by seahorse3 » Thu 03 Mar 2011, 18:52:32
This thread isn't to justify any war. It's merely debating whether the American Army, more correctly "military" is a myth. Evgeny says that Russians being surrounded and all being killed is testament to the Russian soldier. Well, as Patton said, no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other bastard die for his. So, dying isn't prove of military might. The Russians are known for dying in mass, the unfortunate slaughter of Russian paratroopers by the Chechnians just proves that a whole company of men died at the hands of muslims that don't take prisoners.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm on the Russians side in their fight against these nuts, but that slaughter of those paratroopers only proves Patton right, you can't win by dying, for they died and lost. You win by killing, not dying. Unfortunately, the Russian military has forever been plagued by poor training at all levels and poor equipment. It's only hope of living was sacrificing men, the numbers game. It was true in WWI, WWII, and now Chechnea.
Russian soldiers are very brave, but so are most other men on the battlefield. There is very little difference between men in battle. Muslims, Russians, Europeans, Africans, even Americans are very brave on the battlefield, but unfortunately, bravery doesn't win wars. Unfortunately, personally bravery plays second fiddle to other aspects of war, namely, logistics. If bravery won wars, those Russian paratroopers would still be alive. The American Indians would have won, and any number of indigenous people over the centuries, but they don't, because bravery doesn't win wars. Rommel once said that he who wins the war of logistics, wins the war. You need to study that.
Like it or not, the American military is the most dominant military in the world today and has been since WWII. During that time, it has fought countless wars, which keep officers and soldiers trained in the art. They have experience in modern war that can't be matched by any other country, bc experience is the best teacher. The weapons, training and equipment, tactics are all constantly evolving. They defeated the highly touted, battle tested, Iraqi army in the early 90s which had all the latest Russian equipment and training. It didn't hold up. Same was true in 2003.
So, until the Russians or any other country can take and hold ground, any idea that they are the better army is just a fairy tell, wishful thinking. If they are brave enough, then they should take back the oil fields that they had leased in Iraq which are now under the control of the US military and being leased to Western oil companies.
BTW, as an aside, 3000k soldiers didn't die in Grenada. I wasn't in Grenada, but I was in the 82nd at the time, and if it makes Russians feel better to think that happened, let them believe it. My brother was in the 2nd Rng Bn which was in Grenada. His platoon was ferried on one of the helicopters that got shot down, but only 2 died, not the whole load. Opinions should mirror facts, but they often don't. The US military doesn't lie about its own casualties, it would be almost impossible to do so with conventional forces (Delta is an exception). But, anyone who hasn't lived in the US wouldn't appreciate that aspect of openness. Now, the US may lie about how people die, Pat Tillman comes to mind, but I can't think of any single example of lying about which Americans got killed. the list are public and always have been.
The only reason the Russians gave up their oil interest in Iraq to American invaders was bc they didn't have the military muscle to do anything about it, not conventionally anyway.