The Myth of American Military Might essay

Myth of American Military Might

In this essay we'll debunk the Uber image of the US military, this will be broken up into 10 parts.

1. Opening Statements 

2. Gulf war and the Myth of the 4th most powerful military

3. Numbers Game

4. Afghanistan Vs. USSR & USA 

5. Op Praying Mantis & Grenadan war Vs Georgian war 

6. WWII and myths around soviet equipment 

7. Vietnam & Korean war

8. Comparison of Ukraine 2022 Vs Iraq 1991

9. USSR Vs. USA 1991

10. Closing arguments and Sources

Opening statements 

Now before we start, We're not just a bunch of salty haters, the United States is one of the most powerful economies on earth, it's a political superpower and also the 3rd most powerful military on earth and one the 4 military Superpowers that can launch operations anywhere for indefinitely. They make some of the most advanced weapons systems, having mastered stealth aircraft, were as Felon and Mighty Dragon (based on patent information, radar scattering simulation evidence and real world evidence) have RCS minimum of 10mm across and 5mm across, F-22 is 0.1mm across, B-2 is 100 mm across and B-21 is around 10 mm across, such engineering is a military marvel. They also operate the world's most powerful air force whose navy and marines combined occupy the ~12th largest air force by Aircraft and along with China are the only countries with 2nd generation stealth bombers that have reached Beyond the drawing board and into actually building something. Along with China they're the only ones with 6th Generation jets in the works beyond planning. 

The United States is a military powerhouse who crushed the Japanese empire mostly on their own, who along with Britain helped the USSR liberate Europe from nazi tyranny, anyone who says the US on paper is a weak country, is clueless.

BUT... This idea that the United States is this unbeatable military juggernaut that could just wipe Russia or China, heck even India, Egypt or Iran off the map without much effort, has no basis in reality, statistics or history. 

Gulf War and the Myth of the 4th most powerful military 

Now I'm sure many of you heard how the USA absolutely demolished Iraq, which was at the time the 4th most powerful military on earth, who had the most modern and sophisticated soviet equipment and ofcourse one of the most impenetrable air defence systems on earth with people saying Baghdad was as guarded as Moscow.

All lies, this myth that Iraq in 1991 was the 4th most powerful military is laughable, this was before the European Union was united as it is today so you're trying to tell me that Britain, France, Italy, Spain, West Germany, Turkey, East Germany, Poland, Yugoslavia, South Korea, Pakistan, India, China, Vietnam, Greece Australia, Argentina, Libya, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Brazil, you're trying to tell me that only ONE of them was stronger than Iraq, as obviously the USSR and US are top two, so if Iraq is 4th the only one of the above can be 3rd lmao I think we and others are confusing most powerful with largest, it might have been the 4th largest but that doesn't equate most powerful, especially when you look at what most of Iraq's army was composed of Korean to Vietnam war era tanks, IFVs, rocket systems, artillery batteries and fighters. Also if we are doing the most powerful military in conventional warfare in 1991 we think Iraq is ranked in-between 15-20th for overall capabilities.

These are 3 reasons why Iraq's Military was not a tough fight. 

1. Their military was obsolete 

2. They were crippled by the Iran war 

3. The US had HUGE military help. 

Iraq's Military was obsolete

We will explain this in 5 parts. 

1. The tanks 

2. The air defences 

3. Infantry 

4. Anti tank abilities 

5. Artillery abilities 

So first, the tanks. 

No Iraqi tank had full alloy DU or tungsten APFSDS (like 3BM42, M829 or DM33), digital radios (like R-173 or SEM80/90) or 16x bit digital ballistic computers (like 1V528), 2nd Generation night vision or thermals or a gun integrated fully stabilised laser rangefinder. Heck their most advanced sabot was the maraging steel 3BM17 which was an export model of a training round for soviets since late 70s and was fully steel. 

80% of iraqi tanks had RHA as armour, APDS rounds, no ballistic computers, no passive night vision and only basic 2× axis mechanical stabilisation whilst remaining 15% had steel APFSDS, mechanical ballistic computers and 1st Generation night vision and 5% had added laser rangefinders, 1V517 8x bit ballistic computer and some ERA or composite armour. 

This was against coalition tanks that used fully digital FCS, 1st Gen thermals, composite armour, digital ballistic computers with integrated laser rangefinders and full alloy DU or tungsten APFSDS aided by digital radios. 

There were peer and even competitive tanks at the time. 

Peer tanks to M1A1 Abrams tanks would be T-80U (lesser extent T-80BV and T-64BV) with powerful 1V528 digital ballistic computer, 1A45 digital FCS, Kontakt-5 composite armour with ERA and an integrated 1G46 laser rangefinder and digital optical daytime sight with the 2A45M-1 modern gun with MRS and TS that uses the laser guided SACLOS Svir GLATGM and full alloy tungsten 3BM42 and DU 3BM32 APFSDS with R-173 digital radios. 

Peer tanks to M1 Abrams, Challenger 1s and AMX-30B2s and competitive to M1A1 Abrams would be T-80B, T-72B and T-64B. 

For context 80% of iraqi tanks would be advanced in the 50s and modern in 60s with the remaining 20% being advanced in 60s modern in 70s. 

It should be noted that there is an idea going around that Iraq had hundreds of Type 72Zs with digital ballistic computers, laser rangefinders and 2nd Generation image intensifiers. There is zero evidence for this, no images, no reports and no information of engagements. 

Iran had these and Iraq did receive a similar upgrade for their tanks in late 2000s. 

Now the air defences. 

This is two fold. First we will cover the air based air defence assets so fighter jets. 

~50% of iraqi Fighters had no proper air search Fire control radars, no autopilots, no all aspect RWRs and no air to Air Missiles or only rear aspect IR or beam riding whilst 30% had air search and monopulse fire control radar with no ECCM, all aspect RWRs and autopilots with use rear aspect only IR and radar Missiles with remaining 10% using LDSD radar with some ECM resistance and other 10% adding active countermeasures like chaff and flares with Manuvarabille airframes and limited all aspect IR and radar Missiles. 

This was against the coalition who's all aircraft used all aspect IR missiles with IRCCM and all aspect radar Missiles with BVR abilities and resistance to chaff and all their fighters had look down shoot down ability with ECCM.

50% of the coalitions fleet used advanced digital systems with digital fly by wire flight controls, glass cockpits, high end pulse doppler radars with ability to use Fox 3s and advanced fully digital RWRs with enhanced ECCM with remaining 50% being standard 4th Gen with digital all aspect RWR and pulse doppler radar. 

There were similar soviet peer fighters to stuff like Mirage 2000C, Tornado ADV, F/A-18C, F-14D, F-16C and F-15E; these were Su-27M, Su-30, MiG-31M and MiG-29S. 

There was stuff competitive against the above and peer to F-14A, F-15C and F-16A with MiG-23MLD, MiG-29A, MiG-31 and Su-27S. 

The only fighters used by Iraq that were even remotely competitive against the above coalition fighters at that time would be MiG-29-12B, MiG-25PS, MiG-23ML and Mirage F1EQ hence why they were the only models to score kills. 

The last part is their ground based air defence. 

Now good air defence systems since the 70s have 3 things. 

1. Are 5 tiered so extended range protected by Interceptors which are covered by area defence systems which are covered by point defence systems which are covered by active protection such as EW Systems, air defence Fighters and AA Guns. Obviously these are coordinated by large amounts of ground based search radars. 

2. C2 Integration. So your area defence Launchers are set up in batteries connected to a C2 hub which themselves are connected to a regimental hub which itself is connected to the main hub usually at military headquarters. This means your entire air defence network is connected and if one area is attacked you can coordinate the entire system 

3. Ground area covered by Recon Aircraft and radar aircraft. So your AEW&Cs are deployed to be more actively engaged in protecting against air threats and coordinate air defence Fighters or C2 Aircraft that coordinate with ground based radars or/with AGS Aircraft that surveillance the ground and can Intercept ground based movements of enemy SAMs and dispatch ground or air based assets to deal with them. 

Iraq had none of this. 

For number 1. 60% of their SAMs were VSHORADs so classed as active defence with remaining 40% being point defence systems  with a few area defence systems, they had lots of AA Guns however and had many Interceptors. They had a good number of ground based search radars as well although all obsolete. 

For number 2. Iraq utilised a very basic C2 structure, it was called Kari and was an ad hoc system added to iranian air defence in the 80s. It separated the batteries into intercept operations centers (IOC) which where organised onto sector operations centers (SOC) all of which is coordinated by air defense operations center in Baghdad (ADOC). 

It was an impressive system if it was made 3 decades prior, it wasn't even comparable to the Soviets Uragan-1 or US SAGE developed in the 50s, it consisted of around 700 early warning and engagement radars with around 300 aircraft Interceptors. 

Major issues were 

Air Interceptors relied on unsecured GCI which was mostly done by manual unsecured analogue radio line not data link. So easily jammable and easily intercepted 

Aircraft had no air to air data links 

Ground SAMs relied on telephone connection between radars and batteries 

Main hub still largely utilised analogue mission control displays with physical map interfaces. (Uragan-1 and SAGE used computer interfaces) 

All information exchanged was unencrypted 

Batteries information display were connected to IOCs by telephone not data link and had no data sharing abilities, if you destroyed an SOC (makeshift regimental C2 hubs) you take out all the assets it controlled, however there was a very basic radar data fusion installed (introduced for 70s air defence) that allowed say data from a P-18 in battery X connected to IOC Y to share aircraft targeting data to a P-15 or P-18 used by battery Z connected to IOC Y. Iraq had no proper SAM regimental hubs and very few battery hubs to coordinate its batteries so it created IOCs and SOCs to fill the gap, each SOC could control up to 5 IOCs and track up to 100 to 150 aerial targets with over 500 to 600 total tracked by the ADOC in Baghdad, since the system only added on a basic C2 structure on to older SAMs and radars it had no priority tracking, poor ECCM protection and very poor Missile tracking. 

Iraqs SAMs were horrifically obsolete, their main system was the 50+ S-75 and S-125 batteries with over 400 systems. S-75 had no ECCM so could be jammed with any aircraft with even basic ECM jammers and S-125 had rudimentary ECCM so could be jammed by any 70s ECM. Most of their SAMs were SHORADS like Roland, Strela-1, Strela-10 and Osa whilst they had no air or ground based EW assets and their aircraft Interceptors were made up of obsolete MiG-21s, MiG-25s and MiG-23s with only around 100 Mirage F1 and MiG-29A-12B pure Fighters, most of their area defence systems were also deployed in Iraq meaning their defence outside was incredibly limited. 

For number 3. This was again non existing with only such aircraft being a handful of Recon Variants of MiG-25s

Another thing is how none of these systems were modern. Iraqs SAMs were advanced in 60s and modern in 70s and obsolete by mid 80s whilst their radar operators were on the whole poorly trained and the radars themselves were advanced in the 50s and obsolete by the 80s. 

Another huge factor ignored was the near complete absence of ground or air based EW assets with a only a handful of makeshift MiG-25s and Mirage F1s turned into homemade EW Aircraft. 

Compared to the coalition who not only had numerous naval based radar assets covering the coastal areas but numerical supremacy in AEW&C and C2 Aircraft for coordination of fighters along with numerous EW Aircraft covering their own assets. 

Their Anti tank abilities were pathetic. 

Iraq's Anti tank systems were 3 fold. 

They utilised ATGMs with 70 to 80% of their systems being Malyutka wire guided MCLOS with remaining 20 to 30% being Milan or Fagot wire guided SACLOS with telescopic sights. 

This was at a time when stuff like Fagot-M, Metis, Konkurs, TOW-2, RBS-56B etc. That used passive night vision devices with tandem shaped charges. Iraq's Malyutkas couldn't even pen a modern tank with composite armour. 

They utilised Anti tank guns with 80-90% of their systems being older recoilless guns like D-48 or SPG-9 whilst only a handful of 2A19s although these used steel export APFSDS 

This was at a time when systems like 2A19 were common place for decades with systems like 2A29R and 2A45 being modern that utilise ballistic computers, laser rangefinders, GLATGMs along with passive night vision devices 

They utilised ATGM Carriers with 9P133 Sagger and VCR-TH HOT, both these systems were obsolete with them using MCLOS wire guidance with basic shaped charges. 

This was at a time when modern vehicles were using laser beam riding with tandem shaped charges and systems like 9P149 and 9P148 using SACLOS wire guidance were incredibly commonplace for nearly two decades. 

Their Artillery abilities were obsolete 

Iraq's main Artillery was largely Towed systems with half being outdated systems like D-1 and M-30 and other half being modern 2A18 and 2A36 whilst they only had around 400 SPAGs with less than 30% even being half modern with then using manual FCS, manual laying systems and mechanical ballistic computers. 

This was at a time when stuff like 2S3M1, 2S7M, 2S19, M109A6, AS-90 etc. Was modern and used digital FCS, digital ballistic computers, digital control panels with ability to use laser guided Munitions. 

Iraq's rocket Artillery was iffy. They had a reasonable amount of modern MLRS like ASTROS II and a good amount of semi modern BM-21s and Sajil-60 but their missiles were awful with them having no long range systems and their only systems being older Scud-Bs and knock offs. 

For context these systems would be advanced in early 60s and modern in 70s and obsolete by 80s due to EW and poor CEPs 

Lastly Infantry. 

Iraqs Infantry was across the board outdated. Their standard Infantry had little to no body armour or proper combat gear, no optics for their guns and only older metal helmets if that with commanders using few and far between analogue radios with most infantry not even having walkie talkies along with no night fighting abilities whatsoever. 

Their spec ops only utilised some better combat gear but again had no night ops equipment 

Compare this to the coalition who's standard Infantry utilised body armour with combat gear, Rifles with options for optics and accessories and ballistic helmets with commanders using digital radios and GPS equipment with options for night vision optics with standard Infantry utilising Walkie talkies. 

Spec ops units utilised Rifles with Illumination sights along with 2nd or 3rd Generation NVGs.  

Their Infantry had very few modern IFVs and APCs. There only modern systems were around 200 export downgraded BMP-2Es that lacked passive night vision and had gunner control panel removed and basic stabilisation installed and had ATGM Launcher removed and export ammunition given (some sources say no APDS-T rounds were given but most likely just steel versions instead of tungsten) 

This was at a time when standard BMP-2 was commonplace and stuff like BMP-3, Type 87 or CV90 was modern with digital ballistic computers, laser rangefinders, 2nd/3rd Generation night vision or thermals and digital systems.

Their frontline IFVs were stuff like BMP-1 and BMD-1 stuff that was advanced in the 60s and modern in the 70s. 

Compare this to the coalition who used stuff like M2 Bradley or Warrior that offered thermals with/or full stabilisation and APDS-T rounds 

Their APCs were okay although they had no modern ones, just half modern ones like BTR-60, BTR-50 and MT-LB. 

Modern APCs at that time would be BTR-70, BTR-60PU and BTR-80 that use digital radios and higher end passive Generation night vision. 

This was compared to coalitions who used M113A3 and AA7 that used digital radios and add-on armour for enhanced protection.

Iraq's Military was crippled by Iran war

Iraq was literally crippled by the Iran war, between 100,000-500,000 Kia and over 400,000 to 900,000 wounded, losing thousands of tanks, IFVs, vehicles, artillery batteries and hundreds of fighters and helicopters, basically all their "advanced stuff" if you could call it that. It also crippled their economy as well, costing over 8 years what is today over a half a trillion dollars and importantly severely weakened Iraq's military capabilities in relation to logistics and navy.

Another thing that isn't brought up was how the country was sanctioned for months prior to the desert storm operation. 

The country was blockaded and under heavy economic sanctions for nearly a year and it didn't have the infrastructure or labour like Ukraine does to self-sustain. 

The coalition also spent numerous MONTHS building its fortifications and had help from the British and French navy.

USA had huge help

USA had huge help from coalition. 

That's right, COALITION, we have no idea how people think the USA is to thank when plenty of others helped. It's also hilarious how people think the gulf war was this lightning fast war, we've had people tell us it was over within 100 hours’ no idea where this comes from. The reality was 6 months of military preparations by 29 countries then around 4 weeks of aerial bombings and SEAD and ~1 week of ground attacks with logistical support from another 33 countries against a country that was already severely weakened by its 8 year war and crippling economic sanctions and whose military was on average 1-2 generations inferior across the board which was followed by a ground invasion which lasted nearly a week. 

We'll go over numbers and how much help they had later but around ⅓ the manpower and military power was foreign countries along with around half the logistical capacity being provided by neighbouring countries. 

Myth that Iraq was using advanced soviet equipment 

Then there's the other myth that Iraq was using the most advanced soviet weapons. Iraq didn't even have CLOSE to the best soviet weaponry lmao their most advanced soviet tank was a T-72, not the T-72A 3rd gen model, the export downgraded 2nd gen T-72M1 that had the same analogue  ballistic computer as the ural model along with 1st gen night vision for the GPS and an unstabilised laser rangefinder. Their most advanced tanks were the 30+ Chieftain MK3s they stole from iran. The USSR premier tanks at that point were 3+ generation T-80U, T-80BV and T-64BV with average being 3rd Generation T-64B, T-72B and T-80B with main reserves made up of 2nd Gen T-62MV, T-55MV, T-64A, T-72 and T-72A with a bulk of storage made up of 1st gen Gen T-62, T-54A and T-55A

Iraq's most ADVANCED air defence systems were 2nd Gen SAM systems like Osa-AK and Kub. At a time when 3rd Gen systems like S-300, Tor and Buk had been out for 10-20 years and there most advanced ATGMs (in very small numbers) were production 9P135 Fagot Launchers with 9M111 guided Missle from early 70s at a time when 9P135M2 launcher and 9M111-2  was frontline in soviet army and the MILAN as for Iraq there frontline ATGM was the MCLOS Malyutka, we shouldn't need to tell you how ridiculous that is if you understand military matters and we only send these essays to people who are talking about such things. As for IFVs, Iraq only had 1st gen BMP-1s with some export downgraded BMP-2s, whilst Russia had 2nd gen BMP-2 and BMD-2s all in large numbers and had 3rd gen BMP-3 and BMD-3 for 6 years, and as for aircraft, even worse, Iraq's ONLY HALF modern soviet fighter aircraft, was the ~100 export downgraded 3+ Gen MiG-29-12B, MiG-25PD and MiG-23ML they had, when at this point Soviets had just fielded there first 4+ gen fighters (similar to F/A-18C, F-16C, F-15E or F-14D) with the Su-27M, Su-30, MiG-31M and MiG-29S and had base 4th Generation for around a decade with MiG-31, MiG-29A, MiG-23MLD and Su-27S and had 3+ for nearly two decades with MiG-25PD, MiG-23M, Su-15T and Tu-128M. 

For context, half of the Iraqi fighters were just useless whilst the other 40% were slightly less useless with the remaining 10% partially capable. 

The only area they had that was quite modern was their attack aircraft and some air to ground missiles with Kh-58 and Kh-29, although they had very few of them and iraq's air force was destroyed before coalition Ground ops began so it was irrelevant. 

Here is a chart of 4 criteria. First will be the most advanced system used by Soviets, second will be stuff that's modern and common and third will be advanced stuff used by Iraq and lastly fourth will be common stuff used by Iraq. We will do this for tanks, IFVs, attack aircraft, fighter jets and air defence systems. 

