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6 Most Powerful Armies of All Time
National Interest ^ | July 8, 2015 | Zachary Keck and Akhilesh Pillalamarri

Posted on 07/08/2015 6:41:27 AM PDT by C19fan

In an anarchical system like international relations, military power is the ultimate form of currency. A state may have all the culture, art, philosophy, and glitter and glory in the world, but it’s all for naught if the country doesn’t have a powerful military to defend itself. Mao Zedong put it bluntly when he stated: “power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” Of all the types of military power, armies are arguably the most important for the simple fact that people live on land, and are likely to continue doing so in the future. As the famous political scientist John J. Mearsheimer has noted: “Armies, along with their supporting air and naval forces, are the paramount form of military power in the modern world.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: armies; mongols; ottomanempire; romanempire
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Historical snubs: The Macedonian/Greek army of Alexander the Great, Frederick the Great's army, and Napoleon's army.

Perhaps Overrated: Red Army. Brute force with no regards for casualties. Although some of their campaigns late in the war, for example, the invasion of Manchuria, were well planned, executed, and with speed and power.

1 posted on 07/08/2015 6:41:27 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: C19fan

Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun. Ruthless and destructive without comparison. Joshua’s army was pretty mean too.


2 posted on 07/08/2015 6:44:15 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: C19fan

The Red Army had very few good generals. Commissars hamstrung the leadership. If the German Army hadn’t surrendered at Stalingrad because of Hitler’s dumb order, the war might have lasted longer in the East.

The Western allies would have crushed the Red Army if they had fought.


3 posted on 07/08/2015 6:46:30 AM PDT by AppyPappy
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To: C19fan

They left out the Persian Army of the Achaemenid period.


4 posted on 07/08/2015 6:50:48 AM PDT by GenXteacher (You have chosen dishonor to avoid war; you shall have war also.)
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To: C19fan
Perhaps Overrated: Red Army. Brute force with no regards for casualties.

I am almost finished reading the third volume of the Churchill biography by Manchester/Reid and came across this. As the Red Army savagely raped and pillaged its way to Berlin, one of Tito's associates, Milovan Djilas, expressed his dismay over the behavior of the Soviets. Stalin replied: "You have imagined the Red Army to be ideal, and it is not ideal, nor can it be...we have opened up our penitentiaries and stuck everybody in the army". So, yes, it was an army of thugs led by thugs who didn't care what happened to the enemy or their own soldiers. Heck, the more of his own people that were lost in the war meant that many less for Stalin ro purge or send to the Gulag.

5 posted on 07/08/2015 6:54:40 AM PDT by Sans-Culotte (Psalm 14:1 ~ The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”)
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To: Don Corleone

**Joshua’s army was pretty mean too.**

Joshua had a great commander-in-chief!


6 posted on 07/08/2015 6:55:59 AM PDT by Gamecock (Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once, and He volunteered. R.C. Sproul)
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To: Sans-Culotte

The Soviets were at the end of the rope on manpower in 1945. Teenage boys started to appear in the ranks.


7 posted on 07/08/2015 6:57:41 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: AppyPappy

You may want to re-read some history. The Ruskies had a number of very effective generals.


8 posted on 07/08/2015 6:58:01 AM PDT by ealgeone
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To: C19fan

I’m surprised that the Greeks weren’t mentioned since they really wre the first to show that heavy infantry with high moral are capable of toppling any force not armed with firearms. They were the example the Roman Armies imitated. And every European Army until guns made it impossible to sustain such forces.

Also, why the Ottomans?


9 posted on 07/08/2015 7:00:22 AM PDT by Bayard
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To: C19fan

How about the seventh-century Arab armies that overran Persia, North Africa, Syria and Anatolia?


10 posted on 07/08/2015 7:00:42 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: ealgeone

Quantity has a quality of its own. Their outrageously high casualty numbers are proof of the poor leadership of the Red Army.


11 posted on 07/08/2015 7:03:02 AM PDT by AppyPappy
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To: ealgeone

They had some good generals but so many of the best of the officer corps were purged on the 1930’s.


12 posted on 07/08/2015 7:05:42 AM PDT by Captain Peter Blood
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To: Bayard
Also, why the Ottomans?

Ask the Mamelukes who fought them at Cairo in 1517 or the Christians who fought them at Kosovo, Nicopolis or Mohács.

13 posted on 07/08/2015 7:06:08 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: C19fan

Obama FSA could pillage any country in no time flat...


14 posted on 07/08/2015 7:06:19 AM PDT by Popman (Christ Alone: My Cornerstone...)
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To: C19fan
How could Patton's Third Army have been left off this list?

If not held back, the Third Army would have rolled through Berlin months ahead of the Russians and then would have turned west and rolled over much of Russia as well, had they been ordered so.

15 posted on 07/08/2015 7:09:14 AM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: SamAdams76

The list did have the US Army in general.


16 posted on 07/08/2015 7:09:50 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: C19fan

OK, I see it now - at the very end. The article was poorly formatted.


17 posted on 07/08/2015 7:11:34 AM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: GenXteacher
They left out the Persian Army of the Achaemenid period.

The Persian forces of the Sassanian Empire, which at one point ruled just about everything between China and the Nile River might be a candidate, as might the eighteenth-century army of Nadir Shah, which conquered everything in its path.

18 posted on 07/08/2015 7:15:10 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: C19fan

As were we...

Regards,


19 posted on 07/08/2015 7:25:29 AM PDT by Thunder 6
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To: C19fan; AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
I'd agree with three on this list, but I'd also have a bigger list. :') Thanks C19fan.

20 posted on 07/08/2015 7:44:02 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW)
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