# Pitting AK84 **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 21, 2022, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007 "2022-09-21T22:47:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mikkel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikkel/32/13151_2.png) [@Mikkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikkel)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2022, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/21 "2022-09-24T14:54:59Z")
Since the number has been going up, it was bound to reach 1/5 of the total some time. It will probably get to 1/4 too, without it being suspicious. You may argue against the accuracy of the numbers, but almost reaching fractions of the whole does not mean the numbers is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2022, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/22 "2022-09-24T15:20:30Z")
No one cares what a Putin apologist like yourself thinks. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2022, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/23 "2022-09-24T15:21:13Z")
Eh. I’d say it’s more damning for AK84. Even the Putin guy only finds it suspicious, not BS. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2022, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/24 "2022-09-25T18:55:25Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Here, AK discounts Ukrainian reports of Russian losses as “BS” without any evidence For the record, that’s also my opinion. Though I suppose mine is an only slightly more nuanced take that it is probably bullshit. It’s propaganda and as I’ve said from the start neither side can really be trusted to produce even semi-accurate casualty figures. Anymore than the United States’ or North Vietnam’s claims of casualty figures could be accepted during the Vietnam War. You never uncritically accept the numbers produced by a combatant. Never - it should be one of those rules with a name attached to it. Hell, even they probably don’t really know, Fog of War being a thing. Modern reporting and the advances of the information age can offer far more information than we were ever able to ferret out before. Those sites that profess to produce vetted and verified numbers are probably as close as we can get short of access to the internal reports of interested intelligence agencies and even those are almost certainly off (as I’m sure they would admit). So we know Russia is indeed taking it on the chin. But those official tweets Ukraine produces of the lists of all the equipment Russia has lost? Completely untrustworthy IMO. Needless to say, anything coming out of a Russian channel is almost certainly crap as well. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/25 "2022-09-26T15:11:56Z")
Do you get paid when everyone _knows_ you are a Russian comment troll? What does your performance review look like? ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/26 "2022-09-26T15:18:43Z")
I prefer Peter, since my father was not a KGB agent but a municipal worker who operated heavy equipment. Oscar Wilde reflected that Pete’s life was one “of the most perfect lives I have come across in my own experience” and talked of him as “a man with a soul of that beautiful white Christ that seems coming out of Russia.” But now I’m threadpooping. Still not getting all the hate for AK84 and still think there’s a lot of schadenfreude and jingoism in the Russia discussions that don’t help. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/27 "2022-09-26T16:53:55Z")
If you’re not actively rooting for Ukraine to win and Russia to be defeated, which also means cheering for Russian losses and mourning Ukrainian losses, then you probably aren’t going to get most of the discussion, and most of the disdain for AK84. Unlike many conflicts, there is a very clear aggressor, and a very clear “bad guy”, in this one. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/28 "2022-09-26T17:12:33Z")
I think we can all agree that is certainly a viewpoint. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/29 "2022-09-26T17:46:01Z")
No idea why you bothered posting on this thread when you’ve got nothing to say. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/30 "2022-09-26T17:49:35Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > It’s not just the Russia threads. AK is often (usually?) an insufferable and condescending asshat across a number of threads, covering a variety of topics. My “favorite” are any threads about women, civil rights, sexual assault. He’s a tool of the highest order (or should that be lowest). > [@Kropotkin](#): > > I think we can all agree that is certainly a viewpoint. Right back atcha. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/31 "2022-09-26T17:55:03Z")
> [@Kropotkin](#): > > I prefer Peter, since my father was not a KGB agent … Well, if you watch _The President’s Analyst_, you might feel differently, as Kropotkin is a complex character, played skillfully and with depth by Severn Darden. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/32 "2022-09-26T18:47:06Z")
That’s my take on it, but as I recall, his father was a KGB agent, no? ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/33 "2022-09-26T21:28:39Z")
Épater la bourgeoisie ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/34 "2022-09-26T22:49:38Z")
Do you get paid? I would question the smarts of someone who blindly believes a 10 to 1 kill ratio. Especially when both sides have similar equipment. For quite some time had similar training. One side also has more missile and artillery capacity. And uses them. A lot. Yet can’t seem to hit a tank. Somehow the other side can do it 10 times more, with less. I am not saying the numbers are completely wrong. But I suspect, using just logic, that they are actually a lot closer for losses on both sides. ---
**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:** [September 26, 2022, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/35 "2022-09-26T23:19:05Z")
> [@Kedikat](#): > > Especially when both sides have similar equipment. For quite some time had similar training. Neither one is true in this case. Both sides might have had equipment from the same manufacturers, but one side has been properly maintaining that equipment, while the other hasn’t. You’re right, though, that a 10 to 1 kill ratio is hard to believe. Even if that were the real number, Russia’s numerical superiority would have been enough that they’d have won by now. Unless you strictly mean only actual kills by that number, not casualties, including all of the surrenders and defections: Ten kills plus twenty defections for every Ukrainian soldier killed might be enough to account for it. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/36 "2022-09-27T03:21:05Z")
Back to the topic, far more offensive than AK’s lack of humility is his sexism. ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/37 "2022-09-28T02:18:19Z")
I agree a very large percentage of Russian cold war inventory is just scrap value. Even western countries that did not go through that collapse, poorly mothball a lesser amount all the time. I feel they still have a great deal left to throw into Ukraine. Some items are easier to maintain and bring back into service fairly quickly. Some deployed forces away from the Ukraine area can be drawn down. Artillery is a big deal. Already, Russia has an advantage. Enough now to hold a good portion of the lines. If they bring enough to begin leapfrogging lines of artillery in a couple of spots. It could be quite bad for Ukraine to hold against. Tanks? Even if Russia has had far less losses than Ukraine numbers say. I am not sure they have enough good ones to mount any large armoured offensives . They will likely only come in after artillery and missiles have pushed back Ukraine forces far enough to minimize the losses. Act as light mobile short range artillery and cut off force in response to smaller incursions. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/38 "2022-09-28T02:46:18Z")
It would have been nice had this been a putting of someone and rather than a rehash of the Ukraine invasion. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/39 "2022-09-28T13:13:44Z")
Eh, Russia seems to be invading everything these days. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007/40 "2023-01-11T14:53:16Z")
Bump: looks like this guy has managed to get himself suspended for insults in FQ. (See the “is Europe dark and cold?” thread; not linking here to avoid the Discourse linkback.) What a shame. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-ak84/972007.md?page=3)