re: #78 Targetpractice

Years of propaganda “victories,” whether it was bombing and shelling civilians in Chechnya, stomping on Georgia just to “liberate” South Ossetia, or carpet-bombing Syrian cities, has given Russia an overly-inflated image of themselves and their military. Ukraine is finally showing how much of a paper tiger they really are and they have no other way to explain it than “NATO IS BEHIND ALL THIS!!!”

They are not quite a paper tiger because they can level most of the nation and kill many of its citizens through weapons fired from a distance. Yes, in conventional warfare against a much smaller foe, they have demonstrated their inadequacy, BUT that is not the “game” they are now playing. What we have learned is that our training techniques are very successful in preparing a military to combat a foe when a nation is led by a charismatic figure who unites his people and inspires them to fight against the enemy. Clearly, the training didn’t take in Afghanistan — but the foe there was internal, not an invading force, and the nation’s leaders did not have the loyalty of the citizenry.