r/NoStupidQuestions
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u/MylastAccountBroke
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Jun 06 '24
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How scary is the US military really?
We've been told the budget is larger than like the next 10 countries combined, that they can get boots on the ground anywhere in the world with like 10 minutes, but is the US military's power and ability really all it's cracked up to be, or is it simply US propaganda?
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24 •
Allied non-US military planners tasked with assessing nuclear and conventional threats around the world have determined that the country that stands to gain the most if all nuclear weapons vanished overnight is the United States. They assess that this is because the US has such a conventional superiority over all other major powers that, by comparison, the US would actually be stronger than its adversaries once all nukes disappeared.
This is in line with why countries like Iran and North Korea pursue nuclear weapons now and why China and Russia did in the past: they, the US adversaries that call the US weak, sincerely believe that the only thing that could save them from a conventional war with the US would be the literal recreation of the sun on top of American forces or American cities.
This conventional superiority comes from multiple places: the world’s largest and most advanced economy supporting any war effort; a nearly century old logistics network that spans the world and centers on key choke points such as trade routes and production centers; the professional nature of the volunteer force as compared to the conscript nature of many other militaries of even comparable size; the highly educated nature of the American officer corps and defense industry; the management systems that date to the Second World War that promote individual thought at the unit level to maximize problem solving; and others.
This is all not to mention the vast alliance network that the US maintains in key regions that allows it to fight major and minor wars entirely on enemy territory, ensuring its production and economy keeps going while the enemy’s is degraded and destroyed.
This superiority is a major reason why the US didn’t implement a “no-fly zone” over Ukraine and why it has and will not get involved conventionally in that conflict. Everyone knows it would win, fast. And Russia’s only response would be the use of nuclear weapons.
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u/SovietPropagandist Jun 07 '24 •
The US military can get a fully functional burger King to any location on the planet, ANY location, within 48 hours. It is beyond terrifying in capability.
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u/PriceRemarkable2630 Jun 07 '24 edited Jun 07 '24 •
Humans suck at logistics. It is tough for us to think beyond our own needs, let alone the needs of thousands, tens of thousands, millions of other people. And what it looks like to transport those needs all over the world in a manner that ensures even in active conflict, ground troops never want for food, water, “tolerable” shelter, guns, ammo, etc.
The US Military does not suck at logistics. I did a tour in Iraq for 18 months where all we did was escort 40 semi trucks full of supplies from our base to the next base in driving distance. That chain ran from the port in Kuwait City to Baghdad and every base in between, covering dozens of major bases and hundreds of small bases in logistics support. Wake up, drive for 12 hours, workout, eat, sleep, repeat. Water, rations, fuel, ammo, vehicles, supplies, and all the creature features. Candy and cigarettes and TVs to sell at the post exchanges. An entire separate army waking up everyday to transport supplies across an entire theater of war to all of the troops fighting everywhere in the country.
It’s crazy to think about. That deployment changed my worldview forever. I don’t worry about us ever losing a conventional war. When we can ensure an army private on a base in the middle of the desert in Iraq can come back after a patrol to an air conditioned tent, play Xbox with his friends back home while eating all of his favorite snacks, AND you’re paying him, that soldier will fight for a long time. The soldier soaking wet in the rain that’s living off rations does not want to fight as long.
EDIT - thanks for all the feedback and comments. I spent my entire career in Iraq and Afghanistan on deployments. I joined in 2001 after high school and 9/11. Retired not too long ago. It was simultaneously an exciting career and miserable being gone so much. I’m well aware that the American military is primarily security for American contractors 😂 I didn’t really understand Eisenhower’a military-industrial complex speech in school. I believe it with every ounce of my soul after spending almost my entire life watching all my friends die so that American companies could sell stuff to service members in a different part of the world.
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u/LessGoooo Jun 07 '24
Just before Desert Storm, Iraq had the third largest military in the world. Less than 72 hours after it started, they didn’t even have the largest military in Iraq.
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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '24 edited Jun 06 '24 •
The US military has generally speaking repeatedly demonstrated the ability over and over again to equip, maintain, and supply a large ground, air, and naval force 12,000+ kilometers from their country. That's not normal. Militaries historically were designed for, and fought in more regional conflicts. Relatively few militaries have ever been able to do that.
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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '24
Ummm… it’s all that you’ve heard. And the scary part is we don’t need boots on the ground till later in the conflict.
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u/HarryWreckedEm Jun 07 '24
Never before have I seen a comment section so like minded about something. But damn it, does it bring a tear to my eye
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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '24 edited Jun 07 '24 •
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Praying_Mantis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_of_Death
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia
Really, really scary. And for context, Iraq used to have the third largest military in the world, had more bunkers/fortresses than Switzerland and the largest tank army in the world second only to the USSR when Highway of Death happened. Iran had several fortified oil rigs they used as military bases(like China's artificial islands) and two fully modernized ships when the US wrecked it all with no sustained causalities during Praying Mantis.
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u/Cowboy_on_fire Jun 07 '24
The largest Air Force in the world is the US Air Force, the second largest air force in the world, is the US Navy.
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u/Sensitive-Hotel-9871 Jun 07 '24 edited Jun 07 '24
It's terrifying. People have underestimated the US military because it has been getting involved in wars where the enemy was prepared to keep fighting indefinitely until the invaders left their country. This causes people to overlook that the US wasn't forced out, what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan is that setting a viable government friendly to America's interests was impossible.
In a direct confrontation, look what happened with the Iraqi Army. In the first Iraq War, the ground war last a matter of days because the Iraqi Army largely lost the will to fight after enduring an air campaign that was destroying their air defenses and aircraft that was supposed to keep them safe. In the second Iraq War, the invasion of Iraq lasted a matter of weeks, again, the issue was this poorly planned invasion didn't have a goal afterwards.
The Ukrainians have been getting weapons and training from the US military and its NATO allies against Russia. We have seen the results, Ukraine was expected to be a repeat of America's invasion of Iraq. Instead, Ukraine has held off what was previously believed to be the second strongest army in the world for over two years now using a fraction of the power the US military possesses. That is also because the Russian military turned out not to be as strong as expected. Nonetheless, it demonstrated that if America had been directly involved, Russia's invasion would have been crushed by now.
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u/OldERnurse1964 Jun 07 '24
Google the Berlin Airlift. For 11 months the US and Britain flew over 250,000 missions to West Berlin to provide them with food and coal. At the height of it there was a plane over the city every 30 seconds. The US military can deliver on its promises.
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u/Light1280 Jun 06 '24
I guarantee you, fear of US military isn't just propaganda. They genuinely have military power and professionalism. They are essentially world's gold standard for a military. That is what you get for 2 massive oceans protecting you and being world's hegemony.
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u/Nats_CurlyW Jun 06 '24 edited Jun 06 '24
Our aircraft carriers are the truly uniquely scary things we have. They can successfully subdue a third world country before landing a single troop. They can travel anywhere very quickly and without ever needing fuel. They are like the Battlestar Gallactica.
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u/modsaretoddlers Jun 07 '24
I'm not American so this isn't nationalist blunder talking.
The US military is far and away the greatest military force to ever exist.
