Europe, Boring Until it's Not

[Speaker to Animals]

England better step up their game.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5874667/r ... tradition/

[Smitty-48]

Upon mobilization of the 900,000 Finnish reserves, the Finnish Army is bigger than the US Army, Finland has universal conscription, Finland is bad assed, by any military measure.

5.4 million Finns, 1 million troops, America is a hippie peacenik commune compared to Finland.

Quality over quantity :Rollyclown:

I wouldn't say US forces are better suited to fight in the Lappland than the Finns are, I've worked with US troops and I've worked with some FInns too, I don't think the American troops were particularly better than the Finns, the US Army ain't really all that, pretty average to be honest.

[Zlaxer]

...the US Army ain't really all that, pretty average to be honest.

As a separated (honorable) AF Officer....I have to agree

[Smitty-48]

It's not like the whole US Army is Delta Force, and frankly, the US Army is pretty slack these days, I would say the Finns are tougher on the aggregate, winter warfare drills in the Finnish Lappland, that's a bag drive, the Finns train in a very harsh environment indeed, it's brutal up there in winter, even for the elite.

[Zlaxer]

Wow - No response from the ground pounders? Man, they are slack....

[Smitty-48]

And it's not tank country, it's shit terrain for mechanized, the Lappland is a great equalizer, it's infantry war on skiis, and the Finns are world class masters of that. The Finns on skiis, they fuckin' fly, we could barely keep up with them.

[Zlaxer]

And it's not tank country, it's shit terrain for mechanized, the Lappland is a great equalizer, it's infantry war on skiis, and the Finns are world class masters of that. The Finns on skiis, they fuckin' fly, we could barely keep up with them.

USAF would outright fuck up anything on the ICE....even if they dig in.....

[Smitty-48]

And it's not tank country, it's shit terrain for mechanized, the Lappland is a great equalizer, it's infantry war on skiis, and the Finns are world class masters of that. The Finns on skiis, they fuckin' fly, we could barely keep up with them.

USAF would outright fuck up anything on the ICE....even if they dig in.....

But the USAF can't get into it with the Russians without spooling up to the brink of the abyss, so realistically, the US is not going to be fighting a conventional war on behalf of Finland, probably send them some GB's, but you can't really get into it head to head with the Rooskies, without risking the CONUS to a nuclear firestorm, even just by mistake on a hair trigger, which, since the FInns are not NATO, you're not going to be doing that.

[ssu]

Embarrassed of the kind words, people.

Yet perhaps the problem here is that people simply don't understand deterrence. Seems like bringing up Russia is allways like John Bolton brings up Iran. As if the only outcome and the only solution is war.

Yet deterrence is about avoiding a war.

Acting up on Russia isn't about escalating things to a war, but simply giving the goddam response they are looking for you to give them. If you don't react, they'll just look how much more you can be pushed and will push more. Not responding and having the idiotic idea that any response will surely put everything towards a nuclear confrontation is simply naive and something what useful idiots do.

Russians themselves simply put that deterrence thinking to the extreme. As offence is the best defence, they simply push it to a whole new level. You can have good relations with Russia, as my country does, yet on the same time they truly do have those spetnaz troops in sleeper cells working as ordinary people ready for the hypothetical war. Now if Americans would be doing something similar, having installed undercover agents ready to assassin high level targets in a country, watch the fuck out! Because when John Bolton talks about having a war, he genuinely wants it. Americans simply wouldn't think that "we have good relations with Ireland, but just for caution let's station undercover agents there ready kill high value targets and create havoc in Ireland if the relations went really south, just in case". But that's Russian thinking.

Russians just want to play the influence game and try to improve their position as a Great Power. And as said many times, Putin needs an enemy.

[Smitty-48]

Embarrassed of the kind words, people.

It's not kindness from me, I've seen Finnish units in action for infantry operations on complex terrain particularly for winter warfare, and their doctrine and training is sound, and perfectly suited to fight an asymmetrical action against the Russians on the Finnish Lappland, that's just my professional judgement. I would actually say that the Russians would get their asses handed to them if they bumbled into Finland for a fight, although they'd be able to wreck the place with artillery, I don't think it would win the war for them.