Replies

You put forward interesting comments to this debate.
So here are my answers:

Red6:
“Imagine this scenario: Russia is weak and no longer even a true near peer. We know this.”

USA-FRANCE:
Russia national economy is weak yes, its about the size of Italy’s.
However, It has a massive military complex machinery inherited from the Soviet Union. +30% of Russia’s entire national budget is now dedicated for war and for the aggression on Ukraine. +30% is mind-boggling! They can produce 3 million shells a year... Next year in 2025 Europe will be able to produce 1,5 million per year. America’s and Europe’s economies are not built for waging permanent wars. Russia is.

Then you said:
“Imagine it is Russia in every instance reacting to us... “
Our “invasion” of Iraq / Afghanistan, our short (non-invasive) intervention in Libya, etc...

USA-FRANCE:
We TEMPORARILY invaded Afghanistan because they were refusing to handover bin Laden who killed 3000 civilians in America in multiple terrorist attacks.
That has nothing to do with Afghanistan being “Russian-Aligned)
We never ANNEXED Afghanistan.

We initially invaded Iraq because of its blatant violation of international law as it illegally invaded ANNEXED Kuwait. France helped America to liberate it - and many other nations within the coalition. Evidently it had nothing to do with Iraq being “Russian aligned”.

In Libya, Reagan and Obama each made short military interventions there because of Libyas deliberate terrorist attack on Pan Am Flight 103, and later the imminent massacre it was prepared to commit against its own people. France was actually the main player in that military intervention, and got a helping hand from America.
There was never any American invasions there. And no ANNEXATION of Libya.
The whole thing was done in a matter of days. Thus and again, it had nothing to do with Libya being “Russian aligned”.

Then you said : “We attempted throwing the government in Venezuela.”

USA-FRANCE:
Well that was never really proven, and anyway America never even imagined any kind of invasion or ANNEXATION of Venezuela.

The you said: “We offered NATO to Ukraine in 2014.”

USA-FRANCE:
Let me remind you that Germany and France vetoed in 2008 any attempt by Ukraine to join NATO. Big mistake. Back then Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy were leading their respective countries. They were weak, and semi-pro Russia for economical reasons. They were compromised by Russia.
However... Sarkozy made France join NATO again! But that was before he became compromised by Russia...

There was zero chance that Ukraine would be a member of NATO:

And to top it all Zelensky even said this:
“Ukraine will not join Nato, says Zelenskiy, as shelling of Kyiv continues”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/15/kyiv-facing-dangerous-moment-amid-signs-of-russias-tightening-grip

But Russia invaded anyway... purely for imperialist, colonialist, financial reasons.

And here is yet another smoking gun concerning Russias malevolence, deceit and lies:

Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s ambassador to the EU (DAYS BEFORE THEY ATTACKED UKRAINE): “It’s not an issue of readiness. Russia has no plans to invade either Ukraine or any other country. It’s a bluff created not in Russia, but in those countries that are now spreading this hysterical message, I would say, across Europe and the world.”

Whole dialog here:
https://www.euronews.com/2022/01/27/russia-has-no-plans-to-invade-either-ukraine-or-any-other-country-says-moscow-s-top-eu-dip

SO... you undestand better now ?

Nope-

Before the war (compared to the US alone), now they are mobilizing so the numbers are skewed:

Russia had:

—An Army 55% ours. (now with a draft and mobilization they are at 500,000, but even last year it was far less)

—An Air Force 47% ours.

—A Navy 43% ours.

—They have few allies.

—Weak allies.

—44% our population.

—40% the number of men reaching military age.

—1/5 our PPP.

—1/10 our GDP.

—~1/10 our defense spending.

—~1/3 our IC in manpower.

—Less industry. Russia has a whopping 1.83% of the global manufacturing base while we have ~15.87%. We have 8.7 -TIMES- their manufacturing base.

—Less high tech. That's why you see the Russians employ primitive technologies in many of their weapons systems. What 5th gen fighter do they have? None.

—Russia has one smaller POS carrier, while we have 11 super carriers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_of_the_United_States_Navy We also have 7 carriers we don't even classify as such but are comparable to Russia's one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp-class_amphibious_assault_ship

—They have 20% the number of satellites in orbit we do. 1,552 vs. 7,558.

—They do not have a Central and South America (where we sometimes reach back to) for a near limitless supply of bodies which are trained (i.e. Mexico, Brazil, Columbia has lots of folks with military training). We're using them right now in Ukraine, guess where many of the mercenaries come from?

—Their Special Operations and Spetsnaz are ~1/2 our size.

—Russia was spending no more of it's GDP on its war machine than we were, ~3.8%-4.1% annually before the war.

You and I have gone through this before, by the numbers.

***Please tell me (((ONE))) area where Russia enjoys parity with the US, other than their nuclear deterrence?***

Please let me know where any one of these points I make is incorrect (but do use pre-2022 - before the mobilization numbers) or if you want the source?

BTW, we are still in Iraq, and Libya, and Syria... We just don't talk about it.

Russia today is #5 on the world stage in conventional forces.

They are no longer the super/global power they once were.

Ukraine is a difficult task for them which is requiring them to mobilize, draft, switch over to a war-time economy (production of consumer products is greatly reduced).

FYI- by comparison, when you had the Soviet Union, their military was 3.5 times the size of what Russia has today, they were spending ~3 times what they were in 2021 on defense in terms of % of GDP. Back then they had the Warsaw Pact with East Germany, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Albania backing them up. Yes, in 1986 the threat was very real. Today the threat is a boogieman. He lives in your imagination.

It’s not them sensing our weakness, it’s us sensing theirs.

We have been kicking them in the balls for years and pretending as if we’re some victim and defender of human rights, sovereignty, and democracy as we grab more and more of their sphere of influence and put it under our control. We are building military bases along their border, station missile defense in Eastern Europe, withdraw from the Ballistic Missile Treaty. You know what a dog will do when cornered, right?