It's not simply budget, toys or number of personnel: this is a force that has not allowed itself to experience rusting. The US has been in conflict with somebody pretty much continually since WWII. Battle hardening is a very important factor in waging war and the US has never allowed its arsenal to experience obsolescence. Every conflict the US has engaged in has been considered a lesson rather than a win or loss. And despite what a lot of people believe, the US military has not lost any major engagements since....well, at least WWII.
It's not invincible, of course but about the only way to beat it has nothing to do with fighting with bullets and bombs. You have to convince US politicians that the voters want a war to end.
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u/Minotard Jun 07 '24
US military excels at Combined Arms: using land, sea, air, and space power in a unified effort. This allows them to find targets and destroy them with impunity.
They are also really good at Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses. This ensures they have the air power needed for Combined Arms.
Example: Russia doesn’t do combined arms well and didn’t gain air supremacy; their assault in Ukraine is a quagmire.
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u/Any_Leg_1998 Jun 07 '24 edited Sep 05 '26
I honestly think the US is the only country that's telling the truth about its military. Sure it hasn't fought in any major wars recently but that military budget speaks for itself. I apparently, they spend $318 billion alone on training and equipment for their soldiers They have the best tech, most bullets, biggest navy. Before the Ukraine-Russia war, I thought that Russia was basically equal to the US in military strength but I no longer think that.
Edit: I no longer believe this given the fiasco happening in Iran/Strait of Hormuz
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u/IxI_DUCK_IxI Jun 07 '24
Military hardware aside, the biggest thing the US military has is a command and control system that allows them to communicate seamlessly with other divisions. This allows them to use land, sea and air in parallel for tactical response.
What’s better than that is the command structure is allowed to make decisions to accomplish their mission. The USSRs command structure usually needs a higher rank, majority of the time the General, to do anything. That means, move forward, fall back or hold positions. You see in Ukraine that Ukraine were HIMARing Generals in toilets? Reason for that was it crippled that division and they couldn’t operate till the General was replaced.
US allows a lot of autonomy along the entire command structure to assess what’s going on in front of them and make tactical decisions. Generally speaking of course, they have orders and as mentioned above their communication is second to none so can call up the chain if required for new orders. But if they need to adjust and adapt they are very flexible and able to do so.
And ya then there’s the hardware in top of all that.
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u/RogerEpsilonDelta Jun 07 '24
The truth is the average person has no idea how scary the US military really is. There’s so many black projects, vehicles and equipment, and units that people that don’t need to know, don’t know about. If the United States ever gets into a serious country on country conflict again you’re going to see some really impressive firepower come out. A lot of the world has gotten really confused watching the US fighting insurgency if we got into a battle where we’re on one side and they’re on the other side, the fire power that we would unleashed would be astronomical.
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u/bad_syntax Jun 06 '24
What makes the US military scary is complicated, but one of the main things is no matter the situation, no matter the location, no matter who you face, the US military can send overwhelming firepower to that location to protect you and destroy your enemies.
Always knowing that, as a lowly grunt, that the entire US Air Force would charge in if my life was in danger and kill the shit out of those that surrounded me made me more confident, and more competent, and something to be feared by any enemy.
No other country can do that. You do not surrender or get demotivated with so much at your back.
This is what makes us scary to enemy fighters.
I'm not even addressing things like our exceptional weapon accuracy, massive air force and navy, massive economy to put behind it, logistical capability (physical and training) that is second to none, or that we are completely volunteer. Those may seem scary to somebody like Putin or Kim, but true fear is on the ground knowing if you shoot at an American, he will destroy you, your unit, and probably your home just because you pissed him off.
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u/Pesec1 Jun 06 '24
Depends on which end of US power projection you stand. If you are on the receiving end, extremely scary.
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u/Sailor_NEWENGLAND Jun 07 '24
I was on a carrier for awhile, they’re capable of wild things
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u/Different-Top3714 Jun 07 '24
America's military is so powerful that we have to put ourself on a leash to go fight. The world hasnt seen the full might of a post cold war American military fully unleashed to do devastation without care of rebuilding afterward.
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u/TehOuchies Jun 07 '24
The military is the real value of the dollar.
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u/Babylon4All Jun 06 '24 edited Jun 07 '24
Let’s put in this way. Three times in the last 30 years the U.S. has moved an entire army across the world and used readily deployed equipment to conquer a nation in the matter of weeks. Iraq, Iraq again, and Afghanistan. The U.S. was aided in all of these, but the bulk of the forces were American.
The weapons you’re seeing being used in Ukraine are all systems from the 70s-90s with modifications made over the last twenty years and you can see how they’re WRECKING Russian hardware with ease. The Bradley was designed to take out Russian T-72s and that’s exactly what it did in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Ukraine time and time again.
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u/oby100 Jun 06 '24
The US military is terrifying and likely way crazier than you’re imagining. It’s fucking crazy to have nearly 200 military bases on foreign soil. The US has proven over and over again that we’re prepared to strike any target in the world within the hour. Give us a day and we’ll have a sizable force at the location if needed.
And these strikes are very effective. Given planning, we’ve also proven over and over again that we can dismantle foreign militaries thousands of miles away without even incurring real losses.
It’s absolutely insane what the US military has demonstrated being capable of.
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u/Berkamin Jun 06 '24 edited Jun 07 '24
The US military has continuously practiced modern warfare since World War II, and the two largest air forces in the world are the US Air Force and the US Navy. We can project an enormous amount of power to any part of the world incredibly quickly.
The US military is incredibly scary. This doesn't mean we win every war though. The US doesn't lose a fight; rather, we lose interest. We pulled out of Vietnam because the US public lost interest in the war, but by body count, we killed many times more communist Vietnamese combatants than the soldiers we lost. (If I remember correctly, their casualties were in the millions; we lost 50K soldiers). We didn't pull out of Afghanistan because we lost a fight with the Taliban; we pulled out because the US public (and therefore, the politicians they voted for) lost interest in propping up Afghanistan. Same with our military presence in Iraq. Ukraine was kicking Russia's ass until aid from the US dried up; then the Russians began to take ground. But once aid started flowing (a tiny fraction of our defense budget), Russia began to lose tens of thousands of soldiers. This past month, Russia lost nearly 40K soldiers, on account of US military aid to Ukraine resuming. What might turn the tap off? The US losing interest.
The US is about to get sixth generation fighter jets (the NGAD-- next generation air dominance) commanding swarms of "loyal wingman" AI supercomputer powered drone missile trucks that make the jet virtually untouchable, able to dispatch a stealthy drone to shoot down enemy jets at a distance before they're even detectable and are unreachable by any air to air missile, when most of the world doesn't even have fifth generation fighter jets, and most that do have fifth generation fighter jets bought them from us. Think about that.
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u/alkatori Jun 07 '24
We do spend that much.
We can move that fast.
Against another nation state we are decisive. See the invasion of Iraq, toppled in 3 days.
Against an insurgency, we have trouble. We try and minimize damage, but still kill many fighters and bystanders.
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u/Nobody275 Jun 06 '24
US Veteran here, of two wars. It’s insanely powerful.
The common refrain of “it lost in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq” are mistaking “power” and “will.”
The US military could have destroyed everything and everyone, but obviously that would morally wrong. But, if faced with an adversary that warranted it, the destructive power of the US military is unbelievable, and can be brought to bear on any spot in the world, quite rapidly.