We will also use a comparison to the USA to see what peer Generation is along with dates. 

Fighter Jets 

USSR Advanced: Su-27M, Su-30, Su-32, MiG-31M, MiG-29KVP and MiG-29M

USA equivalents: F-14D, F-15E, F-16C and F/A-18C 

USSR Frontline: Su-27S, MiG-23MLD, MiG-29A and MiG-31

USA Equivalents: F-15C, F-14A, F-4S and F-16A

Iraq Advanced: MiG-29-12B, MiG-25PD and MiG-23ML

USA Equivalents:  F-5E and F-4J 

Iraq Frontline: MiG-21bis and MiG-23MF

USA Equivalents: F-4E and F-104J

Attack Aircraft 

USSR Advanced: Su-24M, Ka-50, Mi-28 and Su-25T

USA equivalents: AH-64, AV-8B, A-10B and F-111F CASU

USSR Frontline: Su-17M4, MiG-27K, Su-24, Su-25 and Mi-24V

USA Equivalents: AV-8C, AH-1S, F-111F and A-10A

Iraq Advanced: Su-22M4, Su-24MK and Su-25K

USA Equivalents: F-111F and A-10A

Iraq Frontline: Su-22M2, Su-7BMK and Mi-25

USA Equivalents: A-4G, A-7 and AH-1

Tanks 

USSR Advanced: T-90 and T-80UK

USA equivalents: M1A2 Abrams 

USSR Frontline: T-80U, T-80BV, T-72B and T-64BV 

USA Equivalents: M1A1 Abrams, M1 Abrams and M60A3 

Iraq Advanced: T-72M1 and Type 69-IIQM

USA Equivalents: M60A2

Iraq Frontline: T-72M, T-55B, T-54A, T-62 and Type 59

USA Equivalents: M48A5 and M60A1

IFVs 

USSR Advanced: BRM-3K, BMP-3 and BMD-3 

USA equivalents: M2A2-ODS Bradley 

USSR Frontline: BRM-1K, BMP-1P, BMD-1P, BMP-2 and BMD-2 

USA Equivalents: M2 Bradley and LAV-25

Iraq Advanced: BMP-2E 

USA Equivalents: AIFV

Iraq Frontline: BMP-1 and BMD-1

USA Equivalents: None 

Air Defence Systems 

USSR Advanced: S-300PM, S-300FM, Buk-M1 and Tor-M

USA equivalents: Patriot PAC-2 

USSR Frontline: S-300P, Buk and Tor

USA Equivalents: Patriot, RIM-66C, RIM-67 and HAWK-III 

Iraq Advanced: Kub and Osa

USA Equivalents: Hawk-I

Iraq Frontline: S-125 and S-75

USA Equivalents: Bomarc and Ajax

Artillery 

USSR Frontline: 2S3M1, 2S7M, 2S19 and A-222

USA equivalents: M109A6

Iraq Advanced: AMX-30 AuF1*

USA Equivalents:  M109A5

Iraq Frontline: 2S1 and 2S3

USA Equivalents: M109

SPAAGs 

USSR Advanced: Tunguska-M 

USA equivalents:  None

USSR Frontline: Tunguska and ZSU-23-4M3 

USA Equivalents: M246, M247 and M163A3

Iraq Advanced: ZSU-23-4 

USA Equivalents: M163

Iraq Frontline: ZSU-57-2

USA Equivalents: M42

VSHORADs 

USSR Advanced: Igla-M, 2K22, Kortik and Strela-10M4 

USA equivalents: Stinger C, AN/TWQ-1 and Chaparral G 

USSR Frontline: Igla and Strela-10M3

USA Equivalents: Stinger B and Chaparral C 

Iraq Advanced: Igla-1E, Strela-10 and Roland

USA Equivalents: Stinger A, Redeye II and Chaparral C 

Iraq Frontline: Strela-1 and Strela-2

USA Equivalents: Chaparral and Redeye 

ATGMs 

USSR Advanced: Kornet, Metis-M, Fagot-M and Konkurs-M 

USA equivalents: TOW-2A and TOW-2B

USSR Frontline: Fagot, Konkurs and Metis

USA Equivalents: TOW

Iraq Advanced: Fagot 

USA Equivalents:  TOW

Iraq Frontline: Malyutka 

USA Equivalents: MGM-21A 

Numbers

Let's go over what each side had shall we. 

Coalition

Land Force

Troops 951,340

Support ~200,000

3+ Gen Tanks ~3,000

3rd Gen Tanks 1,200

2nd Gen Tank ~500

2nd Gen IFVs ~3,100

1st Gen IFVs ~200

APCs ~2,000

2nd Gen Artillery ~400

3rd Gen SPAGs ~200

2nd Gen MLRS ~100

3rd Gen Manpads ~20,000

2nd Gen Manpads ~2,000

2/3rd Gen ATGMs ~30,000

3rd Gen LR SAM Launchers ~400

3rd Gen MR SAM Launchers ~200

3rd Gen VSHORADs ~400

3rd Gen Towed AA Guns ~400

4th Gen Towed AA Guns ~800

4th Gen SPAAGs ~80

3rd Gen SPAAGs ~300

Air Force 

4+ Gen Fighters 625

4th Gen Fighters 707

3rd Gen Fighters 76

4th Gen Attack Aircraft 403

3rd Gen Attack Aircraft 260

2nd Gen AEW&C Aircraft 40

2nd Gen AGS Aircraft 7

2nd Gen Strategic Bombers 44

Recon Aircraft 100

CC3 Aircraft 10

2nd Gen EW Aircraft 98

Aerial Refuelling Tankers 278

3/4th Gen Transports 174

2/3rd Gen Helicopters 1,094

UAVs ~500

Navy

Aircraft Carriers 15

Amphibious Ships 29

Amphibious Craft 77

Battleships 2

Cruisers 17

Destroyers 22

Frigates 17

Corvettes 26

Mine Ships 7

Submarines 4

Iraq 

Land Force 

Troops ~1,000,000

WWII Tanks 100

1st Gen Tanks 3,500

2nd Gen Tanks 2,130

1st Gen ISVs 100

2nd Gen ISVs 520

3rd Gen ISVs 200

1st Gen IFVs 1,120

2nd Gen IFVs 290

1st Gen ATGM Carriers 200

2nd Gen APCs 2,100

1st Gen APCs 700

3rd Gen SPAGs 380

1st Gen Towed Artillery 1,600

2nd Gen Towed Artillery 1,290

1st Gen AT Guns 700

2nd Gen AT Guns 200

1st Gen MLRS 360

2nd Gen MLRS 430

Unguided Rocket Launchers 36

2nd Gen SR BM Launchers 36

2nd Gen MR BM Launchers 110

2nd Gen SR CM Launchers 30

2nd Gen VSHORADs 339

1st Gen VSHORADs 400

2nd Gen SR SAM Launchers 193

2nd Gen MR SAM Launchers 350

1st Gen MR SAM Launchers 180

3rd Gen Towed AA Guns 3,000

2nd Gen Towed AA Guns 4,000

2nd Gen SPAAGs 200

3rd Gen SPAAGs 100

1st Gen Manpads 7,000

2nd Gen Manpads 2,300

1st Gen ATGMs 10,000

2nd Gen ATGMs 2,300

Air Force 

2nd Gen Strategic Bombers 21

1st Gen Supersonic Bombers 10

Recon Aircraft 9

2nd Gen Fighter Jets 236

3rd Gen Fighter Jets 360

4th Gen Attack Aircraft 130

3rd Gen Attack Aircraft 335

2nd Gen Attack Aircraft 101

1st Gen Attack Aircraft 20

1st Gen Helicopters 100

2nd Gen Helicopters 215

3rd Gen Helicopters 101

Navy

Amphibious Landing Ship 1

Minesweepers 5

Torpedo Boats 5

Guided Missile Boats 6

Let's do a comparison between what Russia used for its initial invasion in 2022 

Russia and DPR & LPR 🇷🇺

Land Force 

Troops ~190,000

3.5 Gen Tanks ~500

3+ Gen Tanks ~1000

3rd Gen Tanks ~3000

4th Gen IFVs ~500

2nd Gen IFVs ~2000

1st Gen IFVs ~1000

3rd Gen APCs ~500

2nd Gen APCs ~2000

3rd Gen VSHORADs ~200

2nd Gen VSHORADs ~300

4th Gen SAMs ~300

3rd Gen SAMs ~800

5th Gen SPAGs ~500

4th Gen SPAGs ~500

2nd Gen Towed Artillery ~2000

4th Gen SR BM Launchers ~50

2nd Gen GMLRS ~100

3rd Gen MLRS ~200

2nd Gen MLRS ~400

5th Gen SPAAGs ~100

4th Gen SPAAGs ~300

3rd Gen ATGMS ~10,000

2nd Gen ATGMs ~50,000

4th Gen Manpads ~1000

3rd Gen Manpads ~20,000

Air Force 

4.5 Gen Fighters ~300

4+ Gen Fighters ~200

5th Gen Attack Aircraft ~400

4th Gen Attack Aircraft ~300

2nd Gen Supersonic Bombers ~30

3rd Gen Strategic Bombers ~20

2nd Gen AEW&C Aircraft ~5

2nd Gen AGS Aircraft ~60

3rd Gen EW Aircraft ~100

2nd Gen EW Aircraft ~100

UCAVs ~100

UAVs ~300

Navy 

Amphibious Ships 6

Cruiser 1

Destroyers 5

Frigates 5

Corvettes 18

Submarine 7

Ukraine 🇺🇦 

These two campaigns are not comparable in the slightest. 

Then in 2003 after Iraq was crippled by gulf war, Second gulf war is even more laughable as Iraq was absolutely crippled with little to no air defence capabilities and military power with no air power, literally 8/10 of all Saddam's military forces surrendered and even still took over a month even though it was the US, UK, Australia and Poland supported by many countries.

Then there was Afghanistan a country that didn't even have a navy or air force and had more or less a militia with few vehicles, was attacked by US, UK Canada, Germany, Italy and New Zealand with Logistical help from 46 countries, or even the two wars that ended US lost and got beat, Vietnam US had help from Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand, South Korea and South Vietnam with logistical help from Cambodia and Laos and finally the Korean war were the UN comprised of USA, UK, Canada, Turkey, Australia, Philippines, New Zealand, Thailand, Ethiopia, Greece, France, Colombia, Belgium, South Africa, Netherlands and Luxembourg with logistical help from Sweden, India, Denmark, Norway, Italy, West Germany, Israel, Taiwan, Japan, Pakistan, Uruguay, El Salvador, Spain and Yugoslavia, even WWII the US never fought alone with majority of the fighting done in Europe by USSR and majority of fighting done in west Africa by Britain, even the Pacific campaign of WWII against Japanese the US had help from UK, China, Netherlands, British India and USSR and WWI was mostly won by Britain, France and Russia with USA joining in last year when Germany was losing and Austria Hungary was crippled.

Later in this essay we will go over the details on Iraq's total hypothetical Military capabilities and its comparison to Ukraine (ie. What they used during the Iran war so what their total military capabilities were compared to Ukraine total military capabilities between 2014 and 2024) you'll understand why they were NOT the 4th most powerful military in 1990.

Ukraine is vastly vastly superior military than Iraq, Literally most of Iraq's 5,000 tanks were interwar T-54, Type 59 and Type 69s, Christ they even had WWII tanks lmao whilst Ukraine had ~2,000 3rd and 3+ gen and ~1,000 2nd Gen Tanks in total. not too mention that most of Iraq's equipment was WWII to Vietnam war era stuff whilst much of Ukraine was more modern with BARSS-8, 2S22, 2S19, OTR-21, TOS-1, BM-27 and BM-30 self propelled artillery and MLRS batteries, iraq aldo had no advanced Self Propelled Artillery guns where as Ukraine had over 400 and this isn't including the ~$150 billion in military aid post 2022.

But honestly it's ridiculous when people compare Iraq to Ukraine, despite the fact that coalition attacked with a near 1-1 manpower ratio compared to Russia 1-2 and not ignoring the massive amount of equipment used and the massive inferiority in equipment of Iraq compared to Ukraine, Iraq's military was outdated, their most advanced soviet weapons were 37 MiG-29s (downgraded export model) and ~100 Igla-1Es they had left after Iran war, their so called "top soviet tank" the T-72M1 was a downgraded export variant of the T-72A with inferior fire control systems (even then most of their T-72s were T-72M an export downgraded T-72A) and even by then the T-72A was already replaced by  upgraded variant with T-72BV nearly a decade prior, in fact the M1 Abrams has NEVER faced a peer tank, (until Ukraine) meaning it's never faced another 3rd Generation tank heck it's never even faced a modern generation ATGM. The toughest tank the Abrams has faced was a 1st (1st downgraded to inter Gen) gen T-72M1, and yet this outdated tank with no digital ballistic computer, only 1st Gen night vision and steel APFSDS rounds and basic vacuum tube electronics and yet it managed to punch holes in several M1A1 Abrams like bravo 23, but of course the army claims "nOnE wErE dEsTrOyED bY eNeMy fIrE iT wAs fRiEnDlY fIRe'' can you imagine if Russia tried to say that nonsense about losing a T-90M to a T-64BV, oh wait russian propagandists did when they lost a A-50U to a Ukrainian S-200, and the media mocked them for it, or if it was friendly fire it would have been twisted as incompetence.

Yet groups like Forbes, Lexington Institute, Real Clear Defence, National Interest, Warrior Maven, PartyYard Military, and Defense Express all say the M1A2 Abrams SepV3 are the best tanks in the world, despite the fact that tanks like Leclerc XLR, T-14 Armata and Leopard 2A8 are more advanced and all have clear advantages in armour, technology, firepower, range, computers etc. numerous tanks are equal including for SepV2 the Leopard 2A6HEL, Leclerc SXXI, Type 96A, Type 99, Arjurn, T-80BVM-23 and T-72B3M and the SepV3 with Leopard 2A7+, Leopard 2PL, K2, T-90M, Type 10, Type 96B and Type 99A.

The most ridiculous laughable one was Warrior Maven, saying the 4th gen M1A2 Abrams SepV4 is better than Russia 4+ Gen T-14 Armata where they have two paragraphs talking about Armata and about 20 talking mostly about Abrams X and hypothetical SepV5. That absolute ridiculousness aside, they UNIRONICALLY said "tHe mErE pReSenCe oF tHe AbRaMS iS eNOuGh tO aCt aS a dETeRrAnT'' no doubt this is from gulf war when many Iraqi soldiers fled or surrendered, because 

1. Their army was mostly fresh draftees as up to half a million had died during the Iran war. 

2. Iraqi air power and army had just been decimated for 5 weeks by numerous countries. 

3. When you are very poorly trained and just want to go home or have experienced nearly a decade of brutal war that you just want to end and 

4. When your military is mostly made up of WWII to Vietnam war era equipment and 80% of your tanks are early Gen T-55s, Type 59s and T-62s that can't even pierce the Challenger 1s and M1A1 Abrams at a reasonable distance and have far less range than even AMX-30B2, M60A3 and even the goddamn Chieftain MK-5s.

Numbers Game

Another thing that isn't brought up is how in the vast majority of its wars, the US always has substantial help in both military and logistical capacity. 

Vietnam war

USA total 2,709,918

USA peak 543,000

South Vietnam total 2,350,000

South Vietnam peak 1,500,000

South Korea total 320,000

Khmer Republic total 200,000

Laos total 72,000

Thailand Total 256,000

Australia total 50,190

Australia peak 8,300

New Zealand total 552

Philippines 2,061

USA total 2,709,918

Allies total 3,259,103

Korean War

Totals

USA 1,789,000

South Korea 1,300,000

UN Coalition 168,174

US total 1,789,000

Allies Total 1,468,174

Peaks

USA 326,863

South Korea 602,902

UN Coalition 42,601

US Peak total 326,863

Allies Peak Total 645,503

Including coalition naval forces 

2003 Iraq War 

USA total 466,985

Allies total 117,194

Including royal navy warships and carriers 

Afghanistan War

USA 5,500

Allies 15,000-20,000

Gulf War

Allied Military Personal

Argentina 500

Bangladesh 2,300

Bahrain 400

Belgium 400

Czechoslovakia 200

Denmark 100

Egypt 35,000

France 20,000

Honduras 150

Italy 1,950

Kuwait 9,900

Morocco 13,000

New Zealand 100

Niger 680

Norway 280

Oman 6,300

Pakistan 4,900

Philippines 200

Poland 310

Qatar 2,600

Romania 360

Saudi Arabia 80,000

Singapore 990

Sengal 500

Spain 500

Syria 14,500

Sweden 520

United Arab Emirates 4,300

United Kingdom 53,400

US Total 697,000

Allies Total 254,340

Since so many people these days are mocking Russia, let's compare it with Russia's wars.

Georgian War

Russia 70,000

South Ossetia & Abkhazia 4,000

1st Chechnyan War

Russia 110,000

2nd Chechnyan War

Russia 80,000

Russo-Ukrainian War 2022

Russia 150,000

Ukraine 40,000

Russia-Ukrainian War Total 

Russia 600,000

Ukraine 100,000

North Korea 10,000

Foreign and Mercenary 150,000

Dagestan War

Russia 17,000

Notice the difference, these are also just fighters, all the military equipment and logistics was provided by Russia.

You want to know the only Countries the US has beaten on its own or did the vast majority of fighting and logistics (at least ¾) in the age of industrial Warfare ? (1900s+)

Panama

Nicaragua

Dominican Republic 

Haiti

Grenada

That's it, 5 countries, so we don't understand what accomplishments people speak of, so let's look at a few of the modern wars the US has been in and how much help they had in the next chapter.

Afghanistan war and comparisons between American and Soviet campaigns

How about Afghanistan ? We are told that the USA crushed the Taliban within weeks. We'll yeah that's true, the US handled it as well as they could have in my opinion but let's compare it to how the Soviets did. You ask Americans you get three responses.

1. “The Soviets got wrecked”

No they didn't, they suffered around the same casualties as the USA and allies, the biggest difference was the USSR and Afghanistan had more men fighting as they were fighting US armed and trained mujahideen and they managed to kill double the amount of men that they lost whilst US and allies lost more men than Taliban.

2. “The Soviets fled with their tails tucked between their legs”

No they didn't, DRA and soviet control was never seriously contested, Soviets began withdrawing in 88 and DRA lasted for over 3 years and only collapsed after the USSR collapsed and aid stopped in 1991.

3. “The Soviets committed some of the worst crimes”

It's true that the Soviets and DRA committed crimes but I guarantee it's nowhere close to the cartoonish levels that is spewed by liberals, I mean they are now unironically trying to say the death toll was around 3 million, which was over 20% of Afghanistan's population, there is no way such a thing could be hidden, also the fact that all the so called evidence for these claims comes from Western organisations, like Human Rights Watch, after the collapse of the USSR, actual declassified estimates from the Soviets themselves were around 1m and remember this is from both sides, people forget this, the Mujahideen were brutal islamic extremists, who wiped out entire villages for harbouring a single socialist, think Taliban and ISIS, then you had the DRA who launched similar strikes and the Soviet air force that led large bombing campaigns, it was a proxy insurgency war.

