Russia Would ‘Annihilate’ US Army In A Direct Confrontation

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Russia and the U.S. have not indulged in a direct confrontation in decades. While NATO is conducting its biggest military drills in decades in Europe as a show of strength, Russia aims to hold 4,000 exercises this year. What if a direct war breaks out between Russia and the United States? The possibility is very high given the escalating tensions in Europe and Syria.

US Army is not as strong as many think

In a direct confrontation, Russians would “annihilate” the US Army, says retired US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor. Pentagon may have the world’s largest defense budget, but the US Army is not as strong as many think, Macgregor told the Politico magazine. He said the deployment of the US Army 2nd Cavalry Regiment from Bavaria to Hungary was intended to assure NATO members that the US military was fully prepared to respond quickly to any threat from Russia.

But the movement of troops wouldn’t help in real-life fighting. Macgregor believes the Stryker parade “won’t fool anyone in Moscow.” The Russians may not do many things well, but they have been actively destabilizing, subverting, and invading their neighbors for decades. Vladimir Putin’s aggressively military moves in Syria and Ukraine have stunned the Western world.

US forces can’t face an equally strong army like that of Russia

Macgregor holds a Ph.D. in international relations. He is recognized for destroying an entire Iraqi Armored Brigade, including 70 armored vehicles, in just 23 minutes while suffering only one American casualty in 1991. However, he calculated that if his unit came in a direct confrontation with a better trained and armed enemy like the Russians, his army would have lost it.

Macgregor is a vocal advocate for reform of the US Army. He described the US defense spending as “wasteful,” US Army weapons as “obsolescent,” and its top leaders as “self-interested.” He said the US Army was poorly organized, and if it had to face another equally strong army like that of Russia or China on a conventional battlefield, the US forces would be “annihilated.”

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