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For those villagers eagerly snapping pictures on the side of a road in the Czech Republic in late September, the appearance of the line of U.S. "Stryker" armored fighting vehicles must have seemed more like a parade than a large-scale military operation. The movement of some 500-plus soldiers of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment from Vilsack in Bavaria to a Hungarian military base was intended to strengthen U.S. ties with the Czech, Slovak and Hungarian militaries and put Russia's Vladimir Putin on notice.

But not everyone is convinced. "This Stryker parade won’t fool anyone in Moscow," says retired Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor. "The Russians don't do many things well, but they have been subverting, destabilizing, invading and conquering their neighbors since Peter the Great. And what's our response: a small unit of light armored trucks."

Viewed by many of his colleagues as one of the most innovative Army officers of his generation, Macgregor, a West Point graduate with a Ph.D. in international relations ("he can be pretty gruff," a fellow West Point graduate says, "but he’s brilliant"), led the 2nd Cav's “Cougar Squadron” in the best-known battle of Operation Desert Storm in February 1991. In 23 minutes, Macgregor's force destroyed an entire Iraqi Armored Brigade (including nearly 70 Iraqi armored vehicles), while suffering a single American casualty. Speaking at a military "lessons learned" conference one year later, Air Force General Jack Welsh described the Battle of 73 Easting (named for a map coordinate) as "a stunning, overwhelming victory."

In the wake of the battle, however, Macgregor calculated that if his unit had fought a highly trained and better armed enemy, like the Russians, the outcome would have been different.

In early September he circulated a PowerPoint presentation showing that in a head-to-head confrontation pitting the equivalent of a U.S. armored division against a likely Russian adversary, the U.S. division would be defeated.

"Defeated isn't the right word," Macgregor told me last week. "The right word is annihilated." The 21-slide presentation features four battle scenarios, all of them against a Russian adversary in the Baltics - what one currently serving war planner on the Joint Chiefs staff calls "the most likely warfighting scenario we will face outside of the Middle East."

"Macgregor scares the hell out of the Army," says a senior Joint Chiefs war planner. "What he has proposed is nothing less than the dismantling of the Big Green Machine, getting the Army to embrace a future of lighter, more agile forces than the big lumbering behemoth which takes forever to spool up and deploy. I'll bet the armor and airborne guys are furious. Reform my ass: Macgregor has walked into the zoo and slapped the gorilla."

1 posted on 11/07/2015 5:24:40 PM PST by amorphous
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To: amorphous
since one side has ROE to hamper them and the other does NOT, well...
70 posted on 11/07/2015 8:22:29 PM PST by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -w- NO Pity for the LAZY - Luke, 22:36)
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To: amorphous

We have formidable space-based scalar weapons. In a serious war, no messing around, winner take all, nukes are obsolete.


71 posted on 11/07/2015 8:38:44 PM PST by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
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To: amorphous

Not a chance in hell that Russia could defeat the U.S. in a true showdown....we have 21st century munitions and an UNLIMITED access to money....they have neither.


72 posted on 11/07/2015 8:48:03 PM PST by terycarl
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To: amorphous
Legendary US Army Commander Says Russia Would "Annihilate" US In Head-To-Head Battle

With our current Manchurian Candidate Commander-in-chief?

Where's Captain Obvious??

82 posted on 11/07/2015 10:45:16 PM PST by publius911 (Pissed?? You have NO idea!)
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To: amorphous

83 posted on 11/08/2015 3:09:14 AM PST by ScottinVA (If you're not enraged...why?)
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To: amorphous

bkmk


90 posted on 11/09/2015 7:23:11 AM PST by AllAmericanGirl44
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To: amorphous

When one country spends more than the next dozen countries COMBINED it shouldn’t even be up for discussion who would win. But our bloated budget is all about corporate welfare. Expensive contracts for well connected companies who make sure the congressmen of their districts keep the pork flowing. I feel like we should at least be able to keep our country safe, but given the insanity of the liberal pansies who rule our lives and ruin our nation, what could one expect.


91 posted on 11/10/2015 2:54:38 PM PST by HomerBohn (Liberals and slinkies: they're good for nothing, but you smile as you shove them down the stairs.)
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