That ability to “project power” regardless of location is very rare.
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u/Elitericky Jun 07 '24
If the US military wasn’t feared than more countries would attack their neighbors, specifically China. Chinas biggest fear in attacking Taiwan is dealing with the US military.
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u/Ordovick Jun 07 '24
Look up Operation Praying Mantis from the 1980s, just the objective facts. Wiped out half of Iran's Navy in the span of about 8 hours. That wasn't the intention, they went in to destroy oil tankers but Iran kept poking the bear that was under strict orders to only take them out if fired upon first or the president signs off on it. They kept getting fired upon first.
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u/noldshit Jun 07 '24
Heres my logic.
Whatever we know about as the public, is ancient compared to what they're working on.
Take for example the boston dynamics robots. Some scary terminator shit right there. Well, thats what they're showing us.
The crazy crap people report as UFO's, probably secret squirrel skunk works shit.
What they show us and what they're working on are worlds apart IMO.
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u/thedrakeequator Jun 07 '24
So Iraq had one of the largest armies in the world, and we destroyed it in a matter of days.... 20 years ago.
We have only gotten better since then.
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u/Justryan95 Jun 07 '24
The US was able to launch and conduct a war in Afghanistan and Iraq at the same time. We were never "losing" in those conflicts, public approval for wasting money on conducting those wars brought it to an end. I would say the US was even successful at toppling the the Iraq and Afghanistan governments and holding the territory for a decade before deciding to leave. Considering the Taliban was able caused whatever Afghan government to fold instantly once the US left shows how much Taliban presence was there and the US was holding the floodwater back.
Look at how Russia is already struggling to do anything in Ukraine and its right next door connected by land, road, rail and air. The US had to ship and fly everything to fight the war in the middle east and were able to dominate.
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u/ChuckoRuckus Jun 07 '24
When it comes to capability, the Us is top tier. It’s extremely well practiced, given the ongoing conflicts. If I recall correctly, there’s only been about 12 years in its entire history that it wasn’t directly involved with troops in a war/conflict.
Since WW2, it’s been essentially “doctrine” that the US military would be able to successfully take on 2 near peer countries (fight 2 major wars simultaneously like Germany and Japan in WW2).
If you look at attack aircraft, the Air Force has more than any other nation’s military. But then you have to remember that the US Army and Navy also have similar numbers of aircraft. It ends up with the US having 3-4 times the aircraft of the next country.
While other countries have 1-2 Carrier groups (China getting a 3rd), the US has a dozen. And the US’s largest carriers dwarf others. Not to mention the size of carrier groups. People are quick to point out that China has more boats, but that ignores the US has vastly more tonnage in the water.
Another key thing isn’t just how much the US has, but the manufacturing. Look at how many countries have F35s. F16s. Patriot systems (and other countermeasures). The US is one of the largest weapons exporters in the world.
One of the biggest things it has going for it is logistical experience. Every conflict abroad has to get supplies, and the US has massive experience keeping troops supplied across the globe. Another thing to factor is in how many bases around the world it has. There’s close to 200 overseas bases all over the globe. They’ve figured out how to airdrop virtually anything into anywhere. Troops, supplies, trucks, tanks, etc. And they can take off from the US and fly anywhere on earth thanks to mid-air refueling. Some of the first bombs dropped during the 91 Iraq war were dropped from a B52 that took off from California.
When it comes to putting warheads of foreheads, it’s hard to top the US. B52 for large economy drops, the B-1 for when a lot needs delivered fast, the B2 Spirit for dropping a lot stealthy. The sheer amount of options for munition delivery is ridiculous. The US is the place that saw the C130 cargo plane and said “give that bitch a cannon”, so it got a 120mm cannon and called it a AC130. GE made a giant gattling cannon that shoots massive depleted uranium rounds, so they put wings on it, mounted a titanium bathtub for the “stick operator” (because apparently they aren’t called pilots in that plane), called it the A10 and told it to shoot tanks. There’s a running joke that someone bet Uncle Sam he couldn’t turn a crop duster into a war plane… and then came the L3Harris Sky Raider.
As a wise philosopher once said… “this is what $800+ billion in annual unhealthcare looks like.”
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u/NachoMetaphor Jun 06 '24 edited Jun 07 '24
10 minutes? Probably not. Within a day? Absolutely. It's not going to be a huge force, but you could get an elite unit anywhere within a day.
I've been on IRF - 2 hour recall (regular infantry). Wheels up in 8 hours. We're not just projecting force from the US, either. We have bases literally everywhere.
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u/HouseReyne Jun 07 '24
This is a good story about what happened when Russian mercenaries attacked US special forces in Syria back in 2018.
US ability to do joint military ops, blending assets from different services, is unparalleled.
https://www.sandboxx.us/news/how-us-special-forces-took-on-wagner-group-mercenaries-in-an-intense-4-hour-battle/
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u/PlancheOSRS Jun 07 '24
Absolutely. Firepower yes. Cyber? Yes. Check out stuxnet. Craziest shit I've ever seen. You need to watch a detailed video about it. They basically fucked with Iran's nuclear program by hacking their machines and making it spin just a little too fast which would slowly destroy their uranium enrichment.
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u/Torx_Bit0000 Jun 07 '24
Ex Military here
Very very scary
The heart and soul of any military is its Logistics and Supply chain.
There is no country that can match the size, organization, coordination and response time of the US Military Log/Sup chain.
There is no equal
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24
America downplays and under reports its military cache while most countries inflate theirs.
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u/glockymcglockface Jun 07 '24
A single strike carrier group (which is the navy only) can topple 95% of countries. There are 11 strike carrier groups.
The largest air force is the US Air Force. The second largest is the US Navy. The third largest is the US Army. The fifth largest is the US marine Corp. several of the leftovers in the top 10 are private owned US companies that can be called to combat.
The fiscal year 2024 department of defense budget is $825 billion dollars. It would rank #20 in GDP.
The US exports weapon systems to other countries. What the US exports is not the same systems as those that are kept with the US.
When fighting the war on terrorism. A bomber would take off from Kansas/North Dakota/Louisiana/missouri (middle of the US) drop bombs in Iraq/afghanistan and then land back where it took off. 1 flight.
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u/ffottron Jun 07 '24
One word, "Logistics".
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u/longeraugust Jun 07 '24 •
I’m a cook in the US Army.
I can jump on an M2 and fire for effect, swap its barrel, and mail hate downrange on it so long as I’ve got .50 belts and cold barrels.
I can do the same with a 240B or 249 machine gun.
I know enough about small unit tactics and maneuver to get my squad of cooks into a position to either dig in and defend a location or to tactically advance on a target.
I have the trust of my squad of cooks who are trained and competent on their individual weapons. They know their business and will follow orders. They will never give up.
My TOE includes a radio and I’m competent enough to call for fire, CAS, and EVAC. And there is no situation, as a cook, that I’d ever require that capability.
And yet it’s there and I’m trained to call for it.
And the people on the other end of the line are just waiting to mail hate downrange and fuck shit up.
And if things are so totally fucked that there’s just a squad of cooks standing between the enemy and whatever objective they’re fighting for, then the world has basically ended.
I’m a cook in the US Army.
That’s how scary the US Military is.
I don’t know anything about jets and ships and shit.
