Russia went from being the second best military in the world, to being the second best militarily in Ukraine, to being the second best military in Russia.
Yeah they don’t need a big military. They can just call in debt or flip off the manufacturing switch that supplies the rest of the world and they’ve already mostly won.
I really hope we in the West wouldn’t just fold the moment “ABBEXA childrens plastic bucket fun water toy for family” gets cut off, but the thing about civilian manufacturing is that it can be converted to military manufacturing. One moment it’s making buckets, the next it’s making covers for mines. And, the sector isn’t even bad quality anymore; it’s not as good as CNC nerds in Germany, but their stuff will work at a basic level and arrive on schedule. Meanwhile, the need to supply Ukraine has exposed that our own manufacturing, while advanced and awesome, doesn’t scale very easily.
It’s all a bit academic because of MAD, but the main reason I think we’d have a shot in a conventional war is that the professionals seem to think we’d have a shot.
Well it seems once you have perma standing army, they always find a way to use for some dumb shit to make current ruling clowns and their oligarchs some money. Not sure how this can be stopped when civilian decision makers are as corrupt as the military and colluding to fuck over US taxpayers and kill foreign nationals for profit.
Alternative is the paying big money and not getting anything in return like Germany but that only works because we have 40k troops stationed in Germany to protect it against Russia.
Russia went from being the second best military in the world, to being the second best militarily in Ukraine, to being the second best military in Russia.
Russia turned out to be world’s best paper tiger
That’s probably still China, lots of money invested but their actual combat movements look horrific. Their special forces are legit very good though.
A billion people and the largest basic manufacturing capability full stop scares the bejesus out of me, I don’t care if they can’t march straight.
I also have no reason to expect they’re anywhere near as incompetent. Probably just normal dictatorship levels.
Yeah they don’t need a big military. They can just call in debt or flip off the manufacturing switch that supplies the rest of the world and they’ve already mostly won.
I really hope we in the West wouldn’t just fold the moment “ABBEXA childrens plastic bucket fun water toy for family” gets cut off, but the thing about civilian manufacturing is that it can be converted to military manufacturing. One moment it’s making buckets, the next it’s making covers for mines. And, the sector isn’t even bad quality anymore; it’s not as good as CNC nerds in Germany, but their stuff will work at a basic level and arrive on schedule. Meanwhile, the need to supply Ukraine has exposed that our own manufacturing, while advanced and awesome, doesn’t scale very easily.
It’s all a bit academic because of MAD, but the main reason I think we’d have a shot in a conventional war is that the professionals seem to think we’d have a shot.
West GDP 69x Russia… where are those guys when we failed to deliver art shells to the point where Ukraine started taking Ls
That’s what tends to happen when you don’t invade anyone for forty years. We should all strive to have China’s level of military readiness.
Nah I have issue with having a well prepared military, I have an issue with finding excuses to use it.
Well it seems once you have perma standing army, they always find a way to use for some dumb shit to make current ruling clowns and their oligarchs some money. Not sure how this can be stopped when civilian decision makers are as corrupt as the military and colluding to fuck over US taxpayers and kill foreign nationals for profit.
Alternative is the paying big money and not getting anything in return like Germany but that only works because we have 40k troops stationed in Germany to protect it against Russia.
On paper, at least…
Then they’ll become the second best military in Ukraine after being annexed.
Second best military in West Alaska*
Ain’t it east ukraine?
Its actually west Mongolia, after all most of Russia was under Mongol rule for centuries.
Aren’t they third in Russia? Wagner is definitely above them.
Wagner is only as independent as Putin allows
Yeah, didn’t they fold it up entirely over that whole “tried to overthrow the government” thing?