Georgian troops abandon their posts, run screaming in terror for home.
Shades of the ARVN running screaming like little girls from the NVA...
What is it with U.S. "training" anyhow? It seems all the U.S. is able to do is train armies to run screaming like little girls whenever someone shoots in their direction. There was an action recently in Afghanistan against the Taliban where nine U.S. soldiers were killed and fifteen wounded that exemplifies that. There were approximately 200 Afghan soldiers and 40 American soldiers involved in this action. Not one -- ZERO -- of the Afghan soldiers were injured at the end of the day. You just know that the moment the first shot came their direction, they ran like the dickens the other way and didn't come back until the U.S. soldiers had saved the day.
U.S. training of foreign militaries seems to go like this, from what I can see:
- This is your rifle, this is your gun. One's for shooting, one's for fun.
- If someone shoots in your direction, throw down your rifle and take your gun the other way.
-- Badtux the War Penguin
It depends on how you define "success." Anybody who clicks that link probably thinks it's about U.S. trained death squads in Central America, but that would be too easy.
ReplyDeleteTux, you err in thinking the U.S. trains militaries to resist OUTSIDERS. That's hard work. Much easier to train them to shoot down their own poorly armed, undertrained citizenry. More profitable for the corporate masters that way.
I didn't used to (ungrammatical, I know, but I grew up in the South) sound like a freaking Marxist. I even voted for John Anderson in the 1980 presidential election. But the more I pay attention to this modern world, the more I like Karl. (The Marx Karl, not the triple K Karl, KKKKarl Rove.)
Badtux, Badtux, Badtux.
ReplyDeleteNot just once, but twice:
running screaming like little girls
run screaming like little girls
Why don't you just call them pussies, while you're at it? Just say they aint got no balls.
All of those characterizations piss me off just the same.
But at least you seem to realize that guns are just penises in disguise.
Bukko called it. Most of our 'military training' is for secret police/army quelling of dissent. It's one thing to grab an educated, middle-class Marxist off the street and torture them. It is quite another to face a determined and armed opponent.
ReplyDeleteAnother reason is the US stealing credit for winning WWII. If the Russians hadn't bled Germany of men and material, we would have had a much more difficult time. Most rational historians point this out. But, we're USA, we're number 1!.
Facts are for the reality-based community.
Mold
Thank you so much. I was busy on Friday & missed the beginning of this and have been unable to find any information on what, exactly, happened. This morning I saw that Russia was withdrawing troops (because we told them to?) and could not figure out why. Russia was right, Georgia started it, oh, but we are allied with Georgia.
ReplyDeleteWhat a CharlieFoxTrot.
Well, Bukko, turns out you're sort of right. It turns out that the U.S. training was in how to take out "guerillas" -- i.e., their own poorly armed, undertrained citizenry.
ReplyDeleteInvisible: You apparently have not examined an elementary school playground recently. I do not understand how such small girls can make such loud screeches, but they definitely can hurt your ears at 100 yards. And yes, they do run, but generally after shoving one of the boys. I'm not quite sure what the name of that game is...
Mold, the Soviet Union was responsible for 75% of the German losses in WWII. The U.S. invasion at Normandy happened after the Soviets had already bled the Germans dry. U.S. trucks sent to the Soviets were probably more important to the Allied victory in WWII than the U.S. invasion at Normandy, because those trucks allowed the Soviets the logistical means to exploit their victories over the Germans. Undoubtedly the U.S. was important to victory in Europe, but the Soviets did 75% of the work.
LLL, basically Georgia decided an offensive against the Russian enclave of South Ossetia (an autonomous region within Georgia which has been de-facto independent since 1991) was in order, despite the presence of Russian peacekeepers and a long-standing truce. So they basically started rubbelizing the main city in South Ossetia, Tskinvali -- including the Russian peacekeepers who were there. Russia took exception to that (duh!). Russia sent in their 19th Mountain Division rapid reaction force from the nearby Vladikavkaz military base, which was intended to take on Chechens who had fled into Ingushetia in the aftermath of the Russian victory in Chechnya but Chechens, Georgians, what's the difference eh? The funny thing here is that the 19th MRD is armed with old 1970's Soviet-era weapons -- they're well trained, but have nothing newer than the early 80's, and Georgian troops were armed with late 80's/early 90's weapons sold to them by the former Warsaw Pact nations when Eastern Europe re-armed with Western weapons. So the Georgian troops were actually better-armed than the initial division of Russian troops who came to kick them out of South Ossetia. Didn't stop them from running away when they saw the Russkies comin', though...
