After the losses russia has sustained in Ukraine (equipment, serviceman) I just can’t imagine a war with NATO being feasible. Even if putin initiated a war due to delusions/false beliefs in russian military capability, I feel like they pose about as much of a threat to NATO as north korea…
NATO would absolutely decimate russia in traditional warfare. I’m not arguing against strengthening boarders, but russia is a joke of ‘military superpower.’ The longer russia wages war with Ukraine, the less of a threat they will be in the future. Their population still hadn’t recovered from their incompetent approach to WWII, and they’ve been repeating their strategy of throwing bodies into the meat grinder with much less success this time around. They’ve stooped to sending their prison population to fight in Ukraine out of desperation…
The only threat to NATO russia could pose is with chemical and/or nuclear warfare. And even then, I highly doubt even half of their nuclear surplus is even operational. Look at how this war with Ukraine revealed how systemic corruption resulted in russia’s assets/equipment being neglected/never even existing but on paper.
Actual conflict with NATO is just a pipe dream for russia. In waging war with Ukraine, putin revealed that russia being a “military superpower” is merely a myth. putin is just a self-deluded weak tyrant like his buddy kim, who he’s had to buy weapons from due to diminishing russia’s surplus. And china is just a paper tiger whose military has only been tested thru genocide and fist fights on India’s border.
Obviously I’m not privy to the intelligence information of NATO allies, but I’m more concerned about stubbing my toe than russia invading NATO countries.
Trump had threatened to withdraw from NATO and is very friendly to Russia.
Reading between the lines here is that:
-The overall resolve of Europe and the US is waning on Ukraine.
-Russia is ramping up their military. Like, 30% of their budget is military
-Some US politicians are signalling that not only do they not care about Ukraine, they don’t even care about NATO
-Russia doesn’t have to win wars to meet their goals. They just need to take a chunk, hold the ground, let the coalition decide peace is easier than war and settle with new borders. They’ve been doing this for 20 years. They still haven’t been given a reason to stop. It ALWAYS works out for them.
Those are fair points, but that strategy won’t work if they attack a NATO nation. Even without the support of the US, NATO would wipe the floor with russia.
For real, they haven’t been able to get air superiority against Ukraine despite having many more and more modern planes. They haven’t even been able to get naval superiority against Ukraine who don’t have a navy.
Even discounting the US its absurd to think Russia threatens European NATO with its larger population, vastly bigger economy and much better air and sea forces.
The longer russia wages war with Ukraine, the less of a threat they will be in the future.
Agree 100%. IMO this is the biggest reason that NATO has thrown so much support behind Ukraine - they’re weakening Russia, which strengthens NATO. Further, it provides a peek into the capabilities of Russian armaments vs those that NATO chooses to share with Ukraine, further validating the claim that NATO firmly holds the upper hand in a theoretical conflict.
You’re wrong about China, in my time in service we were always more wary of them than with Russia/NK.
China learned the lesson Russia failed to do, build an economy first and a military second. Sure they stole most of their R&D’d technology, but they have it, and they understand it well enough to keep up with our military technology. Unfortunately they also have the population and ability to mass produce that could keep a war machine turning for a long time even in a traditional engagement.
Are they as well trained? Probably not. They’re still a powerhouse of a country and our most significant threat.
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Have you ever considered that Ukraine can lose?
Sure, but what would that even look like in practice? Russia would be staving off a protracted insurgency that could last years. We know from Afghanistan that they don’t do the best with insurgents (who does though?). It’s certainly possible, but it’s not the outcome I’d bet on.
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Looks like healthcares off the menu Americans, the shareholders need your sacrifices going forward.
