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"Giving us one hell of a conscription pool should we need to do so."

Aye, good point, but not one that negates what I said.

"Which means that the force in question would have no depth--replacements would NOT be available."

Another good point, and more valid than the first by far. Human logistics are strained in this case, assuming that the conscription pool is limited to Russia.

"[Soviet rebirth is] Unlikely to happen. The most likely result of any such effort would be a reprise of the Balkans on a much larger scale. If the Russians can't handle Chechnya, they sure as hell can't handle bringing the Baltic Republics, Belarus, and Ukraine in by force--and ethnic chauvinism is going to rule out voluntary cooperation."

Here's some questions: What if they CAN handle Chechnya? What if they DO?

As far as ethnic chauvinism is concerned, such sentiments existed when the Bolsheviks overthrew the Czar, and the Soviet held sway for 80+ years thereafter. Who's to say they wouldn't try it again?

Conventional Wisdom said we were safe from terrorism prior to 9/11, and it was wrong.

Conventional Wisdom said Hitlerian atrocities died with the end of WWII, and it was wrong. Witness the mass graves and people shredders of Saddam, the oppression of the Taliban, the killing fields of Africa.

Conventional Wisdom would say nobody with power wants Socialism and/or Communism to reemerge in the Russian Federation. Conventional Wisdom may be wrong again.

Here's some questions: What if they CAN handle Chechnya? What if they DO?

If they can handle Chechnya, they've given no sign of doing so.

If they do handle Chechnya, it is likely to be the post-9/11 solution to the terrorism problem I would've employed--the "Grand Tour." And that solution will DECREASE the recruiting pool--you can't recruit dead people unless you're the Democratic party, looking for votes.

As far as ethnic chauvinism is concerned, such sentiments existed when the Bolsheviks overthrew the Czar, and the Soviet held sway for 80+ years thereafter. Who's to say they wouldn't try it again?

The conditions that existed in 1917 do not obtain at this time. Oddly enough, many of the Bolshevik revolutionaries were non-Russian. "Socialist Internationalism" trumped ethnic chauvinism at that point in time, because that was the driving ideology behind ejecting the Tsarist government.

Even more oddly, Russification was started by Joseph Stalin--a Georgian. That set the seeds for everyone to winding up hating the communists, because the communists became the new Tsars.

This time around, nationalism is in the driver's seat. "Nationist internationalism" is self-contradictory on its face.