[The Lizard of Oz]

(06-14-2014 06:48 PM)weambulance Wrote:  

I agree that the US military is in rough shape. I got out ~5 years ago and it was headed off the cliff then; by all accounts it's much worse now. There's a reason I end nearly every army story with "don't join the army".

If we were engaged in total war, I expect we'd get bloodied badly at first as the weak links sown throughout our military snapped under pressure. Once we weeded out the worthless, and probably brought a whole bunch of Iraq and Afghanistan vets back into the military, we'd be an incredibly effective fighting force again. I'm only in my late 20s. It will be a long while before our recent combat vets are too old to effectively contribute, even if they're just training cadre.

Agreed on all counts -- that is why I noted in the OP that we are likely to suffer initial setbacks before prevailing decisively.

(06-14-2014 06:48 PM)weambulance Wrote:  

As far as the US military being the best in the world, I always thought that was kinda funny when I was in. I mean, holy crap the stories I could tell... If we are the best, what is everyone else like? But the very few times we unleashed more firepower than rifles and machineguns it was extremely impressive and effective. The Iraqis we had as interpreters told us after our first major firefight that involved Bradleys, hellfires from the Kiowas, 40mm grenades, etc that before that they had thought we were pussies because we didn't use much force, but they revised their opinion after seeing us rain hell on the enemy. We turned half a block into slag in 20 minutes in reaction to a complex ambush with just what we had on us, and that was about 5% of what we could do with full air and artillery support.

This is what few people seem to be understand. We have fought every conflict since the last World War, Vietnam included, with at least one hand and sometimes both tied behind our back -- because we are powerful enough to show mercy.

If the US is ever provoked to exercise its full power -- and I believe it is likely that it will be -- well...