The USSR and DRA actually won the war, the DRA did indeed outlast the USSR on their own by 3 years, the remaining Mujahideen took an isolated and weak government that already collapsed when they reached Kabul in 1994, which is why they didn't last against the splinter faction that emerged as the Taliban, they went further to Tajikistan just to suffer a humiliating defeat in the hands of Tajiki and Kazak forces, still the overall mood was that the USSR perform badly or lost, militarily speaking? Nope, they didn't in any way, but one thing could be considered as a loss which is that the conflict shouldn't exist to begin with, the only reason why it came to be is because of Soviet hardline religion terms.

Also it needs to be remembered that the mujahideen was not only funded, armed and trained by the USA (with advanced weapons like Stinger B) but also armed, trained and assisted by Pakistani forces as well, combine this with US and western special forces helping out and you can see how it was a tough fight and yet they never posed a serious threat (territory wise).

Something that's not well mentioned about that war is the Chinese part, they actually sold weapons to the Mujahideen via US and Saudi Arabia, the Stinger stuff was mostly propaganda although they received a lot of them, but other artillery stuff and small arms is considerably problematic, which was indeed used against the US (during 2001) and by that time some US outlets accused China to outsource weapons to the Taliban, but they just forgot to mention that it was an US investment to begin with, curiously not the only instance, the Sino-Vietnam war and subsequent Cambodia Civil War had similar ties between Beijing and Washington, another thing people forget is how hostile China was to the Post stalin soviet union.

The thing is the Soviets were indecisive and uneasy about entering Afghanistan to help the communists there whereas the United States with Vietnam was adamant about tearing down the Viet Cong through many violent means. To bring this back to a trope , the Soviets were not as eager to spread communism as it is portrayed by many Western narratives through their actions and events in foreign policies. For instance, during the early Cold War, the Soviets could have easily supported prominent communist forces in Greece, Italy, and to a certain extent France to spread it but they did not due to their experience and the aftermath of WW2. We mention this because it's important to counter this prevalent narrative of the Cold War since oftentimes people are under the idea that it was the Soviets behind the DPRK in Korea, The Cuban Revolution, the Vietcong in Vietnam, Sandinistas in Nicaragua, etc.

But yes the Soviets committed Atrocities, there is no excuse or justification for this, the difference is that the US was fighting in 2001 because they supported the mujahideen, which had the same ideologues as in the Taliban including bin laden, who in turn had ties with Al-Qaeda who attacked US because of their support of Israel and their systemic oppression and slaughter of Palestinians and because of the atrocities committed during gulf war and strikes against Iraq. The Soviets entered because the US funded and armed islamic extremists to fight the secular government purely because they had ties to the Soviets and were socialist. If the US had never funded, trained and armed the Islamists then there would have been no need for soviet intervention in the first place.

The soviet union invaded Afghanistan at the invitation of the socialist government to help crush the islamic extremists known as the mujahideen, who wanted to create an Islamic emirate, the Soviets within weeks secured the major population centres of the country that the DRA held and held it securely until they left, they did however fail to defeat the mujahideen as they hid in their mountains and Pakistan. The mujahideen fought an excellent guerilla war campaign against the Soviets however they failed to take back any ground, with the arrival of Manpads from USA, they did become a thorn in soviet and DRA helicopters and with US aid and training in mid 80s mujahideen did capture some villages although nothing major and not for long until DRA or Soviets regained controlled.

The USSR chose to leave Afghanistan likely due to the appointment of Gorbachev as soviet leader in 1985 as he thought they were not needed. However Declining economic conditions in the USSR by 1988, fueled by the war, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, having to fund numerous socialist countries defence's to safeguard against US attack after US invasion of Grenada, high defence spending due to Reagan's rampant anti soviet push and the fact that the DRA (Democratic Republic of Afghanistan) was well trained and equipped to deal with the Mujahideen were likely contributing factors.

The mujahideen failed to make any significant gains, the Battle of Jalalabad in 1989 by the US trained and equipped mujahideen and Pakistan with help from the CIA, attempted an offensive, they likely thought that the DRA would be easy pickings but their offensive on the city of Jalalabad was a massive failure. Afterwards it was just a light insurgency started.

The DRA did not collapse until after the USSR collapsed, 3 years after the soviets left. In-between this time the mujahideen failed to make any serious gains and fought a basic insurgency war although could never actually make pushes. 

Compare this to the USA, who invaded Afghanistan to deal with the Taliban (who exist thanks to the USA) they secured all of the major population centres within weeks but like the USSR they failed to defeat the Taliban. 

Both conflicts were pretty similar, both Soviets and Americans committed many war crimes and led large bombing strikes and drone strikes that killed many civilians and destroyed infrastructure, both countries easily secured and held the country. Although the Soviets fought a more protracted conflict due to the fact the mujahideen was armed and trained by US and Pakistan. Lastly, both countries had a rough withdrawal. 

The biggest difference was that US equipped and trained Afghan forces began losing as soon as USA withdrawal began, Kabul and the government of Afghanistan collapsed two weeks before the USA had even fully left.

The fact that DRA lasted and fought against mujahideen for 3 years on their own shows it's not just "Afghans are not fighters” but likely a combination of bad doctrine, sub par training and poor supplies, you'd think the USA would have learned after Vietnam.

Soviet Afghan War

1984 Peak Soldiers ~800,000

Total soldiers ~900,000-1,100,000

DRA Losses ~72,000-100,000

Mujahideen & Allies Losses ~162,000-200,000

USSR lost ~14,000-23,000

2001 Afghan war

2012 Peak Soldiers ~600,000 

Total soldiers ~600,000-800,000

Taliban & allies losses ~57,000-70,000

ANSF Forces losses ~66,000-90,000

Coalition Losses ~3,579

Mercenaries Losses ~4,000

Operation Praying Mantis, The Grenada War & Its comparison to the Russo-Georgian War.

Let's compare the Georgia military war and the Grenada war, since Russia beat Georgia in 5 days and it took the USA 4 days to beat Grenada and the operation praying mantis, for some unknown reason  Americans think it's worth bragging about.

The Georgian war happened for many reasons, there are 4  primary reasons.

1. The fear of NATO expansion as the new Georgian government was getting very close to NATO, might I remind you the whole point of NATO is to be against Russia, we all remember how the USA treated Cuba and Grenada when pro Soviet influences close to their borders popped up.

2. Ethnic tensions in south Ossetia, there is too much history to go over but basically, fallout from the Abkhazia conflict caused tensions between the ethnic populations in those regions and Georgins, possibly emboldened by possibility of NATO membership attacks between the two became frequent.

3. Russia feared Georgia joining NATO, people will say “this is unfounded because it takes a long time to join NATO with many checks and balances''. Was this like how NATO is supposed to be a defensive alliance yet has attacked numerous countries who posed no threat to Europe or America whatsoever, there's also Ukraine, NATO has said they can join despite being war torn with their civil war and the highest levels of corruption in Europe. Now, many people will straw man this point, no Russia has no problem with NATO itself, BUT when a country is at conflict with ethnic russians or pro Russia people, this is a problem because if that country joined NATO, they could do whatever they wanted and Russia couldn't do ANYTHING without triggering article 5 along with the fact if Ukraine joined NATO they could place Short Range missiles in strike distance of Moscow

4. Russia wanted control of the region, Russian bootlickers will deny this but Russia has its own strategic objectives as any country, they're not as imperialist as the US , not in the slightest but that doesn't change the fact they have their own goals.

Leftists should never forget that whilst the US, EU and UK are the primary enemies of the world, Russia, China and Iran are only lesser of evils. They are not forces of good in this world, merely less bad than the western capitalist system.

Georgian War

Area Taken by Russia 12,565m²

Population 272,500

Georgia

30,000 Troops 180KIA & 1,224WIA

270 Tanks 44 lost

460 AFVs 34 lost

60 MLRS 4 lost

100 SPA 9 lost 

150 Howitzers 25 lost

50 SAMs 9 lost

340 AA Guns 6 lost

74 CAS Aircraft 6 lost

29 Helicopters 5 lost

1 Missile Corvette lost

2 Torpedo Corvettes 1 lost 

2 Missile Boats 1 lost

1 Mine Ship 1 lost

18 Gun Boats 4 lost

Russia & Allies

80,000 Troops 170KIA (64x Russian) & 399WIA

400 Tanks 4 lost 

600 AFVs 29 lost

80 MLRS 

120 SPA 1 lost

40 SAMs

60 AA Guns

90 Howitzers 

30 Fighters 

80 CAS Aircraft 7 lost

10 Recon Aircraft

2 AEW&C Aircraft 

3 Bombers 1 lost

40 Helicopters 2 lost

10 UAVs 

1 Missile Cruiser

1 Air Defence Cruiser 

2 Missile Corvettes 

1 Torpedo Corvette

2 Amphibious Landing Ships

1 Attack Submarine 

Grenada War

Area Taken by US 348km²

Population 98,177

United States

7,653 Troops 19KIA & 152WIA

4 Tanks 

27 Fighters 

4 Electronic Warfare Aircraft

4 AEW&C Aircraft 

2 Transports

46 Helicopters 8 lost

13 Attack Helicopters 1 lost

50 CAS Aircraft 

1 Fleet Carrier

2 Helicopter Carriers

1 Missile Cruiser 

5 Missile Cruisers 

3 Attack Destroyers

5 Missile Frigates

2 Gun Boats

2 Attack Submarines

Grenada

2,084 Troops 45KIA & 358WIA

12 APCS

2 Armoured Vehicles 

24 AA Guns

It took the USA 4 days at a 3-1 man advantage, 21-0 naval advantage and 146-0 aircraft advantage, to defeat an enemy that didn't even have surface to air missile system or a navy or air force and Russia beat Georgia in 5 days at a 2.5-1 man advantage, 1-1 equipment, 2-1 air force advantage and 2-1 naval advantage and took an area 36x the size of Grenada in roughly the same time and lost about the same aircraft even though Georgia had modern air defence systems and Grenada only had AA guns and to put it into comparison Russia captured 7x Grenada's in a single day against a far superior opponent, and people have the Gaul to mock russia for Chechnya.

People will say “that was an island and Georgia is next door” my friend you are fighting a country that doesn't have a tank or a SAM system and has virtually no night fighting abilities, Mercenaries in speed boats at night could have done the job, there's a REASON why the Grenada campaign isn't brought up by US fanboys and the fact that it was the prime reason why new legislation was pushed because of the sheer incompetence of the different military branches trying to work together, this campaign and operation eagle claw are prime examples of it.

Honestly the Georgian war was a textbook perfect operation, securing their objectives within days and with minimal losses. Don't tell that to the IISS who thought that securing over 10k km² in less than a week with less than 50 pieces of equipment destroyed and less than 200 Fatalities showed deficiencies. Their reasoning? 

Said they didn't attack at night or did major SEAD, basically saying “you didn't do what the US does therefore it's bad” it also ignores the fact that unlike Iraq Georgia had pretty good night fighting capability (many of their soldiers had 2nd gen NVGs and their tanks had 3rd gen night vision or 1st Gen Thermals) and it ignores that the majority of the fighters Russia lost where due to Manpads which again unlike iraqs were all aspect tracking. It also forgets that Georgia didn't have many SAMs in that area anyway and most were just extended point defence systems like Buk, they would have lost more aircraft than they did had they wasted time engaging in SEAD. It's especially dumb because Russia did engage in SEAD early on to target the Buk systems in the area with Kh-58s and Kh-31Ps Fired from Su-24M2s, Georgia simply withdrew the rest of them and there was no need to engage further as Russia had no plans of invading further. 

Russia doesn't do what the US does. Their doctrine still revolves around the Soviet Army doctrine of focusing on a large area with large mechanised pushes supported by attack aircraft and covered by fighters and SAMs and assisted by large amounts of artillery with heavy emphasis on infantry assault squads. 

The US prefers to achieve total air supremacy against an opponent whilst soviet doctrine emphasises localised air superiority in whatever area their forces are in. 

In our view US doctrine is not suitable for peer or even near peer warfare because whilst achieving air supremacy is easy against countries like Iraq who have no large scale C2 Integration, no proper area defence systems and obsolete air defence systems, it is not as easy to gain it against countries that have these. 

But tbh we are not surprised, the IISS have proven themselves to be a propagandist institution for example arbitrarily changing stocks based on political will 

Like how in the 2021 and 2022 editions China had large SPAG and MLRS stocks yet in the 2024 edition they have reduced when there has been absolutely no indication of such things and these were modern systems as well so there is no reason why they would be removed.

Lastly saying Russia doesn't have air superiority and their reasoning being they don't control the skies or fly over Ukraine when. 

1. Air superiority (by NATO definition) is determined by a degree of dominance in the air not total control 

2. Video evidence clearly shows Russian aircraft over Ukraine.

Operation Praying Mantis

So let's talk about the mighty operation praying mantis, were the USN EASILY defeated the Iranian navy, it's often brought up to show just how bad ass the US navy is and is often unironically used to justify why the USA is "the only navy with modern naval warfare experience"

But does reality really back this idea ? Let's look at what they had 

Weapons Systems are per ship.

              Iran 

2 Saam class Corvettes (1,100 tons)

4x Long Range ASM Launchers 

1x 114mm Gun

4x 20-30mm Autocannons 

6x 324mm Torpedo Tubes 

3x ASW Tubes

2x 12.7mm Machine Guns 

6 Taregh-class Speedboats (7 tons)

3x 12.7mm Machine Guns

1x 106mm Gun

12x 107mm MLRS Tubes

1 Kaman class Assault Boat (275 tons)

4x Long Range ASM Launchers 

1x 40mm Autocannon

1x 76mm Gun

United States

1 Enterprise Fleet Carrier (94,781 tons)

90x Fighter jets 

66x Short Range SAM Launchers 

3x Phalanx CIWS

1 Austin Transport Ship (7,969 tons)

6x Rotorcraft

12x 12.7mm Machine Guns

1 Belknap-class Cruiser (8,659 tons)

1x 130mm Gun

48x Long Range ASMs

20× ASW Missiles 

4x 314 mm Torpedo Tubes 

2x Phalanx CIWS

1x Rotorcraft 

4 Spruance Light Cruisers (8,040 tons)

2x 127mm Guns

2x Phalanx CIWS

32x ASW Missiles 

8x Short Range SAMs 

6x 324mm Torpedoes 

2x Rotorcraft 

3 Hazard Perry Destroyers (4,200 tons)

20x Long Range SAMs

20× long range ASMs 

1x 25mm Autocannon 

1x 76mm Gun

6x light Torpedoes 

1x Phalanx CIWS

2x Rotorcraft 

Iran lost 1 Corvette, 3 speedboats and a gunboat and a fighter jet (1 of 2) 

The USA lost a helicopter Gunship.

The fact people say this is proof of anything is astonishing, the fact they lost a helicopter when they had a 62-1 tonnage advantage, 11-1 anti ship missile advantage, 54-1 aircraft advantage, 3-1 Torpedo advantage, 5-1 ASW advantage, 

Iran's advantages only being 7-1 advantage in guns (only because I'm trying to be nice and counting Iran's unguided short range rockets even though they don't have half the range), 2-1 advantage in machine guns and 3-1 in Autocannons not that it would matter much when USA have 16 CIWS C-RAMs and 98 SAMs for taking out projectiles.

The carrier on Its own launching a few fighters could have beaten what iran had, a single Hazard perry could have. 

The fact people brag about this is ridiculous, Iran lost a single major ship at a ridiculously goofy disadvantage, Russia wrecked several major warships in the Georgian war in a day yet it doesn't get used as proof they can handle modern naval warfare.

Second World War and the Myth of Lend Lease and the Myth of Soviet Inferiority in Equipment.

Let's debunk another one shall we "we saved Europe in WWII and without lend lease USSR would have fell" lol no 

Lend lease delivered to USSR

Year      Tonnage             Percent

1941 360,778 2.1%

1942 2,453,097 14%

1943 4,794,545 27.4%

1944      6,217,622 35.5%

1945      3,673,819  21%

USSR made

Tanks 80-90%

Armoured Vehicles 70-90%

Fighters and bombers 70-80%

Small arms 70-90%

Artillery 80-90%

Ammunition 60-80%

Shells 70-90%

Trucks 60-70%

Railway 15-40%

Agriculture 40-60%

Raw materials 60-90%

Fuels 50-70%

Total USSR production for 1941 to 1945 by lend lease was around ~10-30% (remember this is just 41-45 not including production for the pre war years or 39-40)

Lend-Lease contributed to the Allied victory. Even after the United States forces in Europe and the Pacific began to attain full strength during 1943–1944, Lend-Lease continued. Most remaining Allies were LARGELY SELF-SUFFICIENT in frontline equipment (such as tanks and fighter aircraft) by this time but Lend-Lease provided a useful supplement in this category and Lend-Lease logistical supplies (including motor vehicles and railroad equipment) were of enormous assistance

The USSR stopped German advance in in 41 and this was when the amount of lend lease supplies given was just at 1% then in 42 it rose to 14%, so by the time the majority of the supplies were arriving the USSR already had Germany on the Backfoot, as for allied bombing and air campaigns, turning point in the bomber offensive was reached in March 1943 with major effectiveness resulting in reduced oil and armaments production reached in spring 44 as the USSR was pushing Germany back for 1-2 years at that point, so by the time British and American bombings had any real effect (seriously affecting manufacturing and logistics) in march 43, the USSR had in what historians consider, the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany in Europe after victory at Stalingrad in Feb 43 and this was a whole year before British and American bombings began to actually cripple German war production

So let's put this idea to the test "without lend lease the USSR would have failed" okay so the USSR stopped the German advance towards Moscow in 41, by that time only 1% of lend lease had been given, in February 43 the Soviets turned the tide and began pushing Germany back after winning at Stalingrad, so we are too believe that it was because of lend lease that the Soviets won when they started pushing Germany back at a time when they only had around 16% of lend lease, which again itself (at 100%) was only around 10-30% of total USSR production so you're trying to tell us that extra ~1-4% boost in production saved the Soviets, yeah calling absolute nonsense.

Lend lease helped no doubt but there is absolutely no basis in reality to suggest that the Soviets would have failed without it, considering it only accounted for a fraction of their production and the fact they started pushing Germany back well before they got the most out of lend lease, this idea that the Soviets won because of lend lease is a myth that started to pop up in the 50s we believe during the red scare, when the US tried to discredit the Soviets saying "they only win because of our weapons and supplies" despite the fact they preferred their own Mosin to be less prone to jam in Russian conditions and found M4 Shermans to be really unbalanced and easily tipped over but that's mostly opinion, it's pure nonsense and is so bloody disgraceful to the millions of soviet men and women who fought in the frontline and millions of soviet women who worked day and night in the factories to fight an enemy who wanted to see them extinct.

Another good one is the T-34 myth, people say it was bad The reliability was only affected by some tanks, the USSR didn't have the luxury of geography like USA, soviet production of T-34 suffered between 41-43 with having to cut corners because they had the full might and industry of Germany and Italy's military attacking them and that's not even including the many built in 1940 when it first entered production. After the USSR turned the tide of war in Europe in February 1943 after the victory at Stalingrad and Kursk, the T-34s could be produced up to standards which only affected issues with engines and armour. And you need to remember this was evolving warfare the eastern front of WWII saw the first mass use of Portable Anti Tank Guns, anti tank rockets, anti tank mines/grenades and the proliferation of German attack aircraft and tank destroyers and assault guns, combine this with the fact that most of your tank crews are conscripted then you have the situation in 1942 that caused the USSR to lose more T-34s alone than Germany had tanks. 