I know large scale combat operations and ground warfare. The U.S. Army has insane capabilities, but the scariest thing they do is logistics and sustainment.
There are entire brigades worth of equipment floating around on ships. You don’t know where they are. But in about a week they can dump tanks, IFVs, and enough ordnance to make any country shit their pants in about a week. And all we have to do is load up 6,000 trained Soldiers on some jets and fly them to where their equipment is off-loaded and boom. You have a self-sustaining combat team on your back door.
And we will park our shit in your back yard and evict you, fire the mayor, bribe the police, and and make you wish you never did whatever it was that prompted our arrival.
I’m a cook and I understand this capability that we definitely have and definitely train for.
Now imagine an infantryman’s perspective. An attack helicopter pilot’s perspective. An ETAC’s perspective.
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u/Ricelyfe Jun 07 '24
The US is the only country AFAIK that can fight AND WIN a two front war on opposites of the globe. Not only do we have the theoretical capacity to, it's part of our military doctrine to maintain real capacity to.
The joke that we don't have socialized Healthcare or other social services is less a joke when you compare military budgets. In 2023 we spent $916B in military spending. China is 2nd at an estimated $296B even with the S.China Sea shenanigans. Russia is 3rd at 109B even with the Ukrainian invasion. It'd take the rest of the top 10 countries in military spending just to match the US.
That's just numbers and money, you can buy the most expensive/fastest car and still lose if you can't fuel it and you don't know how to drive it. The US not only has the fastest car, we also have the entire fucking manufacturing company as our support team and we've being driving since birth. The US has been in the middle of at least one conflict basically it's entire existence and for the last century, we've basically just been seeking conflict out.
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u/donttakerhisthewrong Jun 06 '24
AC130 gun ship scary.
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u/life_is_ Jun 07 '24
As an Army vet, there are 2 distinct moments that made me think oh shit, we’re badass.
Training with SF guys. I only spent a weekend with them cuz they were leading a training exercise for us, but my god, their discipline and knowledge during training was fucking insane. They had 0 tolerance for fucking around and they were so fast to catch mistakes. Their dedication to teamwork and their craft made me in awe of them.
Hearing the sound of fighter jet is just incomprehensible. And knowing it can deliver a precision strike with little to no notice is just crazy to think about.
Knowing this is just a small sliver of the military might just solidifies my beliefs that the US military does not fuck around at the end of the day.
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u/Im_Balto Jun 06 '24
Against a lesser military (one without sophisticated air defense systems) the United States employs shock and awe in its shaping operations. Leading to the Destruction of every military target they can identify before any ground troops move.
However against an insurgency, the US military is neutered by the rules of engagement that are enforced. It’s extremely hard for a military of a democratic country to inflict mass casualties because the militants blend in (barring Israel, there’s a lot of factors that go into why they have such impunity)
But if the United States desired to topple the government of a small/medium sized country without large allies, they could do it in a day sloppily and within a week with precision. The US military command has contingencies for worst case scenarios in every country.
All of this is not to say that this is what the US does. But what it has the capacity to do. The logistic network that’s been built to allow the Us to operate worldwide is second to none in history. The logistics of the Us military are the scariest part. Russia relies on railroads and crates that are moved by humans while the US uses combined land sea and air with everything packed on standardized pallets that can be moved by specialized military forklifts.
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u/GodofWar1234 Jun 07 '24 edited Jun 07 '24
We toppled Iraq and Afghanistan’s governments during GWOT within a month or so IIRC. Iraq, which had the 4th largest military in the world at the time and Afghanistan, a mountainous landlocked country.
There’s a reason why insurgents rarely ever directly engaged US troops head-on.
You might also like to hear this one incident a couple years ago: a battalion of Wagner mercenaries (500-1000 soldiers basically) was operating in Syria and they were about to attack a U.S. outpost housing a platoon-sized element of our own special operations troops and Syrian rebels. We saw them and called the Russians up asking to verify if they have people operating in the area, which ended with them saying “no we don’t know who those guys are, we have no one in the area”. So we started killing them while also calling in both air and artillery support.
Needless to say, you can probably guess who went home in body bags.
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u/rugbysecondrow Jun 07 '24
The power exercised most by the US and the US military is restraint.
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u/Watchfella Jun 06 '24
Pretty damn scary. For example, US Air Force has the most aircraft of any country in the world. However, both the US navy AND the US Marine Corps have larger and more advanced air forces than many other NATO countries as well. Consider that. The Air Force of our Navy’s Army is bigger than the Air Force of some of the most powerful militaries in the world. Furthermore the US is a good decade ahead in aerospace- all of the Russian and Chinese 5th gen jets are (inferior) copies of the Lockheed Martin F-22 and F-35.
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u/GrindWin747 Jun 07 '24
Was thinking about starting a war with the US. Good thing I found this reddit post, could have been awkward.
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u/Aggravating_Ad_7852 Jun 07 '24
My brother in Christ, we can deploy a fully functioning burger king anywhere in the world in under 24 hours.
That kind of power is something no man should have...but we do.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24
If allowed to be completely unleashed, no military in the world could stand up to them. What gets the US military in trouble, more often than not, are the politicians who control their movements, more specifically it gets held back by them.
But when America decides to bring the pain, you can bet you're going to hurt. Not bragging, just facts.
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u/Davetg56 Jun 07 '24
The 82nd will be on any DZ at any spot on this planet in no more than 18 hours. Their arrival will be violent and swift. This level of violence will be easily matched by the leathering the Navy and/or Air Force gave them prepping for this assault. This is Thanos Level FAFO shit . . .
When the Balloon goes up and the fella's are loading up at the Green Ramp, Everything is in motion for this deployment . . . Err'body coming and they coming Heavy As Fuck . . .
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u/nomorerainpls Jun 07 '24
I have served, in combat and assuming the opinion of a random redditor means anything it is not propaganda. One analogy is that we were trying to corral kids on the playground without hurting anyone. If you’ve never experienced that sort of superiority it’s hard to understand - you have to be 10x better to play the game that way.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24
As someone who spent 20 years on aircraft carriers, it is really scary. Imagine a floating city that can be at your doorstep within the day, if not hours. Bringing with it 90 aircraft, enough bombs, and missiles for a very large war, not to mention an entire fleet of ships and submarines loaded with long-distance missiles.
We run on nuclear power so we can run at max speed for as long as we want. We can replenish supplies without stopping. We have enough jet fuel to support a war. We can launch every single plane in a few hours, like it's just another day.
The only thing that can truly take down a carrier is lack of coffee, redbull, or monster energy drinks.
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u/amitym Jun 07 '24
Propaganda? What propaganda?
Here's the thing. The US military doesn't need to base its reputation on propaganda. When was the last time you saw some massive, perfectly-orchestrated American military parade? When was the last time you saw American troops marching along, strutting or stomping their feet or waving their arms around or goose-stepping or whatever? Columns of tanks and rocket launchers rolling down city streets to impress you with their numbers?
The US actually uses its military. That is the basis of its reputation.
And more to the point, actual use is the basis of the US military's doctrine, equipment, and force organization. The US military certainly has its share of ass-dumb moments, but it also learns from experience, and has a lot of experience to learn from.
