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Georgia war shows Russian army strong but flawed

reuters.com — The conflict -- Russia's biggest combat operation outside its borders since the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan -- showed its armed forces have emerged from years of neglect as a formidable fighting force, but revealed important deficiencies.

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kickoff22 88 days ago

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Who Dugg It?

Joudoki, on 08/21/2008, -2/+4Perhaps maybe we're underestimating them? In all seriousness, take a look at the georgian army. It's not exactly top-rate material. So why send the best of your army and show off your cards when you don't need to?

Kay, I'll stop playing devil's advocate.
BabyWookie, on 08/22/2008, -1/+1Check out the last post on this page:
http://milkavkaz.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=226&pos ...

It's a bunch of photos of what was left of that US-trained and equipped Georgian special forces unit, the one that ambushed that Russian convoy, in which the general was wounded.
- Waiting2awake, on 08/22/2008, -0/+1Should give a warning for that site. Very interesting but I think a body without the top portion of the guys head might be slightly N.S.F.W....
  - BabyWookie, on 08/22/2008, -0/+1True. My bad. Did you notice the Georgian corpse with a pink bra? I wonder WTF that was all about.
djRob, on 08/22/2008, -2/+1http://digg.com/politics/Russians_discover_super_s ...
life38, on 08/22/2008, -1/+8Russia has done nothing different than what NATO did to the Serbs. I am not a fan of Russia but it was pretty clear Georgia attacked a promised protected territory of these. They even went as far as giving passports to the citizens. How foolish of the government of Georgia really thinking it could attack the territory and not get its ass kick by Russia.

However, having said all of this. It is time for Russia to move out of the Georgian territory that is not of the two protected areas. Georgia kiss those areas good bye. NATO has Kosovo to swapped with the Russians.
ThinkOutTheBox, on 08/22/2008, -2/+2I don't know, It would be nice if Russia pulled out its troops, but unfortunately I don't think that's going to happen. We have an armada of battle ships going to the region, Poland signed the missile defense agreement, Ukraine is now harking at us that they want in on the defense shield too, and Russia froze all relations with NATO until further notice. Georgia surrendered its ports and airports to the US which gives us the ability to be able to fly in whatever we need to fight Russia right on her border. That would enable us to put up resistance and stop them from setting up a supply line to Iran if/when Israel or we attack Iran.

There are too many threats flying around from everybody to figure out whats going to happen. Threats from Israel wanting to bomb Iran. NATO and the US threatening Russia with who knows what. Russia threatening to bomb Poland. Russia and Syria have joined up. Pakistan is up in the air because they don't know if the person to replace Musharraf is going to be friendly or an enemy. The Olympics are about to end which then we will find out where China stands in all this.

I'm lost as to whats going to happen I don't think Russia was going to come out with there best weapons when they knew that they could take the Georgian army. As far as Georgia shooting down a few of their planes I'm pretty sure that the Georgian army had some smart missiles that we sold them. One of those things where don't let the enemy know all the cards your holding.

Either way it's not looking good. There is a lot of stuff that needs to be done, but this conflict has been brewing for years.
- BabyWookie, on 08/22/2008, -0/+1I think that in their next election cycles, the leaders of countries like Ukraine, Georgia, Poland and the Czech Republic are going to pay for their hypocritical, militant, anti-Russian stances and for being such neocon ass-lickers.
  
  In Ukraine, the majority of the population is against joining NATO and going against Russian interests. The last I heard, Yuschenko's approval rating was in the single digits. I don't believe that even those millions in US campaign dollars or the jamming of Russian TV channels are are going to help him get re-elected.
  
  After Saakashvilli had shown his authoritarian tendencies by closing opposition TV stations and brutally cracking down on peaceful protesters, his approval rating was in the teens. After this whole affair, the Georgians are initially going to rally around him, but once the depth of his stupid, insane actions set in, he'll be gone as well.
  
  Of course, the leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic signed in on those ABM system deals against the wishes of the majority of their public as well. They are going to pay too.
  
  Of course, the Estonians, Lithuanians and Latvians are once again, going to elect the most hateful, Russophobic assholes they have. That's just their nature.
  - amightywind, on 08/22/2008, -1/+1Public support of the US anti-missile system in Poland went from 35% to 75% overnight. The same thing is happening in Ukraine. Is it logical that any of these former Soviet countries allow small, thuggish, Ruskie enclaves to rule over the peaceful majority. Obviously not. Any country that has been occupied by the Ruskies for 50 years can hardly be called phobic. Their fears are very well founded. If I were a citizen in one of those countries I would demand that they go back to Russia where they belong. Death to Russia.
BohicaTwentyTwo, on 08/22/2008, -0/+2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMP-2#Protection_issu ...

"The problem most often cited by western analysts is the design of the main fuel tanks. Due to the low profile of the vehicle the designers had to place the fuel tanks between the two rows of outward-facing passenger seats, in other words, the infantry passengers actually sit on the bulk of the vehicle fuel storage, with extra fuel carried in the hollow rear doors."

Damn, and people talk about the problems the M2 Bradley has. At least they didn't put the fuel tanks in the middle of the crew compartment. The BMP has a nice low profile compared to the Bradley, but that profile comes at a terrifying cost. No wonder everyone rides on the outside.
MiniCooper2007, on 08/22/2008, -2/+3At first I thought they were using "Chinks in Russian Armor" as degrading to asians.

Then I figured out it was a headline for the army's weakness.
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Georgia war shows Russian army strong but flawed

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