Chinese Stealth Fighter Joins Ground Attack Fighter/Bomber

[Yogimus]

Something America has always had a problem with is understanding the mentality of the soviets. They were purely on the defensive. Their entire doctrine was based on very real fear. WE were the aggressors in the cold war as far as they were concerned.

[Netpackrat]

Something America has always had a problem with is understanding the mentality of the soviets. They were purely on the defensive. Their entire doctrine was based on very real fear. WE were the aggressors in the cold war as far as they were concerned.

Any US failure to grasp the true extent of Russian paranoia, and mistaking it for expansionism probably had a little to do with the way that they subjugated something on the order of half of Europe.

[Termite]

The paranoia of the Russian soul cannot be overestimated...........

........which makes me wonder how many legal pages there will be in Eugene's pre-nup...................

[Yogimus]

Russia subjugated europe because it needed to hide its army among civilian populations... remember when we had the bomb and they didn't? Remember how our military was saying we should take russia "Since we are there", and then we elected a general as president? O you better believe the russians took notice. It was the ONLY card they could play.

[randy]

Back in the cold war days I could often gauge how clued in (or clueless) someone was about the situation by their reaction to the statement "I have great respect and admiration for the Russian people. It's Soviets I despise".

Sad how many people could not see the distinction. Particularly sad (and scary) how many in the military could not.

[Greg]

Something America has always had a problem with is understanding the mentality of the soviets. They were purely on the defensive. Their entire doctrine was based on very real fear. WE were the aggressors in the cold war as far as they were concerned.

Any US failure to grasp the true extent of Russian paranoia, and mistaking it for expansionism probably had a little to do with the way that they subjugated something on the order of half of Europe.

Yes, but they honestly did it, in the belief that they needed to, in order to keep their borders safe.

The paranoia of the Russian soul cannot be overestimated.

A fear-biter dog still bites YOU, not the other way around.

Being objectively expansionist and perpetually on the strategic offensive for *centuries* may have an internal mental and emotional defensive 'justification', but you're still expansionist and perpetually on the strategic offensive.

[Highspeed]

Back in the cold war days I could often gauge how clued in (or clueless) someone was about the situation by their reaction to the statement "I have great respect and admiration for the Russian people. It's Soviets I despise".

Sad how many people could not see the distinction. Particularly sad (and scary) how many in the military could not.

I have met quite a few Russians, I worked as a consultant for one guy for several years. I could never square the idea of the 'Evil Empire' with the people I knew. I liked them more than I did most English folks.

[Kommander]

This is especially true when you understand that for over a thousand years, the Russians strategy when facing invaders was always to use their space as a defensive buffer. Fall back far beyond the enemies lines of communication, and use that space and time to exhaust them and their supplies... and let winter do the rest...

The one time they were not able to do this, the mongol invasion of the 13th century; they were utterly destroyed, and in fact never truly recovered over the course of 700 years (prior to the Mongol invasion, the Rus were the most advanced society in eastern europe; afterwards they were always 200 years behind the rest of europe)... which is a wound that is still on the Russian soul today.

The US was their first opponent since the Mongols that could not be dealt with via their traditional space and winter tactics. Vast spaces and inclement temperatures not an issue for long range bombers and ICBMs. Combine this with the fact that the US was essentially unreachable by ground forces while NATO could theoretically march all the way to Moscow and their position becomes clearer. And then there is the Chinese...

[Rich]

You also have to factor in their need for a warm water port to resupply ala Murmansk, but on a greater scale.

[Yogimus]

Also, the faster our planes got, the further their AAA had to reach. Look up the soviet anti air defense system to get a glimpse of their paranoia.