Yeah - it was an O5 centric response, sorry ?
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Europe under extreme duress
- Thread starter Randy Daytona
- Start date
I also agree the Navy (especially certain communities) should value education more highly. Your explanation of how to get As at NPS is way overly cynical and unrealistic, and you're leaving out the bit where you have to write a ~100 page master's thesis in liberal arts degrees or complete a significant research project in technical degrees. Is it Harvard? No. But what you're pedaling is called "bad gouge".
You're also forgetting that most officers over O-3 have done JPME, and only a small percentage went to NPS. Most got masters degrees from regular schools' distance learning programs that had nothing to do with JPME. You're conflating lots of things under the assumption that everyone had the same pathway and experience you did.
It sounds like you had a prof who graded you down because you didn't agree with what he was trying to teach you, and you let that experience jade you to the whole thing.
IMO, he gets the overall big picture right, but I think he also is wrong about some things. For example, I would argue that part of the reason Russia lacks a road network is precisely because of their fear of invasion. After what Germany did to them in WWII, and seeing how the lack of roads slowed the Germans down, the last thing they wanted was an established road system that would let the "Imperialist" West be able to drive straight to Moscow.
On the issue of Ukrainian identity, I'm not sure what he means about the Ukrainians developing an identity as of late; they've had an identity for much longer than that. For example, part of what led to Chernobyl happening was the Russification of Ukraine, where they were trying to basically wipe out Ukrainian culture, and so Ukrainian journals that recognized the design flaws of that reactor were ignored and suppressed.
On the issue of trucks for supply, the Western nations also use trucks for supply on land, the issue is the Russians didn't have a lot of trucks in comparison to the numbers of troops and tanks they had/have, and they didn't do any convoy defense to protect said trucks, so they were easy targets for the Ukrainians. He says there has never been a conflict before in Russian history where they didn't pull out until losing at least half a million men, but what abut Afghanistan? They didn't lose any 500,000 there and had to pull out anyway.
This is more a nitpick as it likely doesn't count for modern Russia, but it is absolutely not true that the Russian way to fight has always been to just throw bodies at the problem. That is an old canard that was popularized by the German generals after WWII to excuse the fact that they lost to the subhuman untermensch and because of how post-Soviet Russia, lacking any skill, would fight smaller nations. The reality is the Soviets showed tremendous tactical, operational, and strategic brilliance in fighting the Germans and the Germans showed some surprising ineptitude. The Soviets operated at a higher level of understanding of war than the Germans. Also it is overly simplistic to say that the first year is "always" a shit show. The only reason that was the case with WWII was because Stalin had decapitated the Soviet military. Prior to that, the Red Army was actually among the more sophisticated armies in the world.
The Soviets are who invented the operational level of warfare as a concept, and the adoption by the U.S. military of the operational concept was due to influence from the Soviets. The U.S. Army's Air-Land Battle doctrine (they have since introduced newer doctrines built on this), introduced in 1982, was based off of Soviet operational warfare and involved the study of texts by the seminal Soviet military thinkers on the subject along with study of how the Soviets fought the Germans in WWII.
This reminds me of a discussion about Africa in the book The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuściński (which is an absolute must read if you are working in that theatre). He said the perception a lot of people have of Africa history is of the Europeans showing up and splitting the continent into smaller pieces, but that really it was the Eurpeans taking a million independent tribes and combining them into just a few pieces. Recipe for constant fighting.
I think every place over in Eastern Europe and that area is like that. They never forget their history.
To pile on what Random said, I did some Googling after hearing him say things like that Patriarch Kiril is “the Eastern Orthodox Pope.” He’s not. If anyone, that’s Patriarch Bartholemew of Constantinople.
Bottom line, he seems to be punching up the impact of demographics in China and Russia to sensationalize the idea that these societies are going to collapse as opposed to stagnate and muddle around.
But I’ll defer to @Gonzo08 and his fancy taxpayer-funded education on the Rooskies. ?
Bottom line, he seems to be punching up the impact of demographics in China and Russia to sensationalize the idea that these societies are going to collapse as opposed to stagnate and muddle around.
But I’ll defer to @Gonzo08 and his fancy taxpayer-funded education on the Rooskies. ?
Keep in mind that Eastern Orthodox is not the same as Russian Orthodox (kind of like Episcopalians vs Church of England). You are correct with reference to Bartholomew but most Russians would consider Kiril their “pope” in that sense.
I’m aware, and that’s exactly my point. Saying that Kiril is the “Eastern Orthodox Pope” and then making throwaway remarks to the Russians’ “crazy religion” doesn’t convince me he knows what the F he’s talking about regarding other things. It makes me think a) he doesn’t understand like you and I do that Eastern Orthodoxy and Russian Orthodoxy are not the same thing, and b) he’s scoffing at the traditions of Russian Orthodoxy beyond the way Kiril and Putin are abusing them. Maybe he scoffs at religion in general, but if so, that’s a huge blind spot in his analysis.
Both traditions are legitimate religions with a history of being closely intertwined all the way back to the Kyivan Rus’. And the fact that they’re at loggerheads to the point of schism over the Ukraine question is, as POTUS would say, a Big Fucking Deal. If you don’t understand the religion, you can’t understand how Kiril and Putin are warping it, all jokes aside about gay demons.
Ahh, I see what you meant now. Spot on.
Uhhhh i mean we are talking about Joe Rogan here right? Did you need more convincing of that?
I meant his guest; the ship sailed a long time ago on Rogan himself.Uhhhh i mean we are talking about Joe Rogan here right? Did you need more convincing of that?
There ever was a ship regarding Rogan? I always thought he only was credible as an MMA commentator and comedian for a time, but otherwise, is just "a guy" with a show in which he interviews various people. I give him credit though for standing up to the politically correct and having all sorts of people on.I meant his guest; the ship sailed a long time ago on Rogan himself.
What makes Joe so popular is that he has people from all walks of life on his show and just…talks to them, and actively listens. Our world is hungry for civil discourse and new perspectives, and to hear someone speak freely and unfiltered gives people the ability to make their own opinions about topics with info that’s “straight from the horses mouth” instead of being filtered or skewed through another medium (article, blog, cable news, soundbite, etc).
The fact that so many people just smugly dismiss him outright as if he’s some sort of nut, is just intellectually dishonest. The guy isn’t a genius or scientist, or a mathematician, nor does he claim to be, and sure he may personally believe in some oddball things, but he’s facilitating the thing that our splintered society needs right now.
My problem with him is is gives folks airtime that shouldn't get it on his show, at all. I'm not talking about folks who are just controversial but people who are blatant racists, anti-Semitic and believe some of the worst conspiracy theories.