- Badtux the War Penguin
Is it out of line to point out that the Americans were fighting a two-front war, just like the Germans were? I'm not a historian, I don't know the statistics, but the war with the Japan surely consumed more than half the US war effort.
ReplyDeleteEven if the Germans had not made the colossal error of invading the USSR, the US would have hung on long enough to finish the Manhattan Project, and that would have settled the matter.
Just sayin'.
Alan,
ReplyDeleteUS effort in the Pacific did not consume anything approaching half of US military resources in WW2. From the beginning, the US war strategy was "Germany First," notwithstanding the popular fury against Japan. Only a handful of troops (mostly the 1st and 2nd Marine Divisions plus a couple of Army divisions) did most of the fighting until 1944 and they were given lower priority in equipment than troops being sent to Europe (e.g. Marines had to do with M3 tanks and old Springfield rifles while the troops being sent to UK had substantially better (and much underrated, in my opinion) M4 Sherman tanks and new Garand rifles.
Hak, thanks for the details. Like I said, I'm no historian.
ReplyDeleteBadtux, thanks for explaining. I had no idea that little girls ran away screaming. I certainly didn't know about that playground stuff seeing as I've obviously never been on one! Wow, I feel so enlightened.
ReplyDeleteInvisible one, penguins are probably not the best to ask about playgrounds and small girls, since penguins have no personal experience in the matter. Penguins do, however, possess ears and (admittedly small and beady) eyes and can observe little girls screaming and running on the playground. Or, more likely, be annoyed by such since said penguin's bedroom window is approximately 100 yards from said playground (which is on the other side of a parking lot and a seven foot tall concrete-block fence). Nothing like a penguin's nap being interrupted by loud screeches to bring said penguin's attention to the behavior of small girls on said playground.
ReplyDelete- Badtux the can't-sleep-during-daytime Penguin
Yes, well...
ReplyDeleteI love penguins.
I offer the Republic of Korea, their armed forces have done just fine, Korean War, two Presidential selections, Vietnam pacification and currently not to be messed with in the Republic.
ReplyDeleteThe ROK troops during the initial stages of the Korean War were awful. They offered some minimal resistance when the North Koreans invaded, then did that run and scream bit super-quick, and didn't quit running until they hit the Pusan area where they ran out of room to run. They did excellently during the Vietnam War. But by that time they were no longer being trained by the United States, they had adopted whatever lessons they'd learned from the U.S. trainers and were doing their own training. Same deal today. ROK officers will come and study at the War College from time to time, but there are no U.S. trainers in Korea training Korean troops, they do their own training.
ReplyDeleteSo yeah, the ROK troops today are some hard-asses. But I really wouldn't ascribe that to U.S. training. They have their own war academy and their own training, and while they take some info back to their war academy from the U.S. war colleges, that's more along the lines of high-level academic scholarship than anything that I would call "training".
- Badtux the War Penguin
Also, whether Koreans like to admit it or not, South Korean military tradition is much more Japanese than American: their army just before the Korean War was built around a core of veteran Korean officers and NCO's of the Imperial Japanese Army--and some of their antics during the war (they were particularly fond of suicide attacks) and the kind of violence towards civilians they displayed (they were particularly harsh in Vietnam) were carryovers from the Japanese background.
ReplyDeleteHow about the Israeli Army and Armed Forces?
ReplyDeleteI'm not aware that there are U.S. trainers in Israel training Israeli troops. In fact, the Israelis would probably laugh at the U.S. if the U.S. suggested it. The IAF is better trained and more professional than the USAF, and the IDF despite its problems probably is equal to the U.S. Army in professionalism and training and a few elite unites are probably even better. The Israelis train other people how to fight -- not the other way around.
ReplyDelete