The T-34-85 literally set the standard, its great sloped armour was copied by the Germans with the panther. It's gun and ammunition were some of the best as well with the BR-350 HEAT and OF-350 HE being more than enough for the job with great range and pens against western armour, the ergonomic issues were largely solved with the T-34-85 with better coupla and radio systems for the commander and with the 3 man crew. The T-34 was literally the medium goat of WWII and continued to serve in over twenty wars. 

The T-34 was a big reason German blitzkrieg and their armoured spearheads got shredded, Germany steamrolled western Europe in weeks yet within a month of fighting. People just cherry pick bad aspects and we can easily do that with others, Panzer IV, bad maintainability, poor transmission, Poor gun and insufficient armour. M4 Sherman poor gun, bad design causing easy tipping and transmission issues in many variants.

Soviet equipment literally dominated the battlefields, T-34s, IS-1s, IS-2s, Katyushas, ZiS-2, ZiS-3, ISU-122, SU-100, SU-76, Tu-2, Il-2, Yak-9 and Yak-3 were all some of the best in their class with Mosin, SVT-40, PPSh-41 and DShK being some of the best small arms of the war. What many people forget, especially American fanboys, is that both Germany and USSR had problems with equipment due to constant bombings and rushed productions affecting build quality, of course they conveniently ignore Germany and their issues.

But back to the war, the UK and US did most of their fighting in the Pacific, Africa and SouthEast Asia, when they landed in France in 44, Germany was a shell of itself, the troops they faced were largely inexperienced and poorly equipped, because the majority of well trained and supplied troops were either fighting in the east or already dead from the eastern front, this is why the largest invasion in history was against the Soviets, largest battle in history, largest tank battle, largest encirclement and the deadliest battle in history, all on the eastern front, here's some crazy statistics for you, more Soviets and Germans each died in the east in some battles than both the US and UK lost on all fronts during the whole war, the Soviets lost more women fighting on the frontlines than US Fatalities in the all WWII.

It was the soviet people that did the bulk of the fighting it was their tanks and their fighters that defeated nazi Germany, I mean Christ the majority of German soldiers on western front surrendered and even still it wasn't close to the number of surrenders on eastern front, you want a perfect example watch history youtubers Mapsinanutshell video on battle of Berlin, literally allies are struggling to beat less than 100,000 Germans despite numbering 10x more whilst more and more German troops are pulled away to try and slow the Soviet advance that's sweeping towards Berlin, the soviet people won the war in Europe, they stopped the German advance within a month of Barbarossa and then started pushing them back (before lend lease was even a thing), despite losing large amounts of our armies to encirclements, forcing them to try to take oil rich regions and thus the war of attrition had begun in leningrad and Stalingrad (of which were finally broken a year and a bit later)

Contrast this to the so called aDvAncEd wEsT, who got absolutely steamrolled by German blitzkrieg and Britain got absolutely humiliated at Dunkirk, yeah they must have so much better tactics and equipment to lose so greatly. God can you imagine if it was a fully capable and supplied German army defending at Normandy and not the gutted shell that it was, I doubt they'd have even got off the beach well I mean tbh Britain wouldn't have been British by 1944 I can tell you that.

I mean one of the two biggest reasons for nuking Japan 

1. Being to show the USSR what the US had.

2. Because the morale of the US soldiers was so low despite only losing less than 500k for the whole war.

Soviets lost more women in frontline roles than the US lost all men on all fronts throughout all WWII yet they were close to cracking, despite the fact for all Japan's supposed military prowess (they had a good navy) their army and especially their doctrine was dog shit, I know it's enemy at the gates that started the whole Soviets used human wave's but it was Japan that used such tactics which is why you find so many accounts of it, yeah it was scary for US soldiers seeing fearless soldiers but it's not effective strategy long term or even really tactical which is why USA lost more soldiers fighting Germany and severely weakened Germany at that, can you imagine what a full strength Germany like the one in 41 would do to Allies in Normandy I mean it's funny how western tactics and technology was praised as more effective than crude soviet and many German soldiers and aces said it was tougher on western front yet when you look at statistics and numbers, full power Germany crushed western Europe with blitzkrieg tactics  but again was stopped within less than a month when fighting pre lend lease USSR who had lost a fair bit of equipment fighting Poland and Finland.

But still the USA performance in the Pacific was honestly good, they did very well.

Vietnam and Korean War

First we get arguments defending the invasion. 

Arguments against ho chi and his government 

"Ho Chi Minh is a dictator"

Ok what is the standard for being a dictator? If a fair election was held he will win. Like by a long shot. No other politician in Vietnam back then came even close to his level. You can probably search his English interview on YouTube to understand how well spoken and charismatic he was.

Ho Chi Minh land reform took the homes and lands from people: 

This one is hugely inflated by Western writer. Yes it was bad but nowhere near the level some of the western writers claimed. Also who gives a fuck if rich people lost their land lmao. 

Ho Chi Minh treat Vietnamese people badly

Like what people, according to what sources? You have to understand that no matter how bad it was it was wayyyy beter than the way the Colonist French, the Nazi Japanese and the Imperial American were. Like can you show me proof that Ho Chi Minh bombed and napalmed Vietnamese people? Oh wait that was the Americans. 

Ho Chi Minh's force commited war crimes:

This is probably came from mis understanding the politics situation in Vietnam back then. Ho Chi Minh was leader of the pro-negotiation faction. After the US invaded Vietnam he effectively lost all actual power to the pro-war faction. Claiming bad things happened in the war that US started is just too much of a stretch And also laughable considering USA in Vietnam acted like actual nazis. 

How north Vietnam worked and history of war 

https://youtu.be/ANR_owxnll0?si=EsouZDUI6vNG32yJ 

https://youtu.be/Di7BLBlNFX0?si=Z9KNutDAjCGrATgW 

https://youtu.be/ggoolrSJxgY?si=wfmEtk375RNSJcMj 

https://youtu.be/ggoolrSJxgY?si=wfmEtk375RNSJcMj 

What Vietnamese people think of Communism 

https://youtu.be/ZJi034ilROc?si=HmKZyODljTMi7WSJ 

https://youtu.be/4JymMfq5swc?si=dDJwtZmGar-6RZ3n 

Why the US and South was FAR worse 

Kill anything that moves: the real American war in Vietnam book

War Without Fronts: The USA in Vietnam book

https://youtu.be/zXSAxQlBJ1c?si=B5tPU-pYEwZMG-FS 

https://youtu.be/Di7BLBlNFX0?si=hx606bT_lGrtzUmE 

https://youtu.be/mMEspk6YqSI?si=UtQbIp9IhU8RRWVm 

https://youtu.be/fE9MUwAbFQI?si=Lo_WELmJ1488icwi 

https://youtu.be/sFMUPVAEaQE?si=npKNPsANDXBvMahj 

https://youtu.be/e-Tgv-ABoZ4?si=HqANxIYQB44Ojqz4 

https://youtu.be/Fa7VGxMYcd8?si=6qp-bWr-yqtWny5x 

https://youtu.be/484Uwzb21DM?si=RJv483jlGfW03_i 

Propaganda around Communism in Vietnam 

https://youtu.be/byDXAI2pWdI?si=WwzEDZb8jYqunuqe 

https://youtu.be/zIOw6fSOJI4?si=ZUJnpfhn8MEISTKO 

https://youtu.be/dl2fnWIlDZg?si=BkJUXdkGbNd2q7VG 

So Vietnam war, when you talk to brainwashed Americans, you usually get 3 responses.

1. “We chose to leave after wrecking them just look at the K/D it was 20:1”

A. Nonsense cherry picking, USA and allies lost about the same in overall casualties and K/D was only 3:1 which is because you were a far superior military.

2. “It wasn't a real war, it was just an insurgency”

A. That's nonsense. There were many things we'll explain in three parts.

3. “We were winning, we just lost support back home”

A. That's nonsense, you left because from 68 onwards NVA was on a winning streak.

Honestly, we don't think people know just how bad the American Military performance in Vietnam was, we can confidently say if this was the Soviets, they'd have been made a laughing stock, now, the REAL Vietnam war was fought in 3 areas.

1. The US army and marines led mostly defensive positions along with ARVN, they held in many areas along south Vietnam and fought a guerrilla war with the Vietcong throughout 64-73.

2. The ARVN with support from US air force fought a conventional air, land and sea war against the PAVN from 66-68, then the FANK, RLA and ARVN with support from US air force fought the CPNLAF, Pathet Lao and PAVN from 70-71, then the PAVN, CPNLAF and Vietcong fought the ARVN, FANK and USAF (US armed forces) from 72 until the peace accords in 73, then the Soviet and Chinese armed and trained CPNLAF, Pathet Lao and PAVN fought the US armed and trained ARVN, FANK and RLA until soviet/Chinese proxy victory in Cambodia, South Vietnam and Laos against the United States.

3. The USAF fought an air campaign from 65-68 against Cambodia, Laos and certain parts of the north that didn't have known heavy Soviet or Chinese presence, they helped ARVN in 66-68 and then again helped ARVN, FANK and RLA in 70-71. They launched their last campaign in 72.

They lost on all 3 fronts.

Guerilla Warfare 

On the guerrilla Warfare, they couldn't contain or stop the Vietcong and the USAs barbaric treatment of civilians, constant revenge attacks against innocent villages because of Vietcong, supporting the ARVN who were a totalitarian neo colonial military dictatorship and their racist views and comments from many of their soldiers made the people despise them, hence why the Vietcong had so much success. Regardless Vietcong led an incredibly successful guerilla campaign against the USA throughout the entirety of the war, their large offensive that preceded the PAVN Easter offensive, called the Tet Offensive, didn't accomplish much military wise (remember the Vietcong were insurgents now regular soldiers) but it was a strategic victory in reducing US political will (the Easter offensive would crumble their military will) and by this time stories of American barbarism had reached the west and outrage was mounting and thus support back home.

Air Campaign 

Their air campaign's only success was in the death of civilians; their bombings had little effect on PAVN combat effectiveness, mainly because of four factors. 

1. They didn't know where they were, PAVN had a massive network of tunnels and bases hidden in the jungle, which were nigh impossible to see from Recon Aircraft and western spy satellites of the time. 

2. The PAVN received substantial support from the Chinese and Soviets, who regularly gave them SAMs and AA gun rounds, along with the many systems used to take down such aircraft. 

3. Thanks to an intricate network of spies and likely soviet intelligence, they knew a lot of the time when USAF or USN was launching sorties and sent their MiGs to attack. 

4. PAVN had the better pilots, I'm sure USAF Vietnam vets still have nightmares about PAWAN pilots lol, because they were some of the best of the 20th century post WWII, impressing even the Soviets, this is also proven by the fact they have more ACEs than America.

Please bring this up to American fanboys, their reaction is very amusing. Remember the PAVN won the air war using outdated equipment by the time of the Vietnam war was well on in 1970, S-200, Krug, Osa, Kub, MiG-21S, MiG-23, MiG-25, Su-15, Su-17 and Su-24 were all modern stuff in the USSR at the time and PAVN had NONE of it. The USAF main air campaign was Operation Rolling Thunder and it was an operational failure, as it failed to stop PAVN support of Vietcong from 65-68, failed to destroy or reduce NVA air defence capabilities and failed to effectively disrupt their logistical or production capabilities to a point where it disrupted their capacity to wage war (as PAVN launched successful captures from 66-68) all it did succeed in, was mass death of civilians, it was a humiliation of USAF and USNAF. 

Their last air campaign was the two operation linebackers, where they hoped to stop the logistical capacity of the PAVN and force them to abandon their captured ARVN territories, this again was a massive failure with 

1. Failing to stop the PAVN leaving newly controlled areas. 

2. Failed to disrupt PAVN production and logistics enough to reduce their capacity to effectively engage.

3. They lost hundreds of fighter bombers, fighters and interdictors and several strategic bombers and hundreds more helicopters trying to do so.

A big problem for their air campaign was two fold. 

1. Poor tactics, the primary equipment used by the USAF was F-4, F-105, AD-1 and A-6s all bricks compared to the J-6, MiG-17, MiG-19 and MiG-21PFs used by the PAVN. Combined with the fact that the PAVN created many traps luring USAF to their demise although they would later make counters for these. It was actually the thrashing they experienced in Vietnam that forced them to change their entire air doctrine and create the top gun school. 

2. Having to identify enemy threats before engaging. This was in the late 60s and early 70s when IFF technology was in its infancy so visual or radio confirmation had to be made first, combine this with the fact that many departments such as Army, Navy, Marines and air force all had separate operations going on with different command structures. It was vital to confirm targets. This again forced the US to change doctrine to make sure departments were interconnected during operations.

Ground War

Lastly the conventional war waged by the ARVN and PAVN was a northern victory, Literally just look at the numbers by a war map, the NVA made progression slowly over 8 years from 1968-1975 across Vietnam and Cambodia when the USA was in country, the idea that the war which just static on the ground with no territory changes is nonsense, it's very clear the NVA was winning ground war against ARVN. In the late 60s, the PAVN started making massive gains, especially in Cambodia, literally by 1970 it was just gain after gain for PAVN with some slight counter attacks from ARVN and USA. 

The ground war was mostly fought by ARVN and PAVN and other proxies in Cambodia and laos, but there was exceptions, the biggest being the tet offensive, although this was by the Vietcong mostly, and the Easter offensive, which in 1972 over several months (which was a major reason why USA left), the PAVN captured around 10% of the territories (with around 30-40% total from 64-75 for soviet and Chinese proxy forces) of the ARVN and other areas within a MONTH, with less than ⅓ the manpower of the US and ARVN and less than ⅕ the land force, ⅒ the air power and a fraction of the naval power, and yet, the US and allies lost 10% of its controlled  land in a month and couldn't get it back (not forgetting all the gains in Cambodia and central Vietnam in the prior years by the PAVN), this was one of the triggering factors for the withdrawal of US troops and the US government pushing for peace, because they lost 30,000-100,000 men including ~8,000-12,000 in opening weeks.

Pre 1972 ground war fighting was mostly US proxy forces and this is used as an excuse by US fanboys “we didn't do most of the fighting” if they are armed by you, supplied by you, trained by you, fight with your vehicles and have support from your air force then you take responsibility for their failures. You notice that A LOT with US fanboys, they LOVE cherry picking. Like they will say “We only lost ~3000 in two decades in Afghanistan” yet ignore Afghan army Casualties that make it so they've lost more than the taliban, “Vietnam war K/D was 20:1” Yet ignore South Vietnam and other casualties that make it ~3:1 and ignore that in overall casualties they lost around the same, “china had millions of men in Korea that's why we got pushed back” yet ignore the millions of South Koreans and their massive superiority in equipment numbers or another good one “we crushed Iraq in days” ignoring the 5 weeks of the air war and the 6 months of military preparations prior and oh of course the dozens of other militaries helping you. That's another thing: when a war goes well (iraq) they take all the credit, yet when it doesn't (Vietnam) they say it was the other countries' failures. They are the biggest cope smokers, it's why we made this essay because it really passes them off lol.

You need to realise the amount of propaganda around this war (gave sources on this up above). They say that the US never lost a battle yet when you actually read maps, do analysis on where each group was. Apparently the US never lost a battle despite losing over 30% of the territory in Vietnam and losing the eternity of Laos and Cambodia From 1968 to 1972. They also claim the Easter offensive was a PAVN failure. How ? Within a month the US lost around 10% of the territory in Vietnam and failed to gain it back even with the two failed operation linebackers (which they also claim they won) and was forced to sue for peace. 

Let's do an experiment.

Side A USA and Proxies

Side B Soviet proxies 

1968

Side A :80% 80%

Side B :20% 20%

1972

Side A :60% 20%

Side B: 40% 80%

So despite side: A losing massive amounts of ground we are to believe that Side B never won any battles lol. 

Three major battles that the US lost were the battles of hamburger hill, lang vei and khe sanh yet they don't tell you this. You also need to remember the amount of failed US operations like menu, commando hunt and igloo that failed in their stated goals. 

But back to Vietnam, USA could have easily won in Vietnam, all they had to do was get rid of the colonial dictatorship and use that 1.4 trillion dollars to actually improve the lives of the people living there, but that would defeat their purpose, as same with Cuba pre revolution, the USA and west on whole,  have no interest in making these countries better, because in the eyes of the west, these countries only exist to be exploited, any 'aid' or money given to these countries is just either pitty money to get voters to think they care about this stuff or debt traps (look up Nestle and Shell in Africa) and yes the Soviets are guilty of this as well, although for different reasons, they supported countries like Romania, Yugoslavia, North Korea who were all brutal dictatorships, the Soviets supported them because they supported the Soviets.

People forget how evil the USA was in Vietnam, mass rapes, butchering children, gang raping little girls, burning children alive, disemboweling father's in front of their families. It was by far the most brutal barbaric conflict post WWII.

US soldiers were taught by the military to view the Vietnamese people as animals, they were all “charlie” or all “vietcong” the men, the women, the elderly, the children, the disabled. All were seen as the enemy and given zero mercy. It was not individual either, it was SYSTEMIC. The US military enteted Vietnam to stop the communists from getting elected, after their proxy war began failing in the late 60s, their cruelty only intensifed, dropping napalm on villages full of children and civilians became the norm, grunts would keep scores of how many women and girls they raped, how many men and boys heads they popped, they would collect skulls as trophies, regularly torture civilians for “harbouring VC sympathies” and as the war drew on, and it became obvious they wouldn't win as they lost huge territories in Cambodia and in the north, their evil again just got worse. 

They also ran a campaign of terror. They would purposely torture civilians including 

Burning 

Rape 

Dismemberment 

Eviscerated 

Eye removal 

Castration 

Flaying 

Bone braking 

Literally the most disgusting cartel level shit was done on men, women and children, ANYONE who was even REMOTELY sympathetic to the NVA or VC, this was done for two reasons. To scare the ARVN civilian population against supporting NVA and to terrorise the NVA population. This was done to nearly ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND people.

Civilian Casualties in North Vietnam are around 1 to 3m with high estimates around 4 to 5m with most being caused by US terror bombings. This is triple to 5x times the number in the south. 

This was similar in Korean war 

20-30% of the population of the northern peninsular was killed.

Chemical and Biological Weapons used by the US.

95% of buildings destroyed in the DPRK.

Constant threat of Nuclear Weapons.

100s of Massacres of Civilians by ROK and US forces before and during the war.

Any group of more than 8 people who were not ROK or US forces were to be strafed (shot at) by US Aircraft as policy, even if they were civilians.

This is why it is especially amusing to see American liberals who fully support their troops, call Russia barbaric when the Russian campaign in Ukraine (whilst a brutal war like all wars are) looks like a Humanitarian mission compared to how savage the US conducted itself in Vietnam and again it was systemic, much of the evil done in Vietnam had not long been done against the people of North Korea by many of the same commanders. 

Another thing brought up was ARVN was their “ineffectiveness”

The ARVN ineffectiveness is not because of their so-called "lack of guts" as Hollywood often portrayed them. In fact I would argue that they had a lot of guts and brains, but in the end the ARVN got screwed over by their own allies: The American. Vice versa, the NVA won because they did not get screwed by their allies: The Soviets.  

