My opinion a great story of what the Russian's witnessed during the Gulf War and brought the downfall of the Soviet Union in December 1991. Enjoy and God Bless !!!

At the time I was assigned in DC and heard Soviets had watched the “push button war”then exclaimed “ We were going to fight that?”

I watched, while likely truth woven in seems made for a Hollywood movie. I do think our military was peaking at the time, just as Gulf War 1 was manifesting itself.

I was in the Gulf just prior to the Iraqis going into Kuwait. At the time I was taken aback at the intel we had available. I was also down the echelon a bit, not even privy to top shelf intel.

One thing that’s true, the number of soldiers with a rifle doesn’t mean what it used to. Even now you hear mention of sizes of a military force, down the list a ways with importance.

Regardless, I’d say there were realizations coming to the forefront for the Soviets over the outcome of that military execution. In a similar sense, I think we are more than taking notes of what’s going on in Ukraine.

The Gulf War in 1991 was the straw that broke the Soviet Union's back. They were totally shocked at how advanced we were and how FAST we moved.

Well, as someone with no military experience or education, only a layman's knowledge from book reading, I would be very interested in a good discussion of where we have gone since 1991. I think that marked the zenith of our relative military power compared with our "adversaries".

My thinking, based only on online reading, is that Russia still has only nuclear weapons as a deterrent to utter defeat; they seem to be throwing their troops into Ukraine to be slaughtered, with relentless brutality not significantly different from Stalin and Zhukov's way of fighting war. They willingly, mercilessly attack civilian populations. And despite fighting a seriously overmatched enemy, they are unable to gain territory.

Russia is finished. I'm very sad; as some of you know I spent not just one year but a number of years doing what I could to try to reform the Soviet health care system; in the end I and people like me were defeated by the equivalent of Soviet hardliners, and the "revanchism" of Putin's Russia.

Russia's weakness is clear to China. Likely either China will take over substantial parts of Siberia eventually, or there will be a nuclear war between Russia and China.

China, on the other hand: will our "general staff" be watching live news reports one day that show that the Chinese were adept at learning from our strengths and weaknesses, developed a new way of warfare, and annihilated our fleet, our Marine expeditionary units, our Air Force? Or will they and their Fifth Column succeed in weakening the fighting will of American forces that they are pussies unable and unwilling to do what has to be done?

Israel, using American-style tactics, weapons, and technology, have been successful in, for example, completely eliminating Iran's air defense systems, so that the IAF had air dominance over Iran in the 12-hour war. But they are fighting because the survival of Israel depends on it; and because they were so humiliated by the apathy preceding October 7.

Thank God we right now have a president, a SecWar, a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs who are working hard to counter the self-imposed weakness of the Obama/Biden years. Will we have the time? The resources? The will to continue? Will the country give us the chance to return to hyper power dominance?

I, for one, and as one who is not involved with military theory or preparations, am concerned that something comparable is happening vis a vis the Ukraine war. The advent of drone warfare hopefully has our military leaders studying how to respond to those tactics and lowered bars to building and deploying such munitions so as not to be caught in the "preparing to fight the last war" syndrome. The Russkies are certainly getting lots of practice in 21st Century warfare.

It appears we continue to lead in stealth, space, and C&C, but for how long? The gap seems smaller than it was 25 years ago. Perhaps someone knowledgeable about these matters might chime in.

I believe that our philosophy of Governance (that ultimately values individual freedoms) will always be superior to one that espouses central planning, but I'm seeing inroads into that as well.

The video in the OP is a great reminder of the importance of maintaining a strong military, both for practical reasons and also for political ones.

We also went up against a 3rd World, 1/2 ass, conscripted Army. So we had that going for us.

GPS and Laser guided stuff really helped!
On the Tech side, we were LIGHT YEARS ahead.
We also had our "heart" in the game. Majority of the Iraqis? Hell, they didn't want to be in Iraq, more or less fighting a war.

On the Russian side, they knew about 1/4 of their stuff didn't work.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Russia's weakness is clear to China. Likely either China will take over substantial parts of Siberia eventually, or there will be a nuclear war between Russia and China.

China, on the other hand: will our "general staff" be watching live news reports one day that show that the Chinese were adept at learning from our strengths and weaknesses, developed a new way of warfare, and annihilated our fleet, our Marine expeditionary units, our Air Force? Or will they and their Fifth Column succeed in weakening the fighting will of American forces that they are pussies unable and unwilling to do what has to be done?

Russia is the equivalent of Iraq, an absolute paper tiger. They have decently large population, but even that is insufficient against Ukraine, where they’ve barely made it 100 miles into the country. That’s a large county in the US, it’s damned near laughable.

China is the issue, and we will lose against them eventually. They aren’t stupid, their version of Pearl Harbor will be much more thought out and effective. We should never have built them up, and we should act quickly with other powers before it gets worse.

quote:

Originally posted by CPD SIG:

We also went up against a 3rd World, 1/2 ass, conscripted Army.

But they had lots and lots of supposed latest and greatest Soviet gear and equipment.

quote:

Originally posted by reloader-1:

China is the issue, and we will lose against them eventually. They aren’t stupid, their version of Pearl Harbor will be much more thought out and effective. We should never have built them up, and we should act quickly with other powers before it gets worse.

Not only does China have the potential to equal or exceed our military technology, they have the ability and will to throw bodies into a fight on a scale that would make even the Russians blush.

That video is AI horseshit.

Half the "history" channels are AI driven, meaning there is zero fact checking.

I recently came across one discussing the British actually using B-29 Superfortresses to bomb Germany.

I wouldn't believe a word of it.

Our main weakness is the multiple states using voter fraud to keep the Dems powerful. With a fractured government we are making progress, but the progress would be faster if we were not being held back by the Dems and the never Trumpers.

Similar to the Russians, the old guard does not want to give up power. China threatens us by stealing technology, and weakening our government through corruption. If we can beat back our internal problems, we should do well.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
That video is AI horseshit.

I'm also a bit suspicious. Started being skeptical about 17 seconds in - check out the headline on the monitor, supposedly showing CNN footage:

"OPERANR DUSERT STORM"

I'd not treat this video by itself as dispositive, as plausible as the reactions seem.

Actual historians may have gotten access to records of military conferences from before the fall of the Soviet Union, but I'd want to see the footnotes and sources provided.

This is the problem going forward. Clearly that is AI generated content. The issue though is it factual content or conjecture? In the future AI has the potential to be a fantastic educational/documentary source maker. You feed in legitimate transcripts of speeches and conversations with the ability to “create” the historical actors delivering their actual lines it could be amazing.

Imagine an accurate rendition of the Gettysburg Address that looked real. Cool.

This seems like a combo of facts, quotes, conjecture, and a whole bunch of artistic license to produce this is what a joint meeting of the joint military Soviet leaders “might” have sounded like.

I certainly won’t quote stuff from that video to anybody. lol.

I down vote and block AI generated channels on YouTube.

They probably felt like this guy:

Zero chance anyone from the “Great Patriotic War” was serving in 1991 for the Soviet Union.

quote:

Originally posted by reloader-1:
Zero chance anyone from the “Great Patriotic War” was serving in 1991 for the Soviet Union.

An 18 yo in 1944, when the USSR entered the war, would be 65 in 1991.

The Soviets kept flag guys around their military well into their 60s.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:

1944, when the USSR entered the war

I thought that USSR was attacked by Germany in June 1941, and entered the war at that time.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:

1944, when the USSR entered the war

I thought that USSR was attacked by Germany in June 1941, and entered the war at that time.

That's right; however, Soviet conscription didn't take folks less than 18 (in theory).