cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/1253052
Archived version: https://archive.ph/HGfpH
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20230809191901/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-build-up-forces-west-counter-nato-threat-shoigu-2023-08-09/
Welp. Everybody strap in. This could get bumpy.
It won’t, it’s just bluster. With 90% probability they won’t do jack shit to a NATO country because they know that’d be the end of us all. That 10% is the Russian sociopath factor; I could absolutely believe they’d prefer killing a huge chunk of humanity and themselves rather than look weak
It really won’t. They need to bluster but all they can do is station un/poorly trained conscripts and talk big about it.
They couldn’t even handle Ukraine. How is this going to get bumpy? What troops do they even have to build up in the west.
Remember a few years ago when Russian mercs decided to attack an American special forces team in Syria and they not only failed to kill a single American they got bombed into oblivion?
Same thing will happen if these troops so much as step into NATO territory
From what I heard it was a bit more nuanced than that. The russian government deliberately ordered the army’s air defences disabled which allowed American air power to have free reign in that battlefield. I’ve no doubt the americans would have beaten them back regardless but with casualties.