Russian vassalization of Ukraine

[gla22]

Then why is the U.S. and the E.U. going to let Russia take Crimea if Russia is the scrub country you think it is?

[gla22]

[The Comrade]

it's not because we fear the might of russia's 40 year old military technology, i can tell you that.

[Do5a]

Is California's economy still bigger than Russia's in GDP terms?

[Dylan]

The SU-35 is the only plane Russia has that can hang at all with the F-22. They have about 60 of those I believe. We have about 180 of those. Estimates vary, but some say the SU-35 has a slight edge on the F-22, most say the F-22 is superior. So worse case scenario they are evenly matched.

Then we have the F-35s, F/A-18s, etc. behind that. Behind the SU-35 the Russians have basically nothing. Some retrofitted crap from the 70s and 80s. Nothing at all to write home about.

If it came to war Russia would lose badly and lose quickly. I don't think any serious analysts are debating this fact just based on hardware alone. Throw in the fact that Russia is broke as a joke and hasn't been in an actual conflict in decades, whereas the US is an economic powerhouse and has been in several major conflicts recently, and this just isn't a fair fight.

[Spider]

The Europeans have hundreds of these:



If they actually gave a shit, the Russian air force wouldn't be that much of a conquest.

[Dylan]

Yeah, the Russians would be hillariously outmatched against hte US alone. Throw in NATO and it wouldn't really be funny, it would just be kind of sad and hard to watch.

[Spider]

Oh, I think the Russians would score quite a few kills in the air war. It wouldn't be a smackdown like in the middle east. But they'd still lose.

[exploited]

Can such a war be waged without striking Russia proper? I find the assumption that the conflict won't escalate beyond Ukraine kind of a big one. Here you have people arguing how weak Russia is, how they cannot project power... So if such a war would require hitting targets in Russia, what keeps it localized? If their military faces destruction, and their opponent is striking Russia itself with impunity, how can we say with any confidence that rationality won't be lost?

Kicking them out of Ukraine is one thing... Attacking Russia itself is another. What it appears to come down to is the idea that Putin will back off rather than actually fight the war.

So now the entire proposition is based on assumptions. First, that Putin won't stop with the Ukraine, even though he is apparently weak. Second, that the conflict will stay local. Third, that Putin will back off when his forces in Ukraine are destroyed. Fourth, that Putin will stay rational with his back to the wall, both internationally and domestically.

How about you guys leave this to the people with the right information, none of whom have seriously considered going to war over this? This is a prime example of why the public shouldn't have any powers but veto powers over foreign policy.

[The Dharma Bum]

Russia is not weak. That is stupid.

They most certainly are the #2 military force on the planet.

The US power index is .2208
Russia power index is .2355

Not much difference.
http://www.globalfirepower.com/country- ... _id=Russia