Russian military speculated 2nd strongest in world

Russian military speculated 2nd strongest in world

abcnews.go.com

American intelligence believes Russia's military may have rebounded to become the second most powerful in the world, behind only the United States, after suffering from mismanagement and insufficient resources after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

(visit the link for the full news article)

it sounds to me that maybe there trying to make people fear russia somewhat and use it with the current situation in georgia to create an even greater bias against them for some future events or sanctions. Why come out and say hey this country possibly has the second strongest in the world in the first place?

abcnews.go.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Since when did they loose the position of having the 2nd strongest military? If your talking about ground and air forces they have held that position since the end of WW2 IMO. When it comes to naval forces it could be argued both the UK and France are stronger.

Twist there is an element of fearmongering but the problem is that whilst America has had its attention held elsewhere the Russian economy and military have been growing at a greater rate than in the US.

The actions in Georgia by Russia have caught the US napping and given them a nasty shock, they thought the bear was tootless, well as they say never take your eye off the ball.

Originally posted by twistingtree


it sounds to me that maybe there trying to make people fear russia somewhat and use it with the current situation in georgia to create an even greater bias against them for some future events or sanctions. Why come out and say hey this country possibly has the second strongest in the world in the first place?

abcnews.go.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

It does have a scent of fear mongering dejour doesnt it? The fact is with people waking up to the fact that the war on terror was a scam the military industrial complex and banking industries need an enemy to keep the money rolling. So why not Russia?

Originally posted by magicmushroom
Twist there is an element of fearmongering but the problem is that whilst America has had its attention held elsewhere the Russian economy and military have been growing at a greater rate than in the US.

Also the Russians have nearly no debts, while the US has the insane 9,6 trillion dollar debt it has been building under the Bush regime.

The US government are either pure muppets or they know something the rest of us dont. Maybe they are planning to crash the economy world wide so their fall from world power wont matter.

Oh, and a comment to the OP... this is just daily US routine, diverting the attention somewhere else. I have no doubt Fox News can make Americans fear Russia when the time comes.


[edit on 22-8-2008 by Copernicus]

Originally posted by Copernicus

Oh, and a comment to the OP... this is just daily US routine, diverting the attention somewhere else. I have no doubt Fox News can make Americans fear Russia when the time comes.

Like their news broadcast on the situation in South Ossetia?

They found themselves another angry, misinformed, blond bimbo who hates anything that isn't America to talk about the situation.

Problem was, they didn't report on facts, and they opened with an opinion section, asking questions to people who didn't seem like they were very intelligent at all
... they opened with "Some people liken Russia to Hitler... Evil... Hitler. What do you say to that, that Russia is Evil, Hitler?"

It was like she had OCD and had to say Hitler and Evil as many times as possible before the guy responded. She emphasized those words as if it gave her incredible pleasure to say them.


I'll just say what I usually say.
You don't check Jerry Springer for local events or dating advice,
So don't check Fox for your news.

i do not see who else could be second as military power indeed.Possible EU would do it but only if you count all the 28 member states..

The thing I found really interesting is that they're "speculating" that Russia is the second strongest military in the world but they don't offer to name the countries in competition. They said Britain and France MAY have stronger naval power but beyond that who else competes with Russia for second?

I think they leave that part out because besides Russia the only other countries I can think of with extensive military are China, Iran, Britain, Germany, and MAYBE France. 2 of those have more or less taken Russia's side and I believe they're trying to avoid implicating China and Iran which leads me to believe this is fear mongering against Russia. Once they vilify Russia anyone who allies with them is automatically seen as a bad guy.

EDIT TO ADD: Iran may not have the technology or missile capacity but they have, like China, sheer numbers. Per capita Iran has more militarily trained personnel than most countries. They also have a very large population.

[edit on 22/8/2008 by Scurvy]

This is an interesting turn. For serveral years now, the world has been complaining about the US. A few years from now, those same people may very well be begging the US to intervene so that they don't end up russian.

To put as different perspective on this. Russia has been the second most power military in the world for years. They have ICBM's with nukes that can destroy anything, anywhere.

However, they couldn't invade Peru if their life depended on it. They don't have the navy or air force capability to invade outside a regional area which is bordered by their great land.

This limits their actual military force. Without a doubt, they can destroy the USA or even China, but they couldn't invade the USA but they could invade China. No, they will not come over the north pole, they still need boats for logistics.

This is the difference in a super power and a strong regional power. China fall under the same category, but Russia has many more missiles and warheads.

LOL SPECULATED?

I'm sorry, but thats laughable. Russia have still been a super power since the soviet union.
Russia! RUSSIA! HELLO? RUSSIA!
Russia could own China and India at once. Half-decent Chinese military equipment practicly comes from Russia, and everything chinese make are copy's of old generation technology. China's population doesn't mean # when it comes to Russia.