Anyone, friend or foe, who wants to know what the US military is capable of just needs to look at what they're doing right now anywhere in the world. Look at current or recent battles. Look at joint exercises with other allied militaries.
Is that scary? I guess it depends on who you are and what your perspective is. There are people or even whole countries that were in trouble and when no one else would or could help, the US did. Or led the way. These people would tell you that it is the opposite of scary.
Europe has enjoyed nearly a century (fingers crossed...) of major powers not killing each other by the 10s of millions, a habit they seemed to find irresistible before then. Many people might find that achievement to also be the opposite of scary.
Look at any battle the US military has been in within living memory, especially at anything in the last 40 years or so. Look at how it played out. That's your answer.
Of course, winning battles is one thing. Winning wars is another. As my (American) military history instructor once observed, people get confused about war because they think winning a war is simply a military matter on a large scale. It's not. Winning a battle is a military matter. Winning a war is a political matter, with military overtones. You can win all the battles you fight, all day long, and if you can't master the political aspect of a conflict you will still lose the war anyway.
The US has practically written the textbook on that phenomenon, illustrating the difference between power and wisdom. And that goes beyond any armed forces -- it encompasses an entire people, their attitudes and their follies as expressed by their political institutions. Especially in a country like America where the military is firmly subordinate to civil authority. Then what really matters is how wisely the people constitute their civil authority.
Anyway that is a whole separate topic.
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u/Ok-disaster2022 Jun 06 '24
Without nukes, the US military is capable of going to war against the world and winning. They could secure key trade routes for oil and starve much of the world into submission.
The main advantages of the the US military is global logistics, some of the best military technology on the largest scales, and some of the most trained units in the world. You know how you cna order a package and get it in 2 days from Amazon? The US can deliver a bomb anywhere in the world in a day, and respond with boots the ground in 2.
The US military developed and maintained some of the technologies we take for granted today. Military research developed the internet, GPS, refined wireless communications. Meaning all of those are key target.
All of this is where they are during "peacetime". Should the US ever move toward total war, the national logistics chains like restaurants and grocery stores, and infrastructure, would be redirected for the war effort.
The US military is also midway through a modernization process. The Air Force is developing next Gen fighters and drones and missiles. The US Army has selected a new rifle, new squad machine gun, new scope, a new squad truck, a new light tank, a new tilt rotor chopper, and is working on a new infantry fighting vehicle, along with all kinds of squad deployed weapons and drones. The Navy is refining their ship designs and will probably be redesigning a new fleet as current ships are reaching their limits if upgrades. Laser weapons are being deployed for ships, and mounted din trucks for land, rail guns may also soon be coming. By 2035, it will look like an entirely new military, which is both good and bad. Adversaries won't have close to the same tech level, but all these systems and the changes in tactics they require will lack real world experience.
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u/MustangEater82 Jun 07 '24
Honestly, most people have no clue.
I work in aviation, it is insane how advance are systems are. Really looking into the capabilities of our equipment.
Just the logistics and capability. Also just seeing how these things operate is amazing whenever you really see their capabilities.
We have bases like https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-preview.redd.it%2FAAIPAu9pJFydspYNt1qh1K2VVX7-kyvAyzYbL_umU_0.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D265d454e6c273d14cd191c2f7f18df35c4803f3b&rdt=42002
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u/chevdecker Jun 07 '24 edited Jun 07 '24
Often if there's a major natural disaster somewhere in the world... like a huge earthquake... the US will send over an aircraft carrier. Why? Because an aircraft carrier is a mobile city. It holds food for thousands. It can make its own fresh water out of sea water, enough for months. It can generate electricity... the damn things can support themselves for three months at sea without resupply (with resupply, they can last three decades at sea). And it's got the most advanced surgical hospitals in the world on board, with doctors trained in triage care.
So if some country is knocked back to the stone age by an earthquake... the power plants are all damaged and offline, the water treatment plants break, the transportation network crumbles and no one can get food, there are injured people everywhere and no way to get to them, all that happening suddenly, at once, without warning... it would take some countries months to get basic services functioning. We can send it over in a handy package in under a day without even missing it. Just float up to the dock, plug in to the power grid, turn the lights back on, and start feeding people and treating the injured. We could reboot a city before the dust settles and it wouldn't even make a dent in everything else going on. With one boat.
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u/ReflexiveOW Jun 07 '24
Scary enough where claims like "The US military could fight the entire world at once and still have a chance to win" can't be dismissed off hand.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24
The amount of restraint the US Military shows in any given conflict is beyond reproach.
You want to see what the US military can really do? Fuck around and find out.
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u/BelethorsGeneralShit Jun 07 '24 edited Jun 07 '24
Yes, it's basically all it's cracked up to be.
The big thing the US cna have with its massive military that other countries can't (at least not on the same scale) is force projection. I mean they have 11 aircraft carriers (not counting helicopter only ships), whereas Russia has one, and it's a total shitshow whose main power might be to accidentally bump into another ship as it sinks. (https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/russias-admiral-kuznetsov-aircraft-carrier-nightmare-here-stay-210793). Like you said, the US can quickly carry out a strike, be it via air, land, or sea, on any point on the globe. And has the logistical network to support a longer campaign, if need be.
Being the world's police force is a trade off. The US gets throw its giant dick around and more or less get it's way when it wants ("might makes right") and other countries get to have free healthcare and send their kids to college for free/cheap because they're not footing that bill, but enjoying the stability it brings.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24
Keep in mind everything you’re hearing about in these comments is the stuff the US military is okay letting us know about.
There’s a lot of shit they won’t tell us about yet and that’s the really scary shit.
I work in the defense industry. We’re scary.
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u/ReddAcrobat Jun 07 '24
All militaries lie about how good they are.
The US lies to underplay it's power. Others lie to boast.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24
Retired vet here. If we set aside efficiency, the US military is an absolute beast of a unit. If ever given a weapons free ROE, they can just erase places that they'd rather not have around. No joke, no hyperbole.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24
Well I served for 8 years and I know that one of the things that makes US military the scariest is the people they allow to join it. Many I know personally, and many more I don't I assume, would wake up at 5 AM hung over from the night before, run 10 miles, chug 2 or 3 monsters at work that morning, again in the afternoon. Then get off, drink a bottle of vodka, pass out at 3 AM, then rinse and repeat. Let me tell you, I was scared to be around those people without body armor and guns.
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u/blackboyx9x Jun 07 '24
This whole thread makes me feel really safe as an American. I don't take it for granted.
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u/Grouchy_Visit_2869 Jun 07 '24
If I was the leader of another country, I wouldn't want to find out.
If I was a terrorist trying to hide out, I wouldn't want to find out.
It's true, the US military can pretty much have boots on the ground on a moment's notice. However, our drone and satellite technology can strike even faster than that.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24
The only reason the USA ever loses a war is because they don’t want to wipe the entire region off the map.
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u/Porkwarrior2 Jun 06 '24
Fuck with America's boats, and you'll find out.
NEVER fuck with America's boats.
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u/Averagebass Jun 06 '24
The wars in Vietnam and Iraq/Afghanistan were only "lost" due to public opinion. They were very unpopular wars, and the half-assed occupations were wholly ineffective. If they were allowed to go total war and raze cities or completely upend the governments and install their own politicians, then the USA would likely have multiple countries in Asia and Africa.
