Open thread, Dec. 1 - Dec. 7, 2014

MrMind

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If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

Notes for future OT posters:

1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.

2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one. (Immediately before; refresh the list-of-threads page before posting.)

3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main.

4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.

NATO has far higher military expenditure than Russia.

US does. European military isn't particularly large or capable.

I think if nukes were out of the picture then retaking the Crimea would be a possibility.

Sigh. Do the words "land war in Asia" ring any bells? (yes, I know that Crimea is technically in Europe)

European militaries are extremely capable, for the most part - pound for pound, they're almost as good as the US. They just have a lot fewer pounds.

And historically, land wars in Asia haven't been a big deal. That's a Vietnam-era myth - WW2 involved a lot of Asian land warring, and that went pretty okay.

3Salemicus12y

Some "land wars in Asia" are successful. For example, Germany successfully conquered Russia in 1917. Even more relevantly, Poland ejected the Russians from large parts of the Ukraine in 1921. I think the saying gets its popularity from a very superficial reading of history. Yes, Napoleon and Hitler famously came a cropper, but there have been plenty of successes.

1skeptical_lurker12y

http://www.globalfirepower.com/ says that the UK, France and Germany are the 5th-7th most powerful countries respectively. UK tanks are probably the most powerful in the world, based on the idea that whoever shoots first wins (at least when you're firing depleted uranium rounds that can punch straight through a tank), and the UK holds the record for longest distance tank-on-tank kill. The US alone has over 8x the defence budget. The UK, France and Germany together have almost twice the defence budget. [...] Yes... this is because Asia is very big, and armies can freeze on the way to Moscow. But the Crimea isn't that big.