First of all, ARVN is the epitome of "lions led by donkeys". Nguyễn Văn Thiệu is the donkey in this case. Thiệu is in many ways the quintessential tyrant: he was despotic, corrupt, weak-willed, and easily swayed. He was constantly paranoid about being overthrown by his own officers so he stacked his officers with some of the worst, most corrupt men ARVN had to offer as long as they were loyal to him. This was in the case in the first battle of Quảng Trị where many corp commanders were so inept, they broke rank and ran leading to massive rout. And when he did become decisive, Thiệu did more harm than good such as when he insisted the ARVN marines attack Quảng Trị head on in urban warfare, leading to massive loss that proved hard to replace. Or when in April 1975 he insisted on protecting every single piece of land instead of withdrawing and holding important chokepoints, leading to ARVN being spread out on a massive scale. He was also the one who refused, on many occasions, to commit his elite troops like Rangers, Paratroopers, and Marines because they were his Praetorian guard, leading to many blunders. And that is only one man. There were dozens like him holding the top posts, but he was the one who enabled it all. The American also had a hand in this screw up: it was the American who put him in power, and in a bid to maintain control over this ally the American actively promoted these less than useful men to power. This is the same in Afghanistan where the American promoted or tolerated corrupt Afghan officials who would later do more harm than good. The NVAs and their proxy the VC knew this, and they actively used these corrupt officials in propaganda to win the hearts and minds of South Vietnamese.

Secondly, Americans. The American did give ARVN a lot of support, but in the wrong direction. Their approach was "throwing money at the problem and let others bled for it". They did not care where they threw the money, who they threw it to, or was there any other way they could approach this. In fact I would argue the American went to war with no ideas what to do.The ARVN, contrary to what common conception told you, were badly armed and equipped. It was not after 1968 that Americans gave the ARVN M16 to replace their second hand M1 garand and M1 carbine for example, and ARVN always lacked heavy weapons such as AT Weapons to deal with tanks until after 1970. The Americans neglected building a good logistics system for the ARVN, which proved to be their demise. The American built an ARVN army that was dependent on them in a bid to control the ARVN so when the American picked up and left after their repeated losses of ground, the ARVN did not know what to do. The same case happened to Afghanistan: Americans trained an ANA that is reliant on them on everything from intelligence gathering to air support and did not give them what they needed to function alone. They mindlessly threw money into the ANA then complained all their money went to waste while forgetting that they should have thought about whether they should be throwing money in that direction in the first place and what could they do differently. This was a huge reason why the Soviet Afghan campaign was so much more successful, people like to think that it was an invasion, it was not; the DRA had full control over all the major population centres and wanted help dealing with the Mujahideen who were armed by the CIA and Pakistan, Soviets came in and re affirmed control then left after a few years. Then the US and chinese backed mujahideen with aid from the Pakistan military attempted an offensive and failed miserably after the DRA, who was well equipped and trained to deal with them, demolished them, again notice the difference in campaigns, the US backed Afghanistan and Vietnam collapsed before or not long after the US left, meanwhile the Soviet backed countries held on and outlived the USSR itself. 

The NVA was trained by the Soviet to be an independent army, capable of standing their ground and waging massive, expansionist war with few, if any, assistance from the Soviet. This is due to the difference in strategic consideration: The American viewed ARVN as a mere wall to stop communism and did not want to break the status quo, the Soviet viewed the NVA as an offensive weapons that would bring down American stranglehold over Vietnam, Indochina, and Southeast Asia while at the same time creating another massive army capable of standing against the ever-belligerent Red China who is threatening the Russian Siberia. Although it should be noted that the NVA did not receive modern soviet equipment as they couldn't trust it to not be captured by Americans hence why in mid to early 70s the NVA received T-54s in place of T-55s, T-62s and T-64s, S-75s in place of S-125s, Kubs and Osas, ZSU-57-2s in place of ZSU-23-4s, MiG-17s and MiG-21PFs in place of MiG-21Ss and Su-15s. however they received AK-47s and SKSs and such. 

Also, the training program by the American was full of fault with most instructors not caring about training the ARVN rank and file. Most of those who cared were turned over in a short period of time because of rotation. This meant that many instructors did not have the time to build close ties with the ARVN they trained with, to understand and help them solve their problem. I could go on and on about the Americans from their low morale and  criminal behavior that led to public antagonism against American troops in South Vietnam to their corruption, but I figured that there are plenty of resources on that so I won't dig too deep.

Vietnam War Statistics 1960-1975

USAF & Allies

USA Fatalities 58,281

USA Wounded 303,644

South Vietnam Wounded 1,117,000

South Vietnam Fatalities 240,000-310,000

South Vietnam Captured 1,000,000

Laos Fatalities 15,000

Khmer Fatalities 20,000

South Korea Fatalities 4,099

Australia Fatalities 521

Australia wounded 3,129

Thailand fatality 351

New Zealand Fatalities 61

Total wounded ~1,422,773

Total missing or captured ~1,000,000

Total Fatalities 340,512-410,512

Total Casualties 2,837,185-3,066,116

Median Fatalities ~380,000

Median Casualties ~2,900,000

PAVN & Allies

North Vietnam Fatalities 850,000-1,100,000

North Vietnam wounded 600,000

North Vietnam captured 232,000-400,000

China Fatalities 1,100

China wounded 4,200

USSR Fatalities 16

North Korea 14

Total Fatalities ~857,130-1,107,130

Total wounded ~605,300+

Total missing or captured ~232,000-400,000

Total Casualties 1,698,630-2,112,430

Median Fatalities ~970,000

Median Casualties ~1,900,000

Korean War Statistics 1950-1953

UN Coalition & South Korea

Fatalities 193,534-1,050,000

Wounded 565,703-886,000

Missing 32,081-100,000

Captured 11,173-49,000

Casualties 802,491-2,085,000

Median Casualties ~1,400,000

Median Fatalities ~600,000

China & North Korea

Fatalities 499,687-900,000

Wounded 569,849-789,000

Missing 116,827-303,000

Captured 124,566-215,000

Casualties 1,310,929-2,207,000

Median Casualties ~1,700,000

Median Fatalities ~700,000

Vietnam and China in Korean war were the only two actually near peer opponents the USA has faced post WWII, because NVA and China were funded by USSR, and both were fighting, what they viewed as an evil imperialist empire that allowed either many Japanese war criminals to escape justice and was just doing what Japan did and led imperialist campaigns and was supporting a totalitarian neo colonial dictatorship in the south. Proxy wars are tough, just look at Ukraine, Russia is winning (post 2022) but it's a tough fight because of all the military aid the Ukraine has received, if russia wins in Ukraine it makes US loss in Vietnam and Korea look VERY bad, especially since they are the only two militaries that were decent, never mind the fact the US had tremendous help, honestly when people talk about how great US military is, I just think why do you think this, because their record certainly doesn't back that statement up, US is one of the 4 Military Superpowers and 3rd most powerful military on earth but that's it, not the invincible super military that people imply.

Same non argument American use in Korea completely ignoring the fact that in Korea, literally South Korea, USA, Britain, Australia, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey and many others fought against China and North Korea with logistical support from many others. Another good cope they use is "china just used human waves" this is nonsense, china used tactics and strategy, they relied more on infantry and night attacks because they were little more than a militia, human wave tactics don't work, so why would a country use them regardless, another thing is the fact that when you look at what China/north Korea has and what South Korea/USA had, troop wise it's not that much different.

US got absolutely wrecked by Vietnam, PAVN beat ARVN in ground war, capturing territory after territory in late 60s, US got wrecked in air campaign, with USA losing nearly half of all aircraft used and PAVN having more aces.

Assets used

5 million+ total US and allied soldiers

$1 Trillion spent over 9 years for USA

$400 billion spent over 15 years for ARVN

2-3x Munitions dropped than all of WWII 

24 USN Aircraft Carriers 

2 USN Battleships

19 USN Cruisers 

145 USN Destroyers

7 USN Frigates 

48 USN Corvettes 

33 USN Mine Ships 

26 USN Submarines 

~12,000 USA helicopters

~5,000 USAF planes

~2,000 USAF UAVs

600+ USA Tanks

2,000+ USA APCs & IFVs

400+ USA artillery batteries 

~3,000 ARVN aircraft 

1,000+ ARVN tanks

3,000+ ARVN APCs & IFVs

800+ ARVN Artillery guns

~600 ARVN Amphibious Ships 

~450 ARVN Gun Boats 

~20 ARVN Mine Ships 

~240 ARVN Patrol boats

Assets Lost

Lost the war

400k+ US and allies Fatalities 

1.4m+ US and allies Wounded 

5,607 US helicopters lost

3,744 US planes lost

578  US UAVs lost

12 ANZAC Aircraft lost

300+ ARVN Ships lost

1,351 ARVN  aircraft lost

500+ US tanks lost

200+ US APCs and IFVs lost 

300+ US and ARVN artillery lost

800+ ARVN APCs and IFVs lost

600+ ARVN tanks lost

1 USN aircraft Carrier sunk (salvaged)

1 USN Destroyer lost (salvaged)

US military record in Vietnam is awful for the amount of air and naval power they used in Vietnam not time  having around 1,200 tanks, 3,000 APCs & IFVs, 600+ artillery guns, 13,000 helicopters, 6,000 planes, 1,000 UAVs, over 200 major warships and over 20 aircraft Carriers and over 400 gun boats they should have CRUSHED Vietnam, for context against Ukraine a superior opponent Russia only has it's black sea fleet which was 4 Amphibious Ships, 1 Battlecruiser, 1 Cruiser, 9 Frigates, 18 corvettes and 7 Submarines and only using around ½ of its total combat air power or around 800-1,400 aircraft, yet it's winning against Ukraine when USA and allies were using MUCH more and lost.

When you consider the fact that this was at a time when the US, along with the USSR, was a great military superpower, whilst China had just finished it's civil war which started not long after WWII against Japanese, compared to US navy there's was pitiful and their land force was tiny in comparison as well, Korea (like modern Ukraine and Many other wars) that sometimes technology, firepower, tank, artillery and air superiority isn't always enough to win against a foe who is determined and has the numbers, it was so bad for the US that it resulted in their longest military retreat in US history, it was so had that nuclear weapons were seriously considered because of how bad the situation war was going but it was thought it would just escalate things and cause full on war with China and because China had very little actual vehicles and sub par logistics and was really just an incredibly effective militias as they were pretty much spent fighting the civil war

The Vietnam war is even more funny because US fanboys always cope with losing by saying "we lost far less" yet again if you count all forces that fought with US like south Vietnam then it's actually I think around equal or even worse but regardless even if it wasn't, it was a failure on all fronts, it's political objectives to stop spread of communism to south was a failure and it's military objectives to defeat the NVA was a failure, and the US tried it's hardest (without going total war), literally millions of soldiers, numerous aircraft Carriers, dozens of warships, they tried to invade it at the start but gave up when little progress was being made and reverted to an air campaign, they dropped more Munitions than was dropped in all of WWII yet people think they weren't trying, the US might have a better overall military and is 3rd most powerful and Russia is 4th out of the 4 military Superpowers, but that doesn't mean the US would win, it's a 50/50 between all the 4 military Superpowers at full strength.

“Wait so if you say the USSR won in Afghanistan then how did the US lose in Vietnam despite both countries getting overthrown after the powers left” 

Two big differences. 

1. The USSR control was never seriously contested. Meanwhile the US and proxies lost a huge amount of territories whilst the US was there.

2. After the USSR left, DRA control was never contested after a major offensive push by the mujahideen and only started losing after all aid was stopped due to collapse of the USSR whereas the ARVN started losing massive territory after the PAVN first push even though they still had US support.

The comparison of Ukraine and Iraq and the war in Ukraine.

In this section we are going to dispel 3 myths.

1. That Ukraine is a weak military 

2. Iraq is more powerful than Ukraine 

3. Why USA would not desert storm Ukraine 

So Ukraine. We often hear that if this was the US fighting Ukraine the war would have been over in weeks and we ask “what makes you think that the US could have beaten Ukraine using the same amount of their equipment and manpower that Russia is using ? “We absolutely demolished Iraq” 

Three problems with that statement. 

1. Iraq was across the board an inferior military, we'll go into details later. 

2. The coalition that attacked Iraq utilised far more equipment and manpower than Russia has ever utilised at one point 

3. COALITION. You had direct military support from dozens of other militaries and not only that you had massive logistical support from several neighbouring countries.

But first, a little bit of history.

Since 2014 Ukraine has been fortifying it's defensive positions along it's eastern borders with Russia and has been receiving NATO supplies and training in facing Russia military tactics since then, Russia mobilised around 150,000 troops in initial invasion, with high estimates around 200,000, whilst Ukraine already had around 200,000 along border due to ongoing conflict with rebels, Ukraine then enacted martial law and mobilised around 900,000 men in 2022, combine this with the fact that late 2015 Ukraine started receiving NATO training in russian tactics from USA and European Union.

Russia absolutely underestimated Ukraine, they were hoping for a quick victory, but failed to realise just how strong their opponent was or was maybe hoping they would just give up, it wasn't going to be a quick victory, Russia second mistake was not mobilising men, Russia had a large force but 150,000 to 300,000 isn't enough to use it to its full potential especially when in 2022 you were at 3-1 disadvantage and now at a 1.5-1 disadvantage as now total Russian side numbers are at 700,000 it's not enough as most T-Series tanks, BTRs, BMPs are seen behind the defend lines sitting in columns protected by air defence batteries like the S-300 or Tor and Buk missile systems but the point is they waited too long to mobilise and Ukraine mobilised 700,000 men right away followed by 200k by summer, their third and last major mistake so far was leaving the entire kharkiv oblast to DPR and LPR troops who were mostly just infantry with little armoured units, no match for Ukraine when they stormed in with their Leopard 2s, Bradleys and T-72s supported by Su-27s and MIG-29s but since January this year, Russia has mobilised it's reservists, created it's defensive positions and has ramped up armaments production at its tank, aircraft and Munition factories and is winning.

People also forget how large Ukraines military already was, In 2021 in total they had around ~3,000 Tanks, ~3,000 IFVs, ~6,000 APCs, ~1,400 Air Defence Systems, ~3,000 Anti Aircraft Guns, ~700 Rocket Artillery, ~1,600 SPAGs, ~5,000 Artillery Guns, ~30,000 ATGMs,  ~15,000 Manpads, ~400 Fighters, ~300 CAS Aircraft, ~100 Special Type Aircraft, ~400 Helicopters and ~400 Drones and around ~10 major warships with ~20 smaller ones. When the war in Donbas started Ukraine received €17 billion from EU and $6 billion from USA that helped them not only modernise much of their military but also train and prepare in fighting against Russia.

Their military is one of the most powerful in Europe, by 2022 their military was largely modernised, they had built numerous defensive fortifications along the borders and their troops were battle hardened against Ukrainian rebels so even pre aid their military was impressive.

The recent failed counter offensive was devised by NATO and Ukrainian commanders, Ukraine had plenty of leopards, Bradleys, Challengers, BTRs, T-72s to punch through, they had plenty of air defence batteries and manpads to punch a hole in Russia's air superiority in the region with the Patriots, NASAMS, Iris-Ts and Crotacas along with Stingers and they had over two dozen Su-25s and MIG-29 to provide air support for their armour after punching the hole and they had plenty of artillery batteries to combat Russia artillery superiority in the region, they absolutely failed because NATO tactics just assume you defeat enemy air superiority and that's that because against countries with little air power and air defence capabilities and no production capabilities

Russia is literally fighting a NATO proxy, this is a proxy war, the US proxy war ith USSR in Vietnam lasted over a decade and in failure and that was with direct military involvement for 9 years, so far Russia has taken around 20% of the country and has held it for over a year, the recent Ukrainian counter offensive has been a massive failure, Russia is winning in Ukraine and has been since January the stats clearly show this, Ukraine is a more of challenge than Iraq and Afghanistan combined and Russia isn't getting direct military help from 4-6 other countries aswell along with logistical support from dozens of countries, when you look at what Ukraine military capabilities were pre invasion and what Iraq 1990 was you'd comparing them is laughable, and I think it's so ironic that Americans have short memories, the larmst time America fought a proxy war they lost and the last time they fought an opponent they were vastly superior to in military equipment (China in 50s) they couldn't beat them, because people who actually fight for what they believe in fight hard and especially when they have the numbers, Ukraine has the numbers, Russia has the equipment, if Russia wanted to destroy Ukraine it could, just like if the US wanted to destroy Vietnam they could have but it would mean greatly ramping up war production and starting full war economy, Russia has over one hundred strategic bombers and over two thousand fighter jets, it could flatten Ukraine but it doesn't want to because it's fighting for its people, people who the west pretend don't exist, right now in 2024 Russia has had air superiority for nearly a year and is advancing on three different areas.

Let's look at the financials. ~$270 billion from January 2022 to July 2023 with ~60% received so that's ~$151 billion on top of Ukraines ~$30 billion defence budget so that clocks in at ~$181 billions, Russia's defence budget for 2022-2023 was only $84 Billion and for context $151 billion is around double what Vietnam received in 9 years from the USSR and PRC yet USA absolutely fumbled the bag there.

New funding in military supplies for 2024-2026 is to include $60 billion from USA, €20 Billion from European Union and €10.7 billion from their states, $4 billion from Japan, £2.5 billion from UK, €500 million from NATO, $385 million from Canada and $74 million from Australia. In financial & Humanitarian aid, €32 Billion from EU, $1 billion from Japan and $390 million from South Korea. There's also the ~$9 million to $217 million every month in shells, grenades, mines, tank rounds, high calibre rounds and small arms ammunition, which the European Union, United States and United Kingdom produce every month for Ukraine. 

Compare this to Vietnam, Vietnam had, when accounting for inflation, $73,525,238,402 - $91,556,312,076 in estimated military supplies over the period of  war from 1959-1975 from the PRC and USSR. Ukraine has received around ~$151 billion. So in around a single year Ukraine has received more than the amount the NVA received in 16 years and yet Russia is winning.

It's absolutely baffling how people think this should be easy, remember Russia only has around 600,000 men in Ukraine, Ukraine had around 300,000 men in active service in 2022 and mobilised ~900,000, so they had around a million men fighting in 2022 and Russia only had ~200,000.

There's also something people don't understand. 

The difference between old and obsolete. Iraqs Military was largely obsolete, Ukraine military had a lot of old stuff but still capable. 

In 1990 against a modern military T-55s, T-72Ms, BMP-1s, MiG-21s, MiG-23s, S-75s, S-125s, Strela-2s, Strela-1s etc. Are obsolete because they lack basic stuff required 

For example T-55s and T-72Ms lack the optics, armour, rounds and electronics to keep up with modern equipment. The S-75 is an early command guidance with no ECM resistance so easily jammable, similar to the S-125 which has ECCM but is very basic and not capable of keeping up. The aircraft listed have no look down shoot down radars and no ECM protection meaning even the most basic EW that was available to most Aircraft could jam them and the Strela-2 and Strela-1 are rear aspect easily flarable and countered with even old countermeasures. The aircraft mostly have no countermeasures, basic radar with no ECM protection and older missiles with mostly analogue electronics for flight systems and no data links. The IFVs had no stabilisation, basic IR Illumination and inferior export rounds with a MCLOS ATGM Launcher. 

