# Allied force vs whatever Russia is doing **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** ukraine-invasion\ **Created:** [May 17, 2023, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allied-force-vs-whatever-russia-is-doing/984188 "2023-05-17T20:57:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2023, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allied-force-vs-whatever-russia-is-doing/984188/21 "2023-05-18T16:00:21Z")
FWIW, there is a really good Great Courses course on Eastern Europe that addresses those countries’ historical frustration with being considered something other than European. Geographically, Russia is a largely Asian country, which probably doesn’t help with that impression. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2023, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allied-force-vs-whatever-russia-is-doing/984188/22 "2023-05-18T23:05:27Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > That’s a real trigger for folks in that area. Ukrainians were complicit in the murder of several million Jews by the Nazis, and I would suspect that’s a sensitive subject. You know who else was complicit with the Nazis? Germany. And yet, Poland nowadays regards Germany as a close ally. Nations change. Especially since almost every individual who actually had anything to do with the Nazis is now dead. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2023, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allied-force-vs-whatever-russia-is-doing/984188/23 "2023-05-19T00:29:22Z")
Putin’s catastrophic decision to invade Ukraine has laid bare how deeply flawed Russia is. He pumped huge money into the military, but it was mostly siphoned off via corruption. They’ve burned through their best front line units because they use conscripts in their maintenance and supply units and they’re best units weren’t supported. Putin has tied success in this war to the foundational myths of his dictatorship and he is losing, badly. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2023, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allied-force-vs-whatever-russia-is-doing/984188/24 "2023-05-19T00:50:59Z")
Sure, forgive and forget, right? Couldn’t possibly happen again, right? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2023, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allied-force-vs-whatever-russia-is-doing/984188/25 "2023-05-19T01:38:20Z")
Poland sees itself as a modern European nation and Germany is an important guarantor of stability in Europe, especially since America’s continued role as guarantor of European peace and stability is not assured, to say the least. Germany is the future of Europe and Poland and Ukraine want to be part of that future. The threat is from the Russian army slaughtering and burning to the east of Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2023, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allied-force-vs-whatever-russia-is-doing/984188/26 "2023-05-19T05:30:39Z")
I’m wondering whether the reason Russia doesn’t fight the way NATO does is because it can’t, or because it won’t. Sure, Russia isn’t a rich nation. But it’s like their strategy and doctrine is fundamentally different. They like ground infantry and artillery, rather than worshiping precision airpower, C4ISRT and joint warfare the way the West does. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2023, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allied-force-vs-whatever-russia-is-doing/984188/27 "2023-05-19T06:56:14Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Sure, forgive and forget, right? Couldn’t possibly happen again, right? “We taught them a lesson, In 1918 And they’ve hardly bothered us since then.” - Tom Lehrer. However things are different. Go to Berlin, and the Brandenburg Gate. There is a haunting, beautiful and honest Holocaust Museum. Even better than the one in DC. Paces away is the spot where Hitler’s body was incinerated. A patch of dirt with no memorial, no honor, just like he deserves. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2023, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allied-force-vs-whatever-russia-is-doing/984188/28 "2023-05-19T11:53:48Z")
> [@JakeRS](#): > > In 2022/23 Russia is signing grain deals with it’s enemy and allowing it’s enemy to safely import hundreds of heavy fighting machines, it even goes further and ocassionally retreats and makes the job even easier for it’s enemy. An enemy which is incomparably much stronger and dangerous to Russia, than Serbia was to NATO. > > How does that make any sense? You answered your own question here. Russia’s military is small and shrinking, as is their economy. They simply don’t have the power to do anything else. If they’d had a democratic form of government, the people would have opted out of this disaster before it even started (not because they like Ukraine but they’d be better situated to understand the costs and make better choices). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/allied-force-vs-whatever-russia-is-doing/984188.md?page=1)