Russia - Small pox weaponized strain

Release small pox into China and because of its mass population it would spread so rapidly and infect practicly everyone! I doubt even 1% of the population could be saved.


I am sick of talking nukes. I am sure nukes are ancient technology. I am also sure there is # we (ATS) could not imagine until we are presented with it.

[edit on 22-8-2008 by Nikolas]

America thinks it's stronger than Russia? If so, why does it suck so badly when it comes to conflicts? How come Iraq still isn't really pacified? Wtf is happening in Afghanistan - neither the Yanks or the Ruskies could sort out a bunch of turban-wearing nomads, ffs.

I think pretty much all these "superpowers" have vastly overinflated opinions of themselves and their capabilities.

That said, Luxembourg for the win!

The U.S.A I think are leaving the enemy alive for an excuse to continue occupation.

Originally posted by magicmushroom
Twist there is an element of fearmongering but the problem is that whilst America has had its attention held elsewhere the Russian economy and military have been growing at a greater rate than in the US.

The actions in Georgia by Russia have caught the US napping and given them a nasty shock, they thought the bear was tootless, well as they say never take your eye off the ball.

in the article it says 'Military spending increased several-fold under former President Vladimir Putin, buoyed by booming oil and gas revenues. " i thinkits a case that people are grossly misinformed from our own news media.

reply to post by twistingtree


Since when they got upgraded I thought that China was second. I guess it depends who is in the eye at the moment.

I remember reading a magazine a while back talking about the big nations military in the world, China with all the technology they are getting their hands on thanks to the oversight of American outsourcing into their nation and all the surplus money they are amassing are the ones with the best marks after the US.

Originally posted by C.C.Benjamin
America thinks it's stronger than Russia? If so, why does it suck so badly when it comes to conflicts? How come Iraq still isn't really pacified?

the purpose of going to Iraq was not the one you mention. I guess they did well , just that the purpose was not to bring pace.

[edit on 22-8-2008 by sty]

Originally posted by C.C.Benjamin
America thinks it's stronger than Russia? If so, why does it suck so badly when it comes to conflicts? How come Iraq still isn't really pacified? Wtf is happening in Afghanistan - neither the Yanks or the Ruskies could sort out a bunch of turban-wearing nomads, ffs.

I think pretty much all these "superpowers" have vastly overinflated opinions of themselves and their capabilities.

That said, Luxembourg for the win!

The only way to effectivly kill all the insurgency is to slaugter every civilian in Iraq because there is absolutely no way to identify an insurgent until he has already fired his RPG or Kalashnikov at you.

And obviously that first option is not a valid option.

Oh, and the Soviet Union at their peak lost in Afghanistan. Just thought I would point that out.

Originally posted by johnsky

Problem was, they didn't report on facts, and they opened with an opinion section, asking questions to people who didn't seem like they were very intelligent at all
... they opened with "Some people liken Russia to Hitler... Evil... Hitler. What do you say to that, that Russia is Evil, Hitler?"

That reminds me of the NLP Thread. Maybe it was a way for her to keep linking Russia to "Hitler" and "Evil" So that those three words would be embedded in the minds of people prone to that sort of thing. People would love nothing more than to defeat another "Hitler".

As for the OP's post: I don't see it as fear mongering really. The analogy I would use is when they are trying to build up hype for an upcoming boxing event. It's only extremely interesting if you have two fighters who are near equals. You know? Like saying, Hey Russia is perty dang strong. So's the US. Wouldn't it be fun to see who would ACTUALLY win between the two? Place your bets here! Place your bets here!

so think about what I said above. You link Russia to Hitler and people will rally to throw their support to behind toppling an "evil" country such as Russia, who might as well be run by "Hitler". It's not fear mongering that's going on. It's rallying.

Think about it...all those people that are always saying, "let's nuke the heck out of em" "Show em whose boss" and those who just love to see a good fight ( I was at the fair the other day and was incredibly embarrassed for the human race when a huge group of people started hauling butt from one side to the other. I mean they were running really fast. We asked what the commotion was all about and found out it was just a stupid fight!! I mean, people were running with their kids in strollers and one girl (quite hilariously actually) was dragging her boyfriend behind her).

A heck of a lot of people would just love to see something like that go down just to say they were there to see it. Incredibly sad, yes. But such is human nature. Especially when your an entire continent away and don't have to worry about getting blood splatter all over your spiffy new clothes.

reply to post by ben420
[more]
So does that mean, solely by your logic, we should lock up every male because he could be a pedophile. We should kill anyone who has a gun, knife, hatchet, chainsaw, vehicle, rope because they could be a serial killer. I'm sure you see where I'm going with this.