In 2022 against a modern military T-64BVs, T-72BVs, BMP-2s, MiG-29As, Mi-24Ds, S-300Ps, Iglas etc. Are old but not obsolete because they can still keep up. 

The tanks use 2+ or 3rd Gen Night Vision, have digitised FCS that allow firing on the move with high accuracy, full alloy DU and tungsten rounds along with 1st and 2nd Gen GLATGMs with high range, accuracy and pens guided by a stabilised laser rangefinder and tanks protected by composite armour and ERA. 

The IFVs can keep up because they can fire on the move with full stabilisation, have 2nd gen stabilised night vision and a powerful gun with tungsten APDS rounds (many modernised with APFSDS) and a SACLOS ATGM Launcher. 

The SAMs can keep up because they use PESA search radars with SARH/INS radio command guided missiles with digital seekers and digitised FCS and are integrated with C2 hubs for each battery which themselves are connected to regimental hubs whilst the manpads are still of the same Generation used by the bulk of modern militaries and the fighter jets have digital systems, pulse Doppler radar with ECCM, all aspect IR missiles, digital BVR missiles, HMD and maneuvering airframes supported by digital data links.  

“But Iraq had a larger military and got stomped” 

Well we've already covered how it's not comparable in the first place due to how much help the USA had and how Iraq was already crippled from its near decade long war with Iran.

Let's quickly compare Ukraines total capabilities to Iraq's in 1991 and what Ukraine had in 2022 since American goofs love bringing it up (includes all military assets in active service, reserve and storage)

This should tell you how bad the difference was. 

Iraqs most advanced tanks. 

Ukraine most advanced 

Iraq common 

Ukraine common 

Fighter Jets 

Iraqs advanced. 

Ukraine advanced 

Iraq common 

Ukraine common 

Infantry 

Iraq common 

Ukraine common 

Iraq Advanced 

Ukraine advanced 

Like do we even need to explain this lol.

Iraq Military Capabilities 1991

2nd Generation Tanks 

T-72M1 200x

T-72M 800x

Type 69-II 1,000x

Type 69QM-II 100x

Chieftain MK-3 30x

1st Generation Tanks 

TR-580 100x

Type 59 1,000x

T-54A 300x

T-55B 1,000x

T-62A 1,000x

PT-76B 100x

WWII Tanks 

T-34-85 100x

1st Generation ATGM Carriers 

9P133 100x

VCR-TH HOT 100x

1st Generation Infantry Support Vehicles 

SU-100 200x

2nd Generation Infantry Support Vehicles 

AML-60 300x

ERC-90 20x 

EE-9 200x

2nd Generation Infantry Fighting Vehicles 

BMP-2E 200x

Saddam II 50x

AMX-10P 40x

1st Generation Infantry Fighting Vehicles 

BMP-1E 1,000x

BMD-1E 20x

OT-62 100x

2nd Generation Armoured Personnel Carriers 

EE-11 200x

Type 63 600x

MT-LB 800x

BTR-60 250x

BTR-50 250x

1st Generation Armoured Personnel Carriers 

BTR-152 200x

OT-64 200x

M3 200x

Walid 100x

3rd Generation Self Propelled Artillery Guns 

2S1 150x

2S3 150x

AMX-30 AuF1 80x

2nd Generation Towed Artillery Guns 

2A18 860x

2A36 230x

G5 100x

GC-45 200x

1st Generation Towed Artillery Guns 

M-30 1,000x

D-44 100x

D-1 250x

ML-20 50x

M116 200x

2nd Generation Towed Anti Tank Guns 

2A19 100x

1st Generation Towed Anti Tank Guns 

SPG-9 700x

D-48 100x

2nd Generation Multiple Launch Rocket Systems 

BM-21 270x

Sajil-60 100x

ASTROS II 60x

1st Generation Multiple Launch Rocket Systems 

BM-8 100x

BM-13 100x 

BM-24 60x

Type 63 100x

2nd Generation Medium Range Ballistic Missile Launchers 

Al-Hussein 10x

Al-Husayn 60x

Al-Hijarah 40x

2nd Generation Short Range Ballistic Missile Launchers 

Scud-B 36x

2nd Generation Short Range Cruise Missile Launchers 

HY-2 30x

Unguided Rocket Launchers 

Luna-M 36x

Bridging Vehicles 

MT-55KS 23x

BLG-60 26x

TMM-1 14x

PMP 20x 

2nd Generation Mobile Radars 

P-18 20x

P-15 100x 

P-14 100x

P-12 100x

Type-572 45x

Type-403 100x

1st Generation Point Defence Systems 

Strela-1 400x 

2nd Generation Point Defence Systems 

Strela-10 192x 

Roland 127x 

Rapier 20x 

Osa 190x

1st Gen MR Area Defence 180

2nd Gen SR Area Defence 353

2nd Gen Point Defence 529

1st Gen Point Defence 400

2nd Generation Short Range Area Defence Systems 

Hawk 3x

Kub 150x 

S-125 200x 

1st Generation Medium Range Area Defence Systems 

S-75 180x 

(Towed Anti Aircraft Guns by variants are estimates)

2nd Generation Towed Anti Aircraft Guns

L/60 300x

72-K 400x

61-K 200x

52-K 100x

ZPU-4 1,500x

ZPU-2 300x

ZPU-1 1,500x

3rd Generation Towed Anti Aircraft Guns

M53 200x

ZU-23-2 3,000x

KS-30 100x

KS-19 100x

L/70 100x

AZP S-60 100x

2nd Generation Self Propelled Anti Aircraft Guns

ZSU-57-2 100x 

M59 Praga 200x 

3rd Generation Self Propelled Anti Aircraft Guns

ZSU-23-4 200x 

1st Generation Man Portable Air Defence Systems

Strela-2 6,000x

FN-5A 1,000x

2nd Generation Man Portable Air Defence Systems

Strela-3 2,000x

Igla-1E 300x

2nd Generation Anti Tank Guided Missile Launchers 

Fagot 2,000x

MILAN 300x

1st Generation Anti Tank Guided Missile Launchers 

Malyutka 10,000x

Reconnaissance Aircraft 

MiG-25RB 9x

2nd Generation AEW&C Aircraft 

Adnan-1 2x 

2nd Generation Strategic Bombers

H-6D 7x

Tu-16KSR-2-11 14x

1st Generation Supersonic Bombers

Tu-22B 10x 

1st Generation Helicopters

Mi-1 50x

Mi-4 20x

Mi-6 30x

2nd Generation Helicopters

Mi-8 40x

Alouette III 40x

Gazelle 60x

Bo 105 75x

3rd Generation Helicopters

BK117 13x

Bell 214ST 48x

Mi-17 40x

2nd Generation Fighter Jets

J-6 45x

L-39C 67x

F-7B 62x

MiG-21U 62x

3rd Generation Fighter Jets

MiG-21MF 42x

MiG-21bis 70x

MiG-23MS 15x

MiG-23MF 14x

MiG-23MLS 39x

MiG-23U 21x

MiG-25PS 19x

MiG-25PSU 7x

3.5 Generation Fighter Jets 

Mirage F1EQ 88x

Mirage F1K 8x

4th Generation Fighter Jets 

MiG-29A-12B 33x 

MiG-29UB-12B 4x

4th Generation Attack Aircraft 

Su-22M4 28x

Su-24MK 30x

Su-25K 68x 

Su-25U 4x

3rd Generation Attack Aircraft

Mi-25 20x

MiG-23BNK 38x

EMB 312 78x

SA-342L 45x

SA-321H 15x

Su-20 18x

Su-22U 10x

Su-22M2 34x

Su-22M3 55x

Su-22UM3 22x

Su-7BKL 47x

Su-7BMK 54x

1st Generation Attack Aircraft 

Provost 20x

Amphibious Ships

Unidentified Landing Ship 1x

Mine Ships 

Unknown Minesweepers 5x

Fast Attack Craft

P-4 Torpedo Boats 4x

Osa Class Guided Missile Boats 6x

Iraq Total Military Capabilities 1991

Stats for 1991 (adjusted for inflation)

Landmass 438,317km²

Population 17,658,381

Total Combat Ready 1,390,000

Deployed ~1,000,000 

GDP Nominal $180,000,000,000

GDP PPP $338,000,000,000

War Spending $9,400,000,000 (1990-1991)

Military Factories 5

Air Defence Stats 

Medium Range SAMs 180

Short Range SAMs 1,061

Point Defence SAMs 12,342

Anti Aircraft Gun Rounds 15,314

Air Defence Systems 1,309

Anti Aircraft Guns 7,000

SPAAGs 500

Manpads 9,300

 

Ground Force Stats

WWII Tanks 100

1st Gen Tanks 3,500

2nd Gen Tanks 2,130

1st Gen ISVs 100

2nd Gen ISVs 520

3rd Gen ISVs 200

1st Gen IFVs 1,120

2nd Gen IFVs 290

1st Gen ATGM Carriers 200

2nd Gen APCs 2,100

1st Gen APCs 700

3rd Gen SPAGs 380

1st Gen Towed Artillery 1,600

2nd Gen Towed Artillery 1,290

1st Gen Towed AT Guns 800

2nd Gen Towed AT Guns 100

3rd Gen Towed AA Guns 3,700

2nd Gen Towed AA Guns 3,300

1st Gen MLRS 360

2nd Gen MLRS 430

Unguided Rocket Launchers 36

2nd Gen SR BM Launchers 36

2nd Gen MR BM Launchers 110

2nd Gen SR CM Launchers 30

2nd Gen VSHORADs 339

1st Gen VSHORADs 400

2nd Gen SR SAM Launchers 193

2nd Gen MR SAM Launchers 350

1st Gen MR SAM Launchers 180

2nd Gen SPAAGs 200

3rd Gen SPAAGs 100

1st Gen Manpads 7,000

2nd Gen Manpads 2,300

1st Gen ATGMs 10,000

2nd Gen ATGMs 2,300

2nd Gen Radars 465

Bridgers 83

Air Force 

2nd Gen Strategic Bombers 21

1st Gen Supersonic Bombers 10

2nd Gen Recon Aircraft 9

2nd Gen AEW&C Aircraft 2

2nd Gen Fighter Jets 236

3rd Gen Fighters 228

3.5 Gen Fighters 96

4th Gen Fighters 37

4th Gen Attack Aircraft 130

3rd Gen Attack Aircraft 536

1st Gen Attack Aircraft 20

1st Gen Helicopters 100

2nd Gen Helicopters 215

3rd Gen Helicopters 101

Navy

Amphibious Landing Ship 1

Minesweepers 5

Torpedo Boats 5

Guided Missile Boats 6

Check my Ukraine war info post to see Ukraine numbers. Ill put It here soon. 

Coalition Aircraft Losses in gulf war Air Campaign lasting ~5 weeks

Fixed Wing Combat Aircraft 

F/A-18C 2x

F-15E 2x

F-16D 4x

F-14C 1x

F-4E 3x

F-111A 1x

OV-10 2x

A-6E 3x

AC-130 1x

A-10A 6x

AV-8B 5x

Tornado 7x

Mirage F1 8x

23x Helicopters 

Russian Aircraft Losses in Russo-Ukrainian War first 14 months before gaining air superiority

Fixed Wing Combat Aircraft 

Su-30 11x

Su-34 18x

Su-35 6x

Su-25 20x

Su-24 15x

Tu-95 1x

Il-76 1x

Helicopters 

Ka-50 25x

Mi-8AMTSh 1x

Mi-24 10x

Mi-28 5x

Mi-17 24x

So Russia lost 73 fixed wing and 65 helicopters in 14 months gaining air Superiority against Ukraine and within 5 weeks US & Allies lost 45 fixed wing and 23 helicopters gaining air supremacy against a vastly inferior military, even if you factor in that Russia was only Launching around ⅓ to ½ the sorties that coalition was, we think this stat says everything tbh.

Ukraine recently had its new Torpedo Frigate launched from Turkey and they can't even get it delivered because of the iron blockade Russia has on black Sea. Ukraine can't even perform naval operations with its few warships without instantly losing it.

Note we're not delusional we still understand that the United States is still the third most powerful military superpower out of four and most economic superpower out of the two, it's just our personal feelings, especially when you have to argue with these brainwashed sheep who think the USA is some unstoppable military juggernaut, when they don't have the record to back that up, neither does Russia, China has a pretty good modern record fought NVA to stalemate, took back north Korea from US and UN at a time when US and Coalition was 40-80 better times funded and around 4-12 times more equipped or like when they have repeatedly fought back India.

So yeah this idea that Ukraine is weak or that is comparable to Iraq or that the US could just desert storm 2.0 with ease is pure schizophrenic delusion, US has NEVER faced air defence capabilities like those in Ukraine even in vietnam because Ukraine had a massive networked area defence system made up of interconnected S-300s all over the frontlines and its cities whilst they had those sites protected by clustered point defence systems like Strela-10, Buk and Osa and their frontlines are protected by units who carry Igla, Strela-3 and Strela-2M. Iraq on the other hand didn't even have a proper area defence system with the only systems capable of even close to that being the ~200 single fire stationary S-75s whilst majority was VSHORADs and SHORADs and remember these systems were largely obsolete being mostly Strela-1, Strela-2, S-125 and S-75 early command guidance and tail chasers. As such their air defence network was incredibly clustered with large gaps in between defended areas, whilst Ukraines S-300P area defence could cover its entire northern, Eastern and southern frontlines with Russia and DPR/LPR and all its major cities whilst they had enough point defence systems and anti projectile systems to protect their whole area defence network. 

That means Ukraine had a enough systems like S-300P to create a full area defence border along its entire frontlines and still had enough left over along with S-300Vs to defend its major cities against projectiles and enough Tunguskas, ZU-23-2s, S-60s, ZPUs, Osas, Strela-10s, Strela-3s and Iglas to defend the S-300Ps. To achieve air superiority against such defences without losing most of your aircraft during SEAD would be quite difficult but glide bombs, low flying cruise missiles, hypersonic weapons, stealth aircraft, Electronic warfare, FPV drones and land based SEAD Has proven incredibly effective securing russian dominance in the air and allowing then to utilise their air power during Ukraines counter offensive and their winter offensive in 2023 although they still don't have air supremacy as Ukraine still holds around ~50% of it's SAM capabilities.

Ukraine had a soviet style air defence network. 

For ground based air defence, The main system is the S-300P network this is around 800 to 1200 Launchers each carrying 4 area defence missiles with around 100 batteries with each battery having a 9S80, 9S457 or 9S470 C2 hub connected to a larger regimental hub like 9S52, that are all coordinated and connected by the Anti-Air Defence Missile Artillery of the Ukrainian Air Force in Kiev, the S-300 system is supported by Buks, Kubs, S-200s and S-125s. 

Each battery is protected by point defence systems like Tor, Strela-10 and Osa-AKM along with Iglas, Strela-3s and Strela-2s and are covered by mobile search radars such as modern phased array systems like P-18C, 79K6, 80K6M and MR-18 with around 100 of these systems and older but still capable PESA systems like 36D6, 1L22, ST-67 and ST-68 of which there was over 150 along with even older systems like P-14, P-18, P-19 and P-35 with main S-300P protected by a few dozen Kolchuga, R-330 and Mandat-B1E EW Systems. The point defence systems are themselves protected by over 600 semi modern AA guns like Tunguska, ZSU-23-4M3, RPK-1 S-60 and KS-19M2 aided by older systems like ZU-23-2, AZP S-60, ZPU-1, ZPU-2 and ZPU-4 of which there was over 2000 protected by over two dozen NOTA and Bukovel-AD anti drone system along with S-300V ABM systems. 

For air based assets there is the 50+ Su-27Ss used as the primary Interceptors and in combination with the over 150 MiG-29As used as air defence Fighters. Ground based air defence can be coordinated by a handful of Mi-9s and enemy ground targets can be Intercepted by Su-24MR AGS Aircraft.

Also need to remember that Ukraine has access to NATO country E-3s and Saab 340s in black sea and Europe that are used to spy on Russia along with NATO spy satellites. 

Iraq's anti tank and anti armour capabilities were incredibly limited aswell being made up of mostly 1st Gen Anti Tank Guns and ATGMs like MCLOS missiles and recoilless rifles whilst Ukraine pre military aid had large amounts of 2nd and 3rd Gen ATGMs and anti tank guns made up of Smoothbore guns capabilities of firing sabots and better HEAT rounds and wire guided SACLOS or laser beam riding SACLOS with top attack capabilities. Iraq's CAS Aircraft was largely destroyed before land operations began whilst Ukraine had large amounts of helicopter Gunships and ground attack aircraft.

Same with air force Ukraine had a capable fleet of 4th Generation MiG-29s and Su-27s with a hundred or so L-39s and nearly a hundred 4th gen tactical bombers like Su-24Ms meanwhile Iraq had a large air force but it was all obsolete, ~90% of its fighters lacked even proper EO HUDs, basic BVR missiles and look down shoot radar with similarly basic radar warning receivers and it's only semi modern Aircraft were the 37 export downgraded MiG-29s that lacked much of the features that defined 4th Generation like modern pulse doppler radar, digital computers and EO targeting systems along with the ~70 odd Su-25K which were useless because they are CAS Aircraft and were destroyed during the air campaign.

Same with its tanks, most of its tanks were interwar and post war Generation that lacked solid state electronics, laser rangefinders and even basic composite armour and the few hundred proper 1st Generation MBTs it had all had downgraded fire control systems and armour and remember these were their most advanced tanks whilst coalition had 3rd Generation equipment meanwhile Ukraines tank forces were largely 3rd Generation T-64BV and T-72BV with composite armour, digital FCS, 2+ or 3rd Gen night vision, digital ballistic computer and 2× axis computer stabilised guns and they had around ~600 3rd Generation T-64BM, T-64BM2, T-64B17 and T-84U that had fully digital fire control systems, 1+ or 2nd gen thermals improved digital ballistic computers and external ballistic sensors with improved composite armour.

And AGAIN this isn't including the massive amount of Aid Ukraine has received.

So let's again recap. 

Iraq

Iraqs air Force was made up of around ~800 Fighters with none equal and only ~200 even remotely capable of putting up a fight. 

Iraqs SAMs were mostly VSHORADs and SHORADs that utilised rear aspect tracking and command guidance with some utilising early SARH homing with mostly monopulse search radars that were fragmented with little to no C2 integration between batteries.  

Iraqs manpads were vast majority rear aspect tracking only with some limited all aspect and only a handful capable of full all aspect. Similarly their AA Guns were mostly WWII to Vietnam war era stuff that was fully manual. 

Iraqs tanks were largely obsolete with over ~90% having no proper composite armour, no ballistic computer, basic mechanical stabilisation and basic infrared Illumination with a handful that used 1st Gen night vision and ballistic computers bit again all used steel sabots and no modern HEAT rounds. 

Iraqs army was mostly obsolete with them utilising no night vision, little to no Illumination sights or Telescopic Optical sights for rifles and were using mostly analogue radios for commanders which are easily jammanble. They had little to no body armour and used older helmets. 

Ukraine (pre 2022 aid)

Ukraine tanks were mostly 3rd Generation models that utilised 2+ or 3rd Generation Night Vision with digitised FCS, digital ballistic computers, composite armour with ERA and integrated laser rangefinders and can all fire DU or tungsten APFSDS, tandem HEAT rounds or 1st or 2nd Gen GLATGMs. They had a few hundred modernization models that had fully digital FCS, 1+ or 2nd gen thermals, improved armour and protection systems. 