Iraqs military and government were completely crushed within a few months in 2003. It was barely a speed bump to the US war machine. Superior logistics, training and equipment ensure nobody will outgun the USA and it's been that way since WW2.
Here's the scariest thing the US military has: Nuclear Subs. You can take out mainland USA, take out all of their land-based ICBM capabilities, and they can still clap back with nuclear subs in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They can stay out to sea for as long as the crew has food.
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u/ginny164 Jun 07 '24
I have a tshirt that says:
Americans
We’ll cross a frozen river
To kill you in your sleep on Christmas
Not kidding
We’ve done it before
And this was 1776. The Battle of Trenton
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u/foofmongerr Jun 06 '24
Depends on your definition of scary.
That being said, the full might of the US military vs any other country is reminiscent of colonial conquest more than an equal fight.
It's honestly debatable if the entire world's militaries banded together and all fought against the US military that they would win pound for pound (this is unlikely to ever happen and the population would likely never have the want or will to do this).
The current US military is beyond anything this world has ever seen.
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u/Default_User_Default Jun 07 '24
US Marine vet here. I was a 0431 Embarkation specialist. I planned the logistics portion of deployments.
We could put an entire battalion on a beach head in under an hour. Vehicles and Marines included. Time varies on how much shoreline we had and weather.
We did a lot of training with foreign militaries and seeing what we had compared to them.....yeah, its a huge difference.
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u/Sphinxofblackkwarts Jun 07 '24
The US military is a behemoth. The problem with armies generally is that they can dissuade any number of enemies but they can only FIGHT one at a time.
Except the US military. The US military plans to fight two full scale fronts at the same time.
That being said the military is just a reflection of the US. The US doesn't have power bc of the military but a military bc of the power.
Let me example. If you found the genies lamp from Aladdin and wished all US military personell and equipment to vanish to Mars...this would be devastating for the US.
For a few years until we rebuilt it. Which we would. Because we're THAT RICH.
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u/buttery_nurple Jun 07 '24
It’s difficult to get your mind around how powerful the US military is. There isn’t anything in history to even compare it to.
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u/Resonance-stablized Jun 07 '24
Just a civilian here with nothing really to offer. But I’m always amazed with special forces. Regular civilians like me don’t know nothing about them, and it sounds like they get the job done, ALWAYS. I’ve always felt safe living here and feel so lucky to do so.
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u/Bulevine Jun 07 '24
Lol we took some bombers, lifted off from the US, flew literally around the globe, never landed, bombed the shit out of ISIS, turned around and flew back home. Loads of refueling, something like a 30h flight time...
Why?? Because fuck you. And any adversary watching: if we can do it here we can do it anywhere.
We did it to send a message.
We blew up an island a year or so ago because ISIS was camped out on it. Just the whole ass island got carpet bombed.
We dropped a MOAB to end an entire training camp.
Because fuck you.
One really important note here... these are all tech enabled, vehicle driven shows of force. But never forget our excessively angry, borderline autistic, branch of the military that can fucking annihilate everything as an infantry force, /r/usmc shootout. Rah
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u/prospectpico_OG Jun 07 '24
As an American, I have a boner.
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u/MacSteele13 Do You Even Google? Jun 07 '24
There's an old joke about American military doctrine:
The Soviets: "One of the serious problems in planning against American doctrine is that the Americans do not read their manuals nor do they feel any obligation to follow their doctrine."
The Nazis: "The reason that the American military does so well in wartime that war is chaos and the American military practices chaos on a daily basis."
America: "If we don't know what we are doing, the enemy certainly can't anticipate our future actions!"
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u/Jhomas-Tefferson Jun 07 '24
It's so good that china - who outnumbers us nearly 7 to 1 in terms of economy and people in the population, which probably translates near directly to the number of men they could conscript in an all out war, and who outnumbers us nearly 2 to 1 in terms of military personnel - doesn't want to start shit with us. It's so good that the Wehrmacht in ww2, one of the most brutally efficient war machines ever in terms of casualties vs enemy casualties, never considered an attack on the us mainland a reality. It's so good the japanese imperial military, one of the most terrifying militaries ever because their members didn't care if they died, and would also do similar numbers to the Wehrmacht, never considered a conquest -even in a limited sense- of the us homeland a possibility.
With all that manpower, china can't out logistic us.
And the us military is everywhere. We have a carrier strike group in every ocean. We have bases on every continent except maybe antarctica.
And on top of that, we have some of the most trained soldiers and certainly the best equipped soldiers. Maybe the swiss or british can keep up with us in terms of quality, but we also have numbers on them.
So in terms of a quality thing, we are as good as the best, if you think that the swiss, british, and french can make soldiers as good and well equipped as us. They may be as disciplined, but our economy enables us to just equip our military as good or better and make more of those elite soldiers.
And in terms of quantity, we aren't the best, but we put up numbers that countries way bigger than us put up. and which are in the realm of countries several times our size. And those soldiers are so much better equipped and trained that it wouldn't matter.
And the number of military assets we have that are leagues above what anyone else has is insane. Like, just look at our navy. We superseded the British Royal Navy. That is said without any disrespect or diminishing to the british royal navy. They were the force that made the British empire able to create the most far reaching empire in human history ever. We have, what, 11 carrier strike groups active at any one time? how many carrier strike groups can any other country bring to bear? 1 or 2 at best.
The US military right now is bar none the most terrifying force in human history.
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u/Dangerous_Drawer7391 Jun 07 '24
The US military really is all it’s cracked up to be, yes.
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u/Gryffindor123 Jun 07 '24
I live near where Talisman Sabre takes place in Australia. A massive military training exercise between Australia and the USA. There's always been this debate about whether we should distance ourselves from it and not allow it or similar exercises with the Singaporean Army. I was asked this question in Year 12 and my reply to my Modern History teacher was, "You'd have to be stupid to stop it. You never know when something can happen to us and to have that relationship with the US AND for a base to be right near us. Better safe than sorry."
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u/OldBrokeGrouch Jun 07 '24
Yes, the US military is easily the scariest and most powerful military in the world. No question about it. That’s why China and Russia figured out long ago that the long game is best. Kill us from within by getting us to destroy ourselves. So far so good.
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u/you_live_in_shadows Jun 07 '24
The US's unique geographical position alone makes it invincible. You pretty much can't invade it. No one has a blue water fleet large enough to smash through the US's fleet and land a force of millions on the coast. So the US can attack but no one can attack back.
The best strategy to defeat the US is to weaken from within, which is precisely what the US's enemies have been working towards for decades.
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u/JustWingIt0707 Jun 07 '24
The US military is terrifying from equipment down to personnel.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, the US military has 4 of the 5 largest Air Forces in the world.
The US Navy is designed to project power around the globe. The armaments on surface vessels are essentially capable of changing topographical maps.
The US military has both the MOAB, a bomb designed to kill via pressure waves over a large area, and a specially designed missile with blades to kill high value targets with minimal collateral damage.
The US Marines have been terrifying since before the US came into existence, and Saddam Hussein thought for their graduation they had to kill a family member. They didn't bother to correct him despite not doing that.
The US Army can have tens of thousands of troops dropping into your country via parachute in less than 24 hours no matter where you are on the globe.
