Presenting the First Chinese Aircraft Carrier, page 7

Originally posted by centurion1211
And one more key point many have missed regarding the U.S. military vs. russia or china, and that is combat experience.

Operational experience, logistical management and certainly some combat experience but comparing the combat experience you gain battling insurgents to that you would need against a first world military is in my opinion wrong. In fact i think what American troops and all levels of command are having to learn are for the most part not beneficial if not the wrong lessons entirely. One must train as you will fight and retraining for counter insurgency combat will not contribute greatly to the combat environments of Central Europe. Admittedly Russian and Chinese troops are not gaining operational or even limited combat experience so i will not claim that experience is bad as that it may not be worth 'training' your armed forces at this sort of cost to the national treasury. I would much rather have the half a trillion and more dollars in equipment, that the occupation of Iraq/Afghanistan has so far cost the US, than lose a hundred thousand men disabled or killed( to say nothing of the exhaustion&stress created in the ground forces in general) for the type of imperial project that in my opinion weakens America's capacity to wage any potential large scale conflict.

While the russian and chinese militaries have been doing basically nothing for many years, the U.S. military has accumulated a decade of combat experience. In fact, one could almost say a generation of combat experience. The individual soldiers may come and go, but many of the NCO's and officers with all that experience are still in the military.

And many have seen enough to want to get out as soon as possible. Ask any long serving member if they enjoy these repeated tours in those countries? Ask the national guardsmen/women? How many of the 2 million and more men and women who have served in those two countries found the experience beneficial to their life in general and how did it influence recruitment? Why did the Pentagon feel compelled to implement all the stop-gap measures that kept hundreds of thousands of service members in combat areas much longer than they were supposed to be and what did it do to their lives? I want to give you a long list of articles you should read but i will rather try to find something comprehensive.

Fact is constant patrols ( it's not combat but the stress and wear on equipment and people is still very high) for more than half a decade takes it's toll and i think you will be surprised to find out how much these occupations have degraded the material and manpower availability in just those few years. Remember the gulf war cost the US more than half a million casualties in the decade after.... How long can the empire keep this up without doing the same type of damage that it did to itself in Vietnam? Do you even know what Vietnam did to the US armed forces?

Stellar