Ukraines SAMs were mostly area defence systems made up of 100 S-300 batteries (8-12 Launchers each) these utilised digital FCS, PESA radars, SARH/INS guidance and had C2 integration between batteries and these were protected by over 400 point defence systems. 

Ukraines Manpads were mostly all aspect tracking with digital seekers and IRCCM ability with the remaining being largely all aspect then bulk of reserves made up of rear aspect tracking. 

Ukraine air force was made up of over 200 modern fighters with digital systems, pulse doppler radar, proper IRST, all aspect missiles and full countermeasures. 

Ukraines army was largely modernised with them using much of their old soviet stocks with 1st and 2nd Gen NV scopes and a bulk of 1st and 2nd Gen NVGs supported with body armour and combat gear. Then in 2014 onwards this was bolstered with tens of thousands of 3rd generation NVGs, modern Rifles and optics and modern combat gear. Their radios were all digital then during modernization and aid from 2014 were upgraded to modern standards to have more capacity and better ECM resistance. Their main active service of 200k had modern Rifles with options for optics and accessories with over 500k given as part of Aid. 

Ukraine also utilised its own blue force tracking system with DELTA analogues would be Russia Strelets or US FBCB2, this is battlespace management Software that allows Ukrainian commanders to coordinate the battlespace and greatly enhance C2 and improve situational awareness. 

Ukraine is a tougher opponent than anything the United States has faced since the Korean war, we don't know how well they would fare in proper modern Warfare because they have never been tested but regardless we think we have proved our point. You can NOT say that the US would crush Ukraine because they beat Iraq because 

1. As we have shown even pre 2022 Ukraine military aid. Ukraine is a FAR superior military relative to the time period 

2. The fact that the US had HUGE help during the gulf war.

3. The fact that much of iraqs equipment was straight up obsolete where as Ukraines equipment was old it was still functional. 

USSR Vs. USA 1991

But we suppose the big question is. Who would have won between the USA vs USSR in 1991 ? 

Let's go over the Stats. 

UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS

Stats

GDP Nominal $2.6 Trillion 

Defence Budget $300 Billion 

Population 290,000,000

Labour Force 152,300,000

Active Service 4,900,000

Reserve 12,750,000

Ground Force 

Main Battle Tanks 

1st Gen Tanks 20,000 

2nd Gen Tanks 22,000

3rd Gen Tanks 23,000

3+ Gen Tanks 10

Armoured Fighting Vehicles 

1st Gen IFVs 22,000

2nd Gen IFVs 16,000

3rd Gen IFVs 780

2nd Gen APCs 50,000

Rocket Artillery 

1st Gen MLRS 2,200

2nd Gen MLRS 3,000

1st Gen GMLRS 800

Unmanned Rocket Launchers 600

2nd Gen Ballistic Missile Launchers 500

3rd Gen Ballistic Missile Launchers 350

3rd Gen Cruise Missile Launchers 270

Artillery Guns 

1st Gen Towed Artillery 30,000

2nd Gen Towed Artillery 7,000

1st Gen SPMCs 3,000

2nd Gen SPMCs 1,100

3rd Gen SPAGs 3,000

4th Gen SPAGs 1,300

Anti Aircraft Guns 

4th Gen Towed AA Guns 600

3rd Gen Towed AA Guns 40,000

2nd Gen Towed AA Guns 30,000

2nd Gen SPAAGs 1200

3rd Gen SPAAGs 4,000

4th Gen SPAAGs 900

Anti Tank Systems 

1st Gen Towed AT Guns 40,000

2nd Gen Towed AT Guns 3,000

3rd Gen Towed AT Guns 700

2nd Gen ATGM Carriers 1400

2nd Gen ATGMs 600,000

1st Gen ATGMs 500,000

Air Defence Systems 

3rd Gen Long Range SAM Launchers 3,840

2nd Gen Very Long Range SAM Launchers 2,000

3rd Gen Medium Range SAM Launchers 300

2nd Gen Medium Range SAM Launchers 5,300

3rd Gen Short Range SAM Launchers 100

2nd Gen Short Range SAM Launchers 800

2nd Gen VSHORADs 900

1st Gen VSHORADs 400

3rd Gen Manpads 60,000

2nd Gen Manpads 200,000

1st Gen Manpads 100,000

2nd Generation Mobile Radars 5,000x

3rd Generation Mobile Radars 2,000x

4th Generation Mobile Radars 50x 

1st Generation Counter Batteries 1,300x

2nd Generation Counter Batteries 80x 

Defensive Capabilities 

2nd Generation Very Long Range SAMs 2000

3rd Generation Long Range SAMs 15,360

3rd Generation Medium Range SAMs 1,200

2nd Generation Medium Range SAMs 9,500

3rd Generation Short Range SAMs 800

2nd Generation Short Range SAMs 4,800

3rd Generation VSHORADs 61,200

2nd Generation VSHORADs 202,400

1st Generation VSHORADS 101,600

Mines 23,424

Offensive Capabilities 

125mm Rounds 24,000

115mm Rounds 10,000

100mm Rounds 22,700

73mm Rounds 62,000

30mm Rounds 16,000

12.7mm Rounds 208,300

7.62mm Rounds 171,000

Advanced Artillery Rounds 2,400

Frontline Artillery Rounds 13,000

Outdated Artillery Rounds 30,000

Advanced AA Gun Rounds 9,500

Frontline AA Gun Rounds 86,800

Outdated AA Gun Rounds 110,000

3rd Generation Ballistic Missiles 350 

2nd Generation Ballistic Missiles 500

3rd Generation Cruise Missiles 500

2nd Generation Unguided Rockets 98,000

1st Generation Unguided Rockets 61,600

1st Generation Guided Rockets 9,600

2nd Gen Anti Tank Guided Missiles 628,000

1st Generation Anti Tank Guided Missiles 500,000 

Air Force 

Combat Aircraft 

4+ Gen Fighters 100

4th Gen Fighters 2,700

3rd Gen Fighters 2,000

4th Gen Attack Aircraft 5,016

3rd Gen Attack Aircraft 2,000

Bombers

2nd Gen Supersonic Bombers 230

1st Gen Supersonic Bombers 600

3rd Gen Strategic Bombers 400

2nd Gen Strategic Bombers 500

2nd Gen AEW&C Aircraft 57

2nd Gen AGS Aircraft 250

1st Gen AGS Aircraft 74

3rd Gen ASW Aircraft 900

2nd Gen ASW Aircraft 700

3rd Gen EW Aircraft 500

2nd Gen EW Aircraft 400

Recon Aircraft 1,160

Transports 2,050

Rotorcraft 7,000

Trainers 2,000

Tankers 200

CC6 Aircraft 4

CC5 Aircraft 30

CC4 Aircraft 9

CC2 Aircraft 90

Recon UAVs 900

Navy

Fleet Carriers 1x 

Escort Carriers 4x

Helicopter Carriers 2x

Amphibious Command Ship 1x

Amphibious Transport Ships 3x

Amphibious Cargo Ships 24x

Amphibious Landing Ships 146x

Amphibious Landing Craft 112x

MultiRole Battlecruisers 3x

Multi Role Cruisers 30x 

Air Defence Cruisers 11x

ASW Cruisers 11x

Multi Role Destroyers 25x

ASW Frigates 95x

Air Defence Frigates 18x

ASW Corvettes 124x

Anti Ship Corvettes 48x

Anti Ship Boats 289x

Torpedo Boats 117x

Gunboats 300x

Surveillance Ships 25x

Tracking Ships 9x

Minesweepers 203x

Minehunters 40x

MCV Ships 110x

Nuclear Attack Subs 70x

Nuclear Ballistic Missile Subs 61x

Nuclear Cruise Missile Subs 56x

Nuclear Specialist Subs 9x

Conventional Cruise Missile Subs 16x

Conventional Attack Subs 60x

Defensive Capabilities 

3rd Generation Long Range SAMs 504

2nd Generation long Range SAMs 1,668

3rd Gen Medium Range SAMs 528

2nd Generation Medium Range SAMs 1,808

3rd Generation Short Range SAMs 1,472

2nd Generation Short range SAMs 4,292

3rd Generation VSHORADs 1,180

2nd Generation VSHORADs 128

1st Generation VSHORADS 512

2nd Generation CIWS 570

1st Generation CIWS 364

2nd Generation ECM Systems 386

1st Generation ECM systems 505

Machine guns 1,360

Depth charges 4,044

Naval Mines 4,766

Offensive Capabilities 

3rd Gen Extended Range ASMs 1,038

2nd Gen extended range ASMs 456

3rd Gen Long Range ASMs 648

2nd Gen Long Range ASMs 80

2nd Generation Short Range ASMs 40

3rd Gen ASW Missiles 986

2nd Gen ASW Missiles 856

3rd Gen ASW Rockets 240

2nd Gen ASW Rockets 71,504

1st Generation ASW Mortars 16,208

3rd Gen heavy Torpedos 6,068

3rd Gen light torpedos 1,043

2nd Generation MLRS 2,940

1st Generation MLRS 576

Naval Guns 

2nd Generation large guns 68

1st Generation large guns 44

2nd Generation small guns 70

1st Generation small guns 1,133

1st Generation autocannon 850

Passive Capabilities 

3rd Generation Search Radars 201

2nd Generation Search Radars 405

1st Generation Search Radars 189

Sonar Systems 748

Aircraft 

Rotorcraft 252

VTOL Aircraft 48

STOBAR Fighters 40 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 🇺🇸 

US Military Strength 1991

Stats 

GDP Nominal $5.9 Trillion 

Defence Budget $307 Billion 

Population 250,100,00

Labour Force 126,350,000

Active Service 2,180,000

Reserve 1,360,000

Ground Force

3+ Gen Tanks 100x

3rd Gen Tanks 13,000x

2nd Gen Tanks 13,000x

1st Gen Tanks 10,000x

2nd Gen IFVs 4,000x

2nd Gen APCs 20,000x

2nd Gen Towed Artillery 1,000x

1st Gen Towed Artillery 4,000x

4th Gen Towed AA Guns 800

3rd Gen SPAGs 2,000x

4th Gen SPAAGs 600

2nd Gen MLRS 800x

3rd Gen Ballistic Missile Launchers 633x

3rd Gen Long Range SAM Launchers 1,000x

2nd Gen Long Range SAM Launchers 400x 

3rd Gen Medium Range SAM Launchers 2,000x

3rd Gen VSHORADs 500x

2nd Gen VSHORADs 1,000x

4th Gen Mobile Radars 10x

3rd Gen Mobile Radars 900x

2nd Gen Mobile Radars 1200x 

2nd Gen Counter Batteries 140x

1st Gen Counter Batteries 600x 

Handheld Launchers 

2nd Gen ATGM 700,000

3rd Gen Manpads 80,000

1st Gen Manpads 20,000

Defensive Capabilities 

2nd Generation Very Long Range SAMs 400

3rd Generation Long Range SAMs 4,000

3rd Generation Medium Range SAMs 6,000

3rd Generation VSHORADs 83,200

2nd Generation VSHORADs 4000

1st Generation VSHORADS 20,000

Mines 5,125

Offensive Capabilities 

120mm Rounds 5,000

105mm Rounds 21,000

100mm Rounds 10,000

25mm Rounds 4,000

12.7mm Rounds 62,300

7.62mm Rounds 89,000

Frontline Artillery Rounds 3,000

Outdated Artillery Rounds 4,000

Advanced AA Gun Rounds 1400

3rd Generation Ballistic Missiles 633

2nd Generation Unguided Rockets 9,600

2nd Generation Anti Tank Guided Missiles 708,000

Air Force 

4+ Gen Fighters 2,800

4th Gen Fighters 3,000

4th Gen Attack Aircraft 3,110

3rd Gen Attack Aircraft 2,200

3rd Gen Supersonic Bombers 100

2nd Gen Strategic Bombers 700

1st Gen Stealth Strategic Bombers 20

2nd Gen AEW&C Aircraft 260

3rd Gen EW Aircraft 417

3rd Gen ASW Aircraft 1,100

2nd Gen AGS Aircraft 88

Recon Aircraft 1,730

Transports 3,080

Trainers 4,000

Tankers 850

Rotorcraft 13,000

CC6 Aircraft 6

CC5 Aircraft 16

CC4 Aircraft 10

CC3 Aircraft 30

CC2 Aircraft 40

Recon UAVs 1,400

UCAVs 20

Navy

Fleet Carriers 17x

Escort Carriers 13x

Amphibious Command Ships 2

Amphibious Transport Ships 25x

Amphibious Cargo Ships 55x

Amphibious Landing Ships 91x

Amphibious Landing Craft 300x

Gun Battleships 4x

Multi Role Cruisers 37x

Multi Role Destroyers 74x

ASW Cruisers 40x

ASW Destroyers 46x

Gun Corvettes 10x

MCV Ships 4x

Minesweepers 14x

Tracking Ships 4x

Surveillance Ships 20x

Nuclear Ballistic Missile Subs 36x

Nuclear Attack Subs 89x

Defensive Capabilities 

3rd Generation Long Range SAMs 3,140

2nd Generation long Range SAMs 1,544

3rd Generation Short Range SAMs 792

2nd Generation CIWS 210

2nd Generation ECM systems 122

1st Generation ECM systems 88

Decoy Launchers 51,800

Machine Guns 408

Naval Mines 810

Offensive Capabilities 

3rd Generation Extended Range ASMs 536

3rd Generation Long Range ASMs 1,784

3rd Generation ASW Missiles 324

2nd Generation ASW Missiles 1,680

3rd Generation Heavy Torpedos 1,773

3rd Generation Light torpedoes 1,984

Guns 

2nd Generation large guns 153

2nd Generation small guns 55

1st Generation large guns 179

2nd Generation autocannons 8

1st Generation Autocannons 51

Passive Capabilities 

3rd Generation Search Radars 126

2nd Generation Search Radars 158

1st Generation Search Radars 34

Sonar systems 451

Aircraft 

Rotorcraft 408

CATOBAR FWA 1,350

VTOL FWA 338

Overall 

Navy USSR 

Aircraft Carriers 7

Amphibious Ships 286

Battlecruisers 3

Cruisers 52

Destroyers 25

Frigates 113

Corvettes 172

Fast Attack Craft 706

EW Ships 34

Mine Ships 353

Nuclear Subs 196

Conventional Subs 76

Navy USA 

Aircraft Carriers 30

Amphibious Ships 467

Battleships 4

Cruisers 77

Destroyers 120

Corvettes 10

Mine Ships 18

EW Ships 24

Nuclear Subs 135

USSR 

Long Range SAMs 2,172

Medium Range SAMs 2,336

Short Range SAMs 5,764

VSHORADs 1,820

CIWS 934

Decoy Launchers 112,340

ECM Systems 891

Machine guns 1,360

Depth charges 4,044

Naval Mines 4,766

Extended Range ASMs 1,492

Long Range ASMs 728

Short Range ASMs 40

ASW Missiles 1,842

ASW Rockets 71,744

ASW Mortars 16,208

heavy Torpedos 6,068

light torpedos 1,043

MLRS 3,516

Large Guns 112

Small Guns 1,203

Autocannons 850

Search Radars 795

Sonar systems 748

Aircraft 340

USA 

Long Range SAMs 4,684

Short Range SAMs 792

CIWS 210

ECM systems 310

Decoy Launchers 30,800

Machine Guns 408

Naval Mines 810

Extended Range ASMs 536

Long Range ASMs 1,784

ASW Missiles 2,004

Heavy Torpedos 1,773

Light Torpedos 1,984

Large Guns 342

Small Guns 55

Autocannons 59

Search Radars 318

Sonar systems 451

Aircraft 2,096

Air Force 

Fighters 4,800

Attack Aircraft 7,016

Strategic Bombers 900

Supersonic Bombers 830

AEW&C Aircraft 57

AGS Aircraft 324

ASW Aircraft 1,600

EW Aircraft 900

Recon Aircraft 1,160

Transports 2,050

Rotorcraft 7,000

Trainers 2,000

Tankers 200

C2 Aircraft 133

UAVs 900

Ground Force 

Tanks 47,000

IFVs 38,700

APCs 50,000

Ballistic Missile Launchers 850

Cruise Missile Launchers 270

Towed Artillery 37,000

Towed AA Guns 70,600

Towed AT Guns 43,700

SPAGs 4300

SPAAGs 4600

SPMCs 4100

Very Long Range SAM Launchers 2000

Long Range SAM Launchers 3840

Medium Range SAM Launchers 5300

Short Range SAM Launchers 900

VSHORADs 1300

ATGMs 1,100,000

Manpads 360,000

Closing arguments and sources

All these facts Iraq, Grenada, mantis, WWII They tell everything, the “LGBT warriors” are good for warfare where they have overwhelming Superiority in equipment and capabilities either through just picking ridiculously weak countries like Panama and Grenada (although the latter failed a bit) or getting a coalition to take on even slightly tough enemies (like Iraq ) but still not a challenge, we think in Vietnam they thought it would be easy but once they learned how fragile their "men" were they began to have doubts, so he lets just switch to an air campaign, arm and train ARVN to do all the ground fighting against PAVN whilst our soldiers get bullied in guerilla tactics by Vietcong and we lose on average 1,000 aircraft every year because good technology doesn't make up for shitty doctrine and the will of fighting for something you believe in, which is why the LGBT warriors fled Vietnam with their tail tucked between their legs to an enemy who was 10x less well funded than the ARVN and USAF was.

We think the facts speak for themselves. Note we're not delusional we still understand that the United States is still the 2nd most powerful military superpower out of four and most powerful economic superpower out of the three, it's just our personal feelings, especially when you have to argue with these brainwashed sheep who think the USA is some unstoppable military juggernaut, when they don't have the record to back that up, neither does Russia (chechnya 1st), China has a pretty good modern record fought NVA to stalemate, took back north Korea from US and UN at a time when US and Coalition was 40-80 better times funded and around 4-12 times more equipped or like when they have repeatedly fought back India.

We  think this argument proves our point, the United States has never faced a tough opponent in modern warfare, we've already explained how Iraq was a joke military and the last tough opponent they faced was North Vietnam and they got absolutely trampled. This idea that the United States is some unstoppable unbeatable military juggernaut that could beat anyone with ease has no basis in reality and is actually a narrative moulded over the years perpetuated by organisations like Holywood (research how the Pentagon let's them use their equipment for movies as long as they don't make the US military look incompetent)

We should also reiterate, we don't shill any country. Russia got absolutely humiliated in the first Chechnyan War and made major mistakes and fuck ups during its initial SMO in 2022 in Ukraine, even now in late 2024 Russia refuses to mobilize more men and up its defence budget so that it can utilise more of its military even though Ukraine has now pushed into Russia and the US did incredibly well in the Pacific campaign during WWII. This essay is just to highlight many of the myths surrounding the US military and some of the propaganda against Russia. We believe that any country is capable if they put their mind to it, the most moronic idea in military spaces is the one that X or Y country has good/bad doctrine/equipment just because it is X or Y country.