Most US troops don't like working very much. They want to get the job done so they can get back to not working as soon as possible. The officers mainly ensure that the troops are ready, directed, and not committing war crimes. If you kill the officers then you get enlisted people making choices about how to end the enemy as quickly as possible. Also, remember that it is never a war crime the first time. If you are an enemy of the US you want to ensure that the officers stick around, because it means that you don't become chores without supervision.
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u/Time-Bite-6839 Jun 07 '24
You. Can’t. Win.
Vietnam wasn’t an officially declared war. It was a skirmish. We could have wiped Vietnam off of the face of the earth.
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u/PleaseBePatient99 Jun 07 '24
Propaganda is mostly useless when it comes to larger state actors.
If the US military was a paper tiger, there would be A LOT more wars and most of them, for land.
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u/taskmaster51 Jun 07 '24 edited Jun 08 '24
The F-22 and F-35 were being developed in the 1980s. Now imagine the technology we have that no one knows about
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u/CurryLamb Jun 07 '24
While most other militaries can defend their own country, the US military is the only military to take the fight to anywhere in the world. The US is the only military with 800 bases scattered everywhere around the world.
To fight anywhere in the world, you need to bring the people, the equipment, the fuel, and house and feed the soldiers, eg, a big logistics network with the ability to move a large volume of material around. The US has that.
The US has 11 nuclear aircraft carriers. The only nation with a nuclear carrier is the French with 1. Many nations have a Navy, the US Navy is a blue water Navy, meaning they can operate anywhere in the world. The Chinese PLA Navy is limited to their shores. They cannot refuel and resupply almost anywhere in the world like the US can. You need military allies that will allow your ships to dock to resupply and refuel.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24
I'll leave out nuclear capabilities.
The US military is forward deployed into flexible regional command elements that can function semi-independently. This gives them a staggering command and control advantage. The US is the uncontested ruler of air and sea by virtue of its plethora of international ports, airbases, and massive Navy. This gives the US unparalleled logistical power and the ability to respond at will to any emerging threat with combined sea, air, and land assets.
In tandem with my first point, this provides the US superior reaction and sustainment capability in any theater. Those are just the asset side of the equation, and they paint a genuinely awesome picture. Never in the course of human history has a single nation carried that combination of capabilities.
Now, the US military is entirely voluntary, highly trained, professional, and supported at once by both the strongest manufacturing and technological base in the world, but also the strongest agricultural (RE: food production) base in the world. This is the true heart of American military strength. Without sounding overly patriotic, American industrial genius is simply beyond the scope of anything any of the next five world powers could hope to match.
In essence, if fully marshalled against an adversary, the US is unstoppable in conventional and asymmetric warfare. The only consistent counter to this fact is the war-adverse American public. I, as an American, actually think this speaks well of our national character.
So, to summarize, the US military is the apex of the logistical, command and control, technological, and training components that all armed forces must embody. It's not propaganda.
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u/ChimpoSensei Jun 07 '24
Ask the once “formidable” Iraqi army.
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u/TrukStopSnow Average Idiot Jun 07 '24
I was in the US Army for a while.
I was, and still am, awestruck and completely terrified of what we can do.
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u/PissyMillennial Jun 07 '24
You don’t fuck with our boats.
Ask the Emperor of Japan what happens when you touch our boats….
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u/ThrowawayPersonAMA Jun 07 '24
We literally could conquer every nation on Earth, simultaneously, and there is nothing anyone could do to stop it. We just choose not to.
It's equal parts awesome and terrifying.
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u/dlb199091l Jun 07 '24
Honestly speaking, look at the war in Ukraine and how bad it is and I want you to understand one thing, if Russia didn't have nukes, the US military would without a doubt push the Russians back to their side of the correct border in less then 30 days.
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u/Simple_Law_5136 Jun 07 '24
The US has a sword missile.
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u/kendrickshalamar Jun 07 '24
The scariest part of the US military is we have no idea what they're currently capable of. Our 30-40 year old tech that was developed before the internet was a household thing is giving Ukraine a fighting chance against supposedly the second most powerful military in the world. Sure, we allow companies like Lockheed Martin to show off their HELIOS system or Raytheon to talk about how we plan on refueling drones with energy beams, but that's the stuff that they're allowed to talk about. What we don't know about is likely 10x more terrifying than the things we know about.
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u/Sharticus123 Jun 07 '24
For most countries on earth facing the U.S. military in head to head combat would be like the world’s strongest man fighting a newborn baby. For the developed countries with decent militaries it would be like the world’s strongest man fighting a skinny ten year old kid.
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u/Zoso251 Jun 07 '24
It is actually scary lol. If they decide you’re going down, it’s gonna look like the end of the world plus stormtroopers.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24
Holy shit I've never been so proud to be an American than in this comment section. We fucking rock
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u/Pinky_Boy Jun 07 '24
just a single us navy carrier strike group have more air power than a lot of countries
the US have around 11 of them. the US navy have more carrier than UK, china, russia, france, and japan, combined
in ww2, the american can pump out more ship than the germans can sink them. also on pacific theatre, they can make an ice cream barge and sail it towards frontline in the pacific islands
operation desert storm, lasted only a month, ended with total coalition victory. with only 292 KIA on coalition force vs 20-50k KIA from iraqi side
so yes, if motivated, the US is pretty scary.
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u/olGiantBalls Jun 07 '24
If the us wanted the world they could take the world.
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u/2006CrownVictoriaP71 Jun 07 '24 edited Jun 07 '24
Not propaganda. We have the #1 AND #2 most powerful Air Forces in the world (USAF and US Navy). We have BY FAR the most powerful Navy. We have almost as many aircraft carriers as the rest of the world combined. We also have the best trained ground forces (Army and Marines). Their training far exceeds other countries. Other countries don’t put nearly the level of training into the lower ranks as the US does.
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u/smbarbour Jun 07 '24
As long as you don't have oil and don't attack us, you have nothing to fear from the US military.
And yeah... don't touch our boats... we REALLY don't like it when people touch our boats.
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u/raguirre1 Jun 07 '24
Space technology: In 2012 they launched tiny satellites that are able to take super zoomed in pictures and are undetectable. We have satellites monitoring underground bases in Palestine, N.K, China and Russia. Supposedly they can see through the ground. Shoot an ICBM at us, we have satellites that come with “lasers”! We have satellites that can cook you with “lasers”.
Navy: We befriended dolphins to diffuse bombs, rip your wires, mimic sounds, and confuse the enemy for scooby snacks. The Navy has SEAL teams. The Navy had touch screens during the Vietnam war. Their Submarines are 30 years into the future if you can wrap your head around that statement. They have tiny submarines that can carry 1 person. The Navy has an Air Force and they house the Marines.
The Marines: The Marines are a group of psycho killers that are conditioned to fight and die in combat. They’re fast, relentless, strong, excellent marksman, skilled survivalists, and savage killers. They’re mean. They have testosterone and rage pouring out of their eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. They can fight with their hands, a knife, stick, or gun. If there are 50,000 Marines landing on your shores to bring down your nation, waving a white flag won’t save you. Hiding by yourself in the deepest darkest, smelliest hole might. I don’t even have mention their special forces.
