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Why Russian Military is SO Unprepared

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by bwilson4web, Nov 25, 2023.

  1. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    For those who haven't served:


    Having served two years during the draft and two years after the draft ended, this brought back a lot of memories. For those who haven't served, this is the briefest of views.

    Bob Wilson
     
  2. theory816

    theory816 Junior Member

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    Which draft was this?
     
    #2 theory816, Nov 28, 2023
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2023
  3. John321

    John321 Senior Member

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    I wonder if posts like this are genuine or just a very sad commentary on the current state of our educational system.
     
  4. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    There seems to be a 50 year boundary between ‘history’ and current events.

    Bob Wilson
     
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i'd say the current educators want nothing to do with that type of history, judging from what our children and grandchildren learned
     
  6. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Sure it was the educators? Could have been the politicians above them.
     
  7. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    It is the same Selective Service, potential military conscription that you registered for at age 18, and keep your address current with that agency until age 26.

    You did do that, didn't you? ;) I had to, and properly did so. The only modern age group of men who never had to register for the military draft are those born between 3/29/1957 and 12/31/1959. All those born earlier or later were required to register.

    Register | Selective Service System : Selective Service System
    Who Needs to Register | Selective Service System : Selective Service System
    https://www.sss.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/WhoMustRegisterChart.pdf

    ss registration.GIF
     
    #7 fuzzy1, Nov 28, 2023
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2023
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    you're probably right, idk who designs the curriculum. i hope it's not those people in texas
     
  9. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    The size of the Texas markets means many text book publishers cater to them.
     
  10. John321

    John321 Senior Member

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    It appears the version of history you learn depends sometimes on where you live:

    I Read 4,800 Pages of American History Textbooks - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

    "In Texas, curriculum standards were set by a Republican-dominated state Board of Education that, in turn, appointed teachers, parents and even an outspoken, socially conservative pastor to review textbook drafts."

    "In California, the process was completely dominated by Democrats, whose appointees, mostly professional educators, have produced what may be the most left-leaning set of curriculum standards in the nation, with new emphasis on L.G.B.T.Q. history, the labor movement and economic inequality."

    No wonder people have such a hard time reaching compromise and agreement - their perception of reality and history is not even grounded in balanced facts -they only learn one side of things - what a shame.
     
  11. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    That’s pretty much how the thought police have operated throughout history
     
  12. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I found this tome in the house a few weeks back, truly have no idea where it came from, how we came to acquire it. I did watch the Ken Burns series; this is the companion book. Should give it a deeper look. A lot of us are products of that war, one way or another.
     

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  13. theory816

    theory816 Junior Member

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    I'm not sure what you mean by this. No one knows everything.
     
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  14. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    The last one.
    Instituted in 1947 after a brief pause following WW-2, it ended in December, 1972.

    The US has an extremely complicated history with compulsory military service, going all the way back to our so-called Civil War.
    In the US, there have been draft riots, draft dodgers, draft substitutions, and draft card burners.
    Draft rioters were shot down in the streets of NYC after Lincoln diverted several regiments of militia and volunteer soldiers after the Battle of Gettysburg to end what's been called the largest civil and most racially charged urban uprising in US history.

    Since no form of life in the universe is more durable than a US government programme, the US Selective Service System is still alive and kicking even today.
    Selective Service System - It’s Your Country. Protect it. : Selective Service System
    Notice anything interesting in their web site? ;)
    Fun Fact:
    Under current law, all biological male U.S. citizens between 18 and 25 (inclusive) years of age are STILL required to register within 30 days of their 18th birthdays.
    I myself received a nasty-gram from Uncle Sam because I had not registered with the SSS.
    The letter arrived on my first submarine.

    Indeed they do not.
    I actually had to peek in the back corner of our nation's basement closet to see if selective service was still a 'thing' because somehow I felt that by now some activist in the Alphabet Mafia would have given it the Confederate Statue treatment.

    SO.
    At the risk of getting this bus back on its intended path......

    The Russian military sucks because they've always relied on quantity being a quality.
    Scientists do this with data, but just as there is a difference between data and facts, there is a difference between a soldier and cannon fodder.
    It's a turism in all militaries that you train like you fight, and fight like you train.
    In the computer world they call this GIGO, or garbage in garbage out.
    In the past, the Russians have always depended on being able to bring more meat to the party when they're playing offense, and relying on their only effective general - General Winter while playing defense.

