once they disrupt communication and supply lines and the Russians are already doing that to themselves. Russia can only win by indiscriminate civilian population bombing and cutting off amenities such as water and food in order to starve the population into submission. They knew they will be slaughtered if they try to take cities by direct force.
Russia now has the numbers and overwhelming firepower but cannot lay hold of Ukraine even with a puppet government without years of guerilla and tactical warfare supplied by NATO intelligence and weapons. Putin will take Ukraine in time but with his army as shitty as it truly is and once more and more Russian soldiers and hired mercenaries come home in body bags plus what it is costing him per day with no economy to adequately support it that if his wins, he loses.
"If the American people had ever known the truth about what we (the BCE) have done to this nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched." - Poppy Bush, 1992
From what I've seen the Russian military is ill-equipped and ill-trained to properly fight not only a war with NATO but all out guerilla assault against them. Outdated rations, poorly on not even maintained equipment cutting on corners so oligarchs can have yachts and Manhattan apartments. Almost non-existent communication between soldiers and command, no real discipline the battlefield, low morale, and it appears little of them had any combat training against NATO forces. It would not take much for NATO to destroy Putin's military with conventional aircraft once they disrupt communication and supply lines and the Russians are already doing that to themselves. Russia can only win by indiscriminate civilian population bombing and cutting off amenities such as water and food in order to starve the population into submission. They knew they will be slaughtered if they try to take cities by direct force.
Russia now has the numbers and overwhelming firepower but cannot lay hold of Ukraine even with a puppet government without years of guerilla and tactical warfare supplied by NATO intelligence and weapons. Putin will take Ukraine in time but with his army as shitty as it truly is and once more and more Russian soldiers and hired mercenaries come home in body bags plus what it is costing him per day with no economy to adequately support it that if his wins, he loses.
I've thought for a long time that Russian military power must be overrated. I get that things are going to be cheaper there but they spend less than the UK on defence but their armed forces are 10 or 20 times the size, there must be a lot of shit in there. Then throw in the corruption and conscript troops. Who tells us their military is good? Russia and the military industrial complex who want us to spend spend spend. I haven't even mentioned yet that the US spends more than 10 times as much. It's all about the nukes and given their space program seems to work I guess we have to assume that enough of their missiles would land.
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