Sources

World War II  

lend lease 

https://youtu.be/IJ9PiDvI4pY?si=XrtHZ6B8bDK2jJpR 

https://youtu.be/bzsKnKcb1-A?si=hK6z2xQybBRIerYQ 

https://youtu.be/AJFDSkRqsGg?si=MBbXSGOII_5U3RHy 

https://youtu.be/1CqGeAmVu1I?si=V3njMgpyj5DNnu8F 

https://youtu.be/wu3p7dxrhl8?si=C4OEumqUNzn6cNwH 

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/lend-lease-saved-countless-lives-but-probably-didnt-win-the-eastern-front-77715c4ce0b9#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWithout%20Lend%2DLease%20%E2%80%A6%20the,even%20during%20the%201941%20invasion. 

Soviet tactics and equipment 

https://youtu.be/JM589YQX2XQ?si=Ip5UkksNYR-7a7tG 

https://youtu.be/V1pRHVnHHu4?si=fbq_YPZtUyQ6EYaA 

https://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/10mhuvv/the_t34_is_not_as_bad_as_you_think_it_is_part_15/ 

https://www.britannica.com/event/Eastern-Front-World-War-II 

Eastern front 

https://youtu.be/HN7y8Ya_cEM?si=4wTqjikuQnmJ2dLz

https://youtu.be/eiEK_1Rgvw8?si=DKn5nSGn1zd-ROJ6

https://youtu.be/Z3H_u3EPUBI?si=yu2rG4-MdlQwGcHL

https://youtu.be/KZCRV04qY-E?si=g0zPx99dhC6MiE_0

https://youtu.be/YifcG9EX9Ng?si=bJtaCNWx1H_08eS-

https://youtu.be/FuQ2pv7vccQ?si=KBiINsP-WpVg6gUE

https://youtu.be/C08R3jYP1vM?si=2VcI77nk-mau6Inl

https://youtu.be/rJAEdLnZsgI?si=RVqlWddANAY5SRZT

https://youtu.be/2DmC8GoYRZ8?si=VKHQr7DCsxBAHeji

https://youtu.be/y_bjuREfUbU?si=EhpHhmpgaZzX198K

https://youtu.be/jvoad6Y_94w?si=7ZxOdUpEloQZ0emI

https://youtu.be/vnhOTwSL5pI?si=OQ4rrFvQDYp3yvJ_. 

https://youtu.be/IiQDe0Au58c?si=T8hVA4B3I1zlq_v3

https://youtu.be/jvoad6Y_94w?si=7ZxOdUpEloQZ0emI

https://youtu.be/jZCKFZsDAuk?si=3cUIphiGRD8Z6PKn 

https://youtu.be/QgmdVSfYnnw?si=ofPXdRJiQf8KDP24

https://youtu.be/6CerdjvePsg?si=u7kMVGl4fmMfG_EK

https://youtu.be/B-ZHH770WLs?si=XvZ-9Of6NcfpJZD9

Vietnam and Korean War

Events

Anatomy of a War: Vietnam & the United States and the Modern Historical Experience pt3 Total War, pt4 The Tet Offensive and the Events of 1968 and pt6 The Crisis of the Republic of Vietnam and the End of the War. Vietnam Explaining America's Lost War: The Tet Offensive Decisive American Victory or Devastating Loss p155-178/ p84-132. Air Power's Lost Cause The American Air Wars of Vietnam p11-21 / p25-37. After Vietnam: legacies of a lost war p56-84. The Korean War: A History chapter 1.

https://youtu.be/Vwf0O0tC6BU?si=b4dbK0wVEL2fGGbI

https://youtu.be/sJ7oxDZgZYg?si=f_loRXJ-5r86ahxA

https://youtu.be/0BWndiDG6QI?si=PYMwdfqRDSUkj5jM

https://youtu.be/OiDPfY_t8HU?si=1TJN9OGFP2rTU533

https://youtu.be/JMdmKe9xV_8?si=yQy5GKZ9Qk1-o4pY

https://youtu.be/fUAP6K-hj1Y?si=aSAIkagx5OokSQui

https://youtu.be/hYcXJEzCS24?si=SkthSVaN1-BdPe-W

https://youtu.be/IIOux3n85oA?si=ZfLGdgsnOKTlSaPd

https://youtu.be/2OgUP-3N05A?si=CIfvGt2vOY1ErsOr

https://youtu.be/fsLnDx62Z34?si=Yo8KLU-IXCBp85vU

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DQ6LR-UJsYRc&ved=2ahUKEwjnnZeC1raJAxULQEEAHcpyBMsQtwJ6BAhPEAE&usg=AOvVaw1jfQj7byJuYgJXmkJRxPur 

https://youtu.be/Fa7VGxMYcd8?si=SHnJt0f2LAtC3Sf8 

https://youtu.be/e-Tgv-ABoZ4?si=hgUgzablQyeFzu7Y 

https://youtu.be/cDk8Fo8ss8M?si=A4CZhxTPmNzQMxGi 

https://youtu.be/fE9MUwAbFQI?si=6R3wKDMfT0njAIFU 

https://youtu.be/sFMUPVAEaQE?si=COZ02y_TC5PtXtNk 

https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/AD1117988.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwivtrfr1raJAxXDZkEAHfmJIX8QFnoECBkQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1m26JabGJrHLSFWrPxuoNg  

https://archive.org/details/KoreanWarTheBruceCumings/page/n65/mode/1up 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Documents/History/Policy/Policy_V003_P001.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjZr4C217aJAxWkZkEAHcH7JfsQFnoECBgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1j1BqnZErS4iut5c81Ldei 

https://vimeo.com/65470561 

https://youtu.be/19ejFuEyHyk?feature=shared 

https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War 

https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal75-1213988 

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/0213vietnam/ 

Stats

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://australianaviationclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/aircraft-losses-of-the-vietnam-war.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjTx9aHi96IAxWLQUEAHebnOREQFnoECCEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3OvaaxmEXMKtD6oH-crR06 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://mitchellaerospacepower.org/us-fixed-wing-aircraft-losses-of-the-vietnam-war-1962-1973/&ved=2ahUKEwjTx9aHi96IAxWLQUEAHebnOREQFnoECCQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw307UYuYw23p2VW3_6PmvIa 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.nhahistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/aircraftlossesofthevietnamwarnhahs.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjTx9aHi96IAxWLQUEAHebnOREQFnoECCUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3coMyZcYJEHT9UiFk4W0uE 

https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teacher-resources/infographic-vietnam-war-military-statistics

https://www.vva310.org/vietnam-war-statistics 

Crimes against humanity 

Kill anything that moves: the real American war in Vietnam p263-348. War Without Fronts: The USA in Vietnam p55-85 / p180-238 / p143-179/ p239-287. The Phoenix Program: America's Use of Terror in Vietnam c10-15, c17-19, c23-25 & c27

https://youtu.be/zXSAxQlBJ1c?si=B5tPU-pYEwZMG-FS 

https://youtu.be/Di7BLBlNFX0?si=hx606bT_lGrtzUmE 

https://youtu.be/mMEspk6YqSI?si=UtQbIp9IhU8RRWVm 

https://youtu.be/fE9MUwAbFQI?si=Lo_WELmJ1488icwi 

https://youtu.be/sFMUPVAEaQE?si=npKNPsANDXBvMahj 

https://youtu.be/e-Tgv-ABoZ4?si=HqANxIYQB44Ojqz4 

https://youtu.be/Fa7VGxMYcd8?si=6qp-bWr-yqtWny5x 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://shareok.org/bitstream/handle/11244/325094/MaxeyM2018.pdf%3Fsequence%3D1&ved=2ahUKEwix8Y2hxoKOAxUBVkEAHSqeBMsQFnoECFgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0CHbdKLdA_s2Vs-4LYaEE-

Comparisons between Ukraine and Iraq 

Equipment numbers 

IISS The Military Balance 1990-1991 p101-104, 2006 p136-138, 2014 p194-p197 & 2021 p208-p212. The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World 1990-1991 p262-264. Jane’s All the World's Aircraft 1991-1992 p145. World Air Force's 2013 p562-567.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/media/csis/pubs/iraq88-93.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiluoukkN6IAxW6WUEAHftZAdgQFnoECCYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3dPdulKiJNYQkm6VRGD8Wd 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://caat.org.uk/app/uploads/2020/11/1991-arming-saddam.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiluoukkN6IAxW6WUEAHftZAdgQFnoECCIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2lCwoIeJLa5anshi9m0CsK 

https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/iraqi-artillery-threat 

https://www.flightglobal.com/world-air-forces-listing-f-i/29591.article 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/SIPRI%2520Yearbook%25201981.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjAxeSBgLeJAxXLA9sEHUNlESYQFnoECBUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0A3eTe11h9BebPGh9QEnd4

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/SIPRI%2520Yearbook%25201982.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwikkvb9_7aJAxVGVfEDHQz1M4cQFnoECBgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1TMQeYyL1lm7SIhbAJpPxr

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/SIPRI%2520Yearbook%25201983.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiHutz5_7aJAxVSSPEDHS8THzgQFnoECBgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw15ebu4zULc_Fw81VUlOFmS

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/SIPRI%2520Yearbook%25201984.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwi-nL7z_7aJAxXoRfEDHSONNI0QFnoECBoQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3n8wiMvkrXxbeycBm891BH

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/SIPRI%2520Yearbook%25201985.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjT9ebu_7aJAxV-cPEDHUyVASUQFnoECBMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw11hzvyNW3EAN1bxTqPYm-4

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/SIPRI%2520Yearbook%25201988.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjXmpnp_7aJAxUJBdsEHSgDEJwQFnoECBMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2FFrazYUwKjcKdt1_GQnkY

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/SIPRI%2520Yearbook%25201987.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwi1g8Hi_7aJAxX1SfEDHUTuOqkQFnoECBcQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2OcKRtbkniMIMdzMQZG8vD

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/SIPRI%2520Yearbook%25201986.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiCoqbb_7aJAxUDSPEDHYYXB0IQFnoECBYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0ktslZ7w-vQXUHMG2PBNOR 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/SIPRI%2520Yearbook%25201988.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwi41Izay7aJAxU1Z0EAHVzEByAQFnoECBMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2FFrazYUwKjcKdt1_GQnkY 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/SIPRI%2520Yearbook%25201990.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiDpp3Uy7aJAxVUWUEAHesrM-MQFnoECBIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1E0YqMwCXfIu_a6sHIftbX 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/SIPRI%2520Yearbook%25201989.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwi5x6W2y7aJAxV4bEEAHZNQINIQFnoECA8QAQ&usg=AOvVaw3oKBb5dx10XwBFnTmWNVo3 

Ukraine military modernization 

https://sturgeonshouse.ipbhost.com/topic/61-ukrainian-armor-oplot-m-t-64m-bulat-and-other/page/41/ 

http://armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/Modern/20150922/ 

https://defenceindepth.co/2017/07/05/ukraines-military-reform-and-the-conflict-in-the-east/ 

https://www.army.mil/article/189276/with_us_help_ukraine_may_put_brigades_through_new_combat_training_center_by_2018 

https://uatv.ua/en/ukroboronprom-will-begin-modernization-of-the-anti-aircraft-missile-system-video/ 

https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukraine-returns-decommissioned-s-125-missile-systems-to-service-how-viable-is-the-pechora-in-combat-today 

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/10480 

https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2015/07/25/ukraine-military-seeks-to-modernize-past-soviet-era/ 

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/23/ukraine-russia-military-buildup-capabilities/ 

https://defence-blog.com/ukraine-modernise-s-300v1-air-defence-system/ 

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/is-ukraines-reformed-military-ready-to-repel-a-new-russian-invasion/ 

https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2018/02/ukraines-toughest-fight-the-challenge-of-military-reform?lang=en 

https://www.fpri.org/article/2018/08/the-ukrainian-military-from-degradation-to-renewal/ 

https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-modernizing-military-to-make-war-more-costly-for-moscow-2021-6 

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/23/ukraine-russia-military-buildup-capabilities/ 

https://www.fpri.org/article/2018/08/the-ukrainian-military-from-degradation-to-renewal/ 

Ukraine air defence systems 

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220319-boosting-ukraine-s-anti-air-batteries-proves-easier-said-than-done 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/bulgarianmilitary.com/2023/11/30/s-300-air-defense-was-used-in-ukraine-against-five-ground-targets/ 

Aid to Ukraine 

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/24/1246923885/what-congress-60-billion-of-military-aid-for-ukraine-could-mean-for-the-battlefi 

https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/news/eu-leaders-agree-eu50-billion-reliable-financial-support-ukraine-until-2027-2024-02-02_en#:~:text=2%20min%20read-,EU%20Leaders%20agree%20on%20%E2%82%AC50%20billion%20of%20reliable%20financial,support%20between%20now%20and%202027. 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://philarchive.org/archive/RADAOI&ved=2ahUKEwjh2dXDtemIAxWTnf0HHRb_E70QFnoECCIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2nq5t3N9uXOXIvUSpFWNbJ 

https://www.statista.com/topics/10515/western-military-aid-to-ukraine/#editorsPicks 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_aid_to_Ukraine_during_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War?wprov=sfla1 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.statista.com/chart/amp/28489/ukrainian-military-humanitarian-and-financial-aid-donors/ 

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3189571/725-million-in-additional-security-assistance-for-ukraine/ 

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/conflict-ukraine 

Gulf War

Equipment 

IISS The Military Balance 1990-1991 p101-104. IISS Strategic Survey 1990-1991 p44-79 / p93-98. Gulf War Factbook p30-71. Desert Shield Factbook p22-63. Weapons of Desert Storm p8-32. Jane’s All the World's Aircraft 1991-1992 p145. The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World 1990-1991 p262-264.

Events 

43 Days the Gulf War p63-173. The Gulf War: A day by day Chronicle pt. 3 Desert storm. Gulf War Factbook p72-93.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Operation-Desert-Shield 

https://www.history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/resmat/dshield_dstorm/desert-shield.html 

https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/art/exhibits/conflicts-and-operations/the-gulf-war-1990-1991--operation-desert-shield--desert-storm-.html 

https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/persian-gulf-war 

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-middle-east-studies/article/abs/anthony-h-cordesman-iraq-and-the-war-of-sanctions-conventional-threats-and-weapons-of-mass-destruction-westport-conn-praeger-1999-pp-717-anthony-h-cordesman-irans-military-forces-in-transition-conventional-threats-and-weapons-of-mass-destruction-westport-conn-praeger-1999-pp-432/3FF3DC6EC4AE30006F49EE2EB8204B25#

https://www.britannica.com/list/persian-gulf-war-timeline 

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1989-1992/gulf-war#:~:text=The%20invasion%20of%20Kuwait%20led,Kuwait%20on%20February%2028%2C%201991. 

https://www.ala.org/winner/encyclopedia-middle-east-wars-united-states-persian-gulf-afghanistan-and-iraq-conflicts-0 

https://www.britannica.com/event/Persian-Gulf-War#ref15351 

Georgian war

Equipment 

https://web.archive.org/web/20110128165000if_/http://www.cast.ru/files/The_Tanks_of_August_sm_eng.pdf

https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2022/10/russias-wars-listing-equipment-losses.html?m=1 

Georgian war events 

https://www.csis.org/analysis/georgia-russia-war-and-nato 

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/5-day-long-russo-georgian-war-begins 

https://www.forcesnews.com/world/remembering-russo-georgian-war 

Georgian war history 

https://www.history.com/news/russia-georgia-war-military-nato 

https://warontherocks.com/2018/08/the-august-war-ten-years-on-a-retrospective-on-the-russo-georgian-war/ 

Grenada 

Equipment 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Grenada?wprov=sfla1 

invasion timeline 

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/united-states-invades-grenada 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://sociology.yale.edu/sites/default/files/invasion_of_grenada_foresight.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjyoLmEk96IAxURYEEAHQAtEu8QFnoECD0QAQ&usg=AOvVaw1uDfAeDgN5x_sdWgDWSF6S 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/25/the-us-invaded-the-island-of-grenada-40-years-ago-the-legacy-of-revolution-lives-on 

https://www.britannica.com/event/U-S-invasion-of-Grenada 

Reasons for Grenada 

https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/116695/18-10-2023/grenada-1983-left-wing-government-crushed-by-us-invasion/ 

Operation praying mantis 

events 

https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Operation_Praying_Mantis 

https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/middle-east/praying-mantis.html 

https://www.navybook.com/no-higher-honor/timeline/operation-praying-mantis/ 

Equipment 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Praying_Mantis?wprov=sfla1 

Afghanistan

 invasion timeline 

https://www.britannica.com/event/Afghanistan-War 

https://www.outlookindia.com/making-a-difference/how-jimmy-carter-and-i-started-the-mujahideen-news-213722 

https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/war-afghanistan 

https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/afghanistans-socialist-years-the-promising-future-killed-off-by-u-s-imperialism/ 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GxcTYefNVhg 

https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/telephone-conversation-between-soviet-premier-alexei-n-kosygin-and-afghan-premier-nur 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000499320.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiUu-jGlN6IAxWDT0EAHRx-HHk4ChAWegQIGBAB&usg=AOvVaw2VipL6JlzmVEWl0vrHEFyo 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000499320.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiUu-jGlN6IAxWDT0EAHRx-HHk4ChAWegQIGBAB&usg=AOvVaw2VipL6JlzmVEWl0vrHEFyo 

https://www.alternativeinsight.com/Afghan_War.html 

https://www.britannica.com/event/Soviet-invasion-of-Afghanistan 

https://www.history.com/news/1979-soviet-invasion-afghanistan 

https://youtu.be/Nk4aTNz-Jdo?si=nJCBV1CGPMFAaJ5Y 

History and outline of conflict. 

https://www.alternativeinsight.com/Afghan_War.html 

https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-6/afghan.htm 

https://socialistworker.co.uk/features/afghanistan-first-the-russians-then-the-us/

https://youtu.be/hp71RPL1iAw?si=OJVejYFulrqBtnyB 

https://youtu.be/KRZdmDbNRCI?si=l3J2Kf0qCvFz0276 

https://youtu.be/G3izD18ogig?si=cijN8WTMwpGV_x2e 

https://youtu.be/HpQd4OfD6no?si=ndrh_ZPGYfJ_Dm8Z 

https://youtu.be/wvK0Y_u8D7g?si=JopuUwx4_qPscJPN

https://youtu.be/qC-KMmNqA8s?si=077DoznBb1bnga0m 

https://youtu.be/5adzjaNMrgo?si=-oOpmZksJvOoK3Dd 

https://youtu.be/1R-y2wau7po?si=dHNzluY1baKF6shp 

https://youtu.be/ErmC0U8wt2o?si=G35xaJbrXeCWdMmv 

https://youtu.be/K-DrmefJJGA?si=glYxMYSgnPxHFFYN 

USSR Vs USA 

Equipment 

IISS: Military Balance 1991-1992 p12-29 / p30-45. The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World 1990/1991 p553-668 / p747-918. Jane's Fighting Ships 1990-1991 p581-667 / p710-799. Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1991-1992 p325-496 / p230-298. Soviet Military power 1988 p49-76 / p89-102, Weapons and tactics of the Soviet Army p106-457.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/SIPRI%2520Yearbook%25201990.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjV9aS72raJAxUSTkEAHSSUDyMQFnoECBcQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1E0YqMwCXfIu_a6sHIftbX 

https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/av-main.htm 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/SIPRI%2520Yearbook%25201991.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjt-pS22raJAxWja0EAHQHhKnIQFnoECBIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2Il6p0S8TBbBrRrBWFL7Ut