    The 'Population Bomb' myth and climate change are working against them this time, along with the fact that in the past they were always able to conscript a large number of soldiers from......................Ukraine.


    oops.
     
    #14 ETC(SS), Nov 30, 2023
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2023
  15. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    I had to re-check too, because I hear about it so rarely, but was almost certain that a repeal wouldn't go unnoticed. I almost escaped having to register myself, as there was no registration at the time of my 18th birthday, but President Carter later reached back and snagged me.

    Yes, no one knows everything, but today's young males age 18+ should not have missed this. From the SSS link:

    upload_2023-11-30_10-52-50.png

    Some men my age protested this registration, and a few actually went to prison, though none indicted since 1986. But apparently there are large numbers who are now technically ineligible for certain aid and benefits and jobs because they failed to register.

    Also in protest back then, some women registered too, but that is no longer allowed. But now that women are allowed into combat, and numerous have since died in combat positions, the original reason for not registering women is obsolete. A federal court has ruled that the male-only part of registration is now unconstitutional, but I don't yet see anything about Congress changing the law to extend this requirement to females. For job- and benefit-equity, it should.

    For a million U.S. men, failing to register for the draft has serious, long-term consequences


    EDIT: fixed news link
     
    #15 fuzzy1, Nov 30, 2023
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2023
    John321 likes this.
  16. theory816

    theory816 Junior Member

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    Do you think they'd be able to pull off a draft today?
     
  17. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Prison can be a strong motivator (both for reluctantly complying, and for fleeing the country), if and when a bunch of refuseniks are made into examples. BTDT.
     
  18. John321

    John321 Senior Member

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    Back in the late 60's and 70's people had a sense of duty and obligation to our country. I think most of us knew nothing was free- registering for the draft and serving in the armed services was something you did to pay back your country. For those who were opposed to serving in the Armed Services on religious or other grounds, they could enlist in the Peace Corps to fulfill their duty and obligation to their country.

    You might be able to answer the question you posed yourself.
    Do people feel an obligation to give back to their country and unselfishly serve it today - or do people feel a sense of entitlement that they are owed something?

    The answer to that question would also be the answer to your question - in my opinion.
     
  19. mikefocke

    mikefocke Prius v Three 2012, Avalon 2011

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    Anyone who has tried to get people to volunteer to perform a public service, run for office, vote, or clean up the neighborhood knows the work ethic and love of neighborhood, county, state and country is not what it was. Church either.
     
  20. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    We have history:

    . . . a legend. Ralph Waldo Emerson, America's greatest philosopher, visited Thoreau in jail. Emerson asked, "Henry, why are you here?" Thoreau replied, "Why are you not here?"

    The Mexican-American war:

    A young essayist and poet named Henry David Thoreau staged the best known act of protest against the Mexican war. On July 23, 1846, the constable of Concord, Massachusetts, arrested the Transcendentalist poet for failure to pay the state poll tax (a head tax on male citizens between the ages of 21 and 70). The constable actually offered to pay the tax if Thoreau was short of money, but Thoreau insisted that he refused to pay on principle, as a protest against his country's involvement in the Mexican War. The constable then placed Thoreau in the local jail. Thoreau spent only a single night in jail because his tax was paid, much to his disgust, by one of his relatives.

    In response to his arrest Thoreau wrote an essay that became a source of inspiration for Leo Tolstoi, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Thoreau entitled his essay "Civil Disobedience." In it he declared that if all citizens who opposed the Mexican War followed his example and went to jail for their beliefs, the government could be forced to end the conflict. It was the duty of every individual to protest a government policy, even though it had been adopted with majority consent, when it conflicted with moral law. "Any man more right than his neighbor," he wrote, "constitutes a majority of one."

    So how should an individual protest a moral wrong? Here Thoreau was at his most creative. He described a type of disobedience that disrupted the everyday workings of society and dramatized the moral issues at stake, without resorting to violence. Individual acts of protest, he argued, would awaken the conscience of those people whose consciences could still be stirred.

    Source: Digital History).

    Bob Wilson