Jack, ole buddy, you have an appealing unconventional mind, and I urge you to write another contrarian essay, but I have to clear up our disagreement over Israel's military capability. Before we get there I want to say a couple of things about the dumb NATO experiment with the ex Soviet Republic of Georgia. Remember that Russian war over the territory of northern Ossetia, which was in dispute between Russia and Georgia. Yes, Russia prevailed, but only after bringing to bear a lot of its conventional capabilities, and this war was right on its border. Russia has great difficulty in projecting power, its military forces are run down and corrupt, and the Russians themselves admitted as much afterwards, realizing that a lot of upgrading has to take place to maintain Russia's less than super power status.
Now to Israel. The summer 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Yes, this war showed some unpreparedness in the Israeli forces. Some troops didn't even have enough water. A couple Israeli tanks were destroyed by anti-tank munitions. But the Israeli war casualties were far smaller than the dead in Lebanon, as a result of Israeli artillery and air strikes. Israel's destruction of much of Lebanon's vital infrastructure, such as the Beirut power plant, and water treatment plant, etc. was the strategy they pursued, to impose unacceptable levels of pain on the Lebabanese government and people, who would then react by politically pressuring Hezbollah to cease and desist. The end of the war was inconclusive, but like all advanced militaries, the IDF has learned from its mistakes and will conduct the next war against Hezbollah with greater efficacy. For example, if such another war breaks out soon because of Israel's likely strike on Iran, then it's possible that in such circumstances, under the exigencies of fighting a two front war, that Israel will establish a 'cordon sanitaire' in southern Lebanon with a carpet of nerve gas to kill every human being there, including the Hezbollah rocket forces. If such 'in extremis' action is not taken then the prevalence of UAVs, and other precision targeting means, will impact Hezbollah with greater success than in 2006.
As for Iran, you know my position. The probability is increasing that Israel will feel it must strike sometime in the next couple of months, since the Iranian uranium enrichment program will probably not be reversed. One of the benefits of the Western economic sanctions regime against Iran that has been in place for months now is its effect on Iranian military readiness and effectiveness. Iran's military capability continues to degrade weekly, especially since the Iranian regime is dedicating its few scarce remaining economic resources in continuing the uranium enrichment and constructing underground nuclear facilities. The Iranian Air Force, and all auxilliary support services, such as those for its missile forces, are gradually degrading. Iran is being starved and beggared. Another couple of months of this process will make Israel's strike easier, and we will see what retalliatory capability Iran will have. As I said, I'm going on the record with my predictions. We will all know soon enough.
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Kerry Lauerman
Joan Walsh
Salon.com
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Second Chechen War: “Grozny was once again the epicenter of fighting after the outbreak of the Second Chechen War, which further caused thousands of fatalities. During the early phase of the Russian siege on Grozny on October 25, 1999, Russian forces launched five SS-21 ballistic missiles at the crowded central bazaar and a maternity ward, killing more than 140 people and injuring hundreds. During the massive shelling of the city that followed, most of the Russian artillery were directed toward the upper floors of the buildings; although this caused massive destruction of infrastructure, civilian casualties were much less than in the first battles. The enormous scale of the devastation prompted numerous comparisons with Hiroshima [31] and other cities leveled during World War II’”
Oh yes nana sounds like the Chechens really showed them.
As far as these tank battles you are talking about between American equipped and trained forces and Russian equipped and trained forces I assume they are the Arab Israeli wars. I rest my case.
Now lets talk about Georgia which was a far better indicator of Russian power than a Civil War where you made up your facts. Georgia was equipped with the latest NATO weapons including war ships and tanks all supervised by battle hardened Israeli advisors. it took the Russians exactly 5 days to utterly destroy all the NATO equipment including tanks (probably because the dummy's were riding around in them with their heads sticking up, a snipers wet dream), completely route the Georgian army, sink their entire fleet, and capture all their Israeli advisors. But that don’t mean nothing does it?
Do not get me wrong here I fear for the people of Israel because Judaism is my adopted religion and I believe the third temple must be built. I fear for the people of America because my children and the people I love live here. You people are applauding starting a war that will result in the deaths of millions if not billions of people but I believe some strange things.
Oh yea I forgot we also routed the Wehrmacht at the gates of Moscow too. The only reason the Germans lost the battle of the Bulge is because the Germans ran out of gas. Their tanks ran right through ours and overran their supply lines which were limited anyway.
And now we can get to the American weapons systems try reading this you might not like it its non fiction maybe theres a comic book version for you:
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/19/business/la-fi-fighter-jet-down-20111220
Oh and from personel experience The AR15 is a great gun on the target range but it does not hold a candle to either the AK74 or the Chinese SK in battle situations that’s why our special forces that are going out on long term missions in the field are issued AK74's besides the the 5.45 makes a way bigger hole than the 5.56.
Secondly, I want you to think about the Russia/Georgia war. Just on the face of it, without knowing any details, it is peculiar that, if Russia is as strong as you claim, that they had to fight this war of encroaching US imperialism on their doorstep. Powerful countries don't get into the situation where they have to assert their power and fight for their credibility and dignity so close to home. It's just an observation of how power politics tend to play themselves out on the world stage.
And my turtle friend right now we the United States of America is being invaded by Mexico so I find your argument about super powers being immune to attack completely irrelevant. At least Russia fought back.