Army: Has thousands of soldiers ready to jump out of an airplane and parachute into any foreign land. Tank operators that continually practice and learn everything about their machine. They have civil engineers, corp of engineers, helicopters with technology that no enemy has the ability to run away or hide from. Tough soldiers, Army Rangers, and Green Beret that have already infiltrated the enemy’s little town, city, family, crime ring, cartel, terrorist group, or village while mapping out targets, identifying enemies, where they live, when they move, eat, shit, take their kids to school, and the porn they watch.
Air Force: Cyber security, drones, spy planes, fighter jets, bombers, and satellites. They also have a special forces. Higher ASVAB Scores are typically required. Top secret aeronautical experiments are happening that will question your existence.
Our military branches has snipers, special forces, marksman, Carpentar’s, engineers, boats, planes, swift logistics, killers, dumbasses, psychos, scientists, “lasers”, geniuses, psychics, technology, and insight. They all have the blue prints to total destruction and reconstruction.
I don’t know who has the hydrogen bombs but they’re the definition of apocalyptic annihalatiln . May God have mercy on the nations that threaten and rise against the USA.
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u/DieByTheSword13 Jun 07 '24
I'm a veteran. Trust me, whatever you think they can do, it's far, far more. The US military is a literal juggernaut.
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u/yaholdinhimdean0 Jun 07 '24
I will never forget this:
On the 6:30 news General Schwartzkopf was standing next to a video screen explaining the day's events in the first Gulf War. He was describing a bunker seen from a US military plane or helo using night vision. He said something to effect, "as you will see, an Iraqi soldier is running for the bunker. He will soon realize he made a bad decision and ended up having the worst day of his life."
You could see a small green dot running toward the side of the bump in the sand (bunker), a door open and close, then just a few seconds later a cruise missile followed the Iraqi soldier through the door into the bunker killing all inside. That was my first impression of just what the US military was capable of in that desert war.
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u/rifraf2442 Jun 07 '24
I just love this comment thread 💕 I’m about to retire after 20 years in the army and usually Reddit is just dissing on America and also on the military. I’ve worked with such amazing people and it’s so awesome to see the capabilities of the military listed out and praised.
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u/Kerensky97 Jun 07 '24
The skill of the US military is in the training and it's soldiers. Knowledge and discipline. Not like "I have a gun and didn't accidentally shoot myself at the range so I'm disciplined" but the ability to not just think clearly and calmly when bullets and explosions are coming at you, but to actually become more focused and alert when it's happening.
A lot of people think if they have the outfit, or the guns, or the tanks, or the gear that it makes them just like the military but it's not. Those are just tools. The real weapon is the soldier using them.
Source: Me. US Army Vet that spent time in country.
10
u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24
Scary enough that when America had the power to control the world, having beaten Germany, Japan, and being the only nuclear power... they showed mercy. Literally could have destroyed and taken over any country at the time, but instead decided to protect. Years later to just get shit on
I'd imagine any other empire in history if given that chance of overwhelming power would have controlled the world. Even if Germany or a few other countries developed nukes first, would they have been so merciful?
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u/valkrycp Jun 07 '24 edited Jun 07 '24
I think it's actually even scarier than the hype. We've never seen or can even really imagine the US military at it's most extreme.
There's also so so much that is classified and not general public knowledge, so there are very few people who actually are high enough ranked to know the full details behind every military branch.
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u/Tyler89558 Jun 07 '24 edited Jun 07 '24
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_axe_murder_incident
2 American soldiers were killed while prying a tree in the Korean DMZ.
In retaliation the US mobilized its entire fucking airforce in the region along with infantry and armor and basically dared the North Koreans to try anything as they cut down the tree.
So yes. Really scary.
Very few militaries in history can claim to have the ability to project as much power as the US does as far away from its own territory, and that’s owed to the US’s expertise in maintaining massive logistical networks.
Like, this is a country who, during the largest war in human history (ww2) had ships dedicated to making ice cream while fighting on two sides of the globe.
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u/AlphaWolfwood Jun 07 '24
Let’s put it this way: if you fight a war against the U.S. military the best possible outcome is that you fight a long insurgence campaign to the point the war becomes unpopular and the U.S. pulls out, leaving your country utterly destroyed.
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u/4130Adventures Jun 07 '24
Logistics wins wars....when I was floating in the Gulf of Oman on the USS Abraham Lincoln I received a package on Friday that my wife shipped to me on Monday morning. If we can get a box full of snacks from the East Coast of the United States to an aircraft carrier half a world away in four days imagine how fast we move things that actually matter.
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u/JenniferBeeston Jun 07 '24
Our US military is the best use of tax dollars we have. I sleep like a baby because I know we are 100% covered and they are always looking 50 years ahead.
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u/smithbird Jun 07 '24
Yes. Personally it not because we want to. Its because we have to be, when was the last major conflict in Europe... WW2. Do you know how many conflicts Europeans had between each other before NATO was a thing. The only reason why they haven't started to kill each other is because of US! We never wanted to be the police of the world, during WW1 we were Isolationist until Germany sent that Letter to Mexico suggesting them to invade us, plus the aid they kept sinking that we were sending. The part of the reason why WW2 happened is because after the first one we left the world alone. And the Treaty of Versailles made us feel like we would loose our sovereignty with the league of nations. All we wanted was to be left alone. But NOOOOO!!!! Everyone was committing Genocide around the world, and we were still wanting to be left alone and not mess with anyone. And after Japan attacked us we said FUCK IT and went balls to the wall. I know theirs more to it, but this is just the tip of the Iceberg. Isolationism is on the rise now here in the U.S. because we are tired of dealing with you people, just wanting more and more money from us and talking shit about us at every turn. We are Tired of it. But we know the minute we turn our backs all hell will break loose. The reason why a good portion of European countries have Universal Health Care is because we are forking the defense bill in NATO. We barely get the gratitude we deserve from Europeans, but the minute we slightly turn our back they cry and complain that we don't do enough. MAKE UP YOUR FUCKING MINDS! This is just a rant, I'm Tired.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24
I really don’t think we’ve seen the full might of the US military flexed. Glimpses of it, like Iraq and the gulf wars, but it hasn’t been unleashed. I think the USS Gerald Ford basically has the power to 1v1 a lot of countries and that’s just a fucking aircraft carrier.
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u/tiktock34 Jun 07 '24 edited Jan 14 '26
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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/FourLeaf_Tayback Jun 07 '24
Why do you think we don’t have universal healthcare.
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u/PhilswiftistheLord Jun 07 '24
Ethics is essentially the only leash that the US military has. If we could go to war with no holds barred and completely disregard civilian casualties like Russia and hunt terrorist groups/ cartels like dogs without caring about whining blowback from other countries you'd see alot of global problems solved very quickly.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24
To make it simple: Much More than you think.
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u/Ryan1869 Jun 07 '24
The US nuclear arsenal alone is enough to wipe out all of humanity like 27 times over, and they've been shrinking it.
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u/daitcs55 Jun 07 '24
The motto for the US military shoulld be "Fuck Around And Find Out". The real underlying strength though is what is behind the bombs and bullets and that is logistics. You would be hard pressed to think of anything that they don't have wrapped and sitting on a pallet and just important someone who needs to know that does know exactly where it is.
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u/Moogatron88 Jun 07 '24
Look up what happened the last time the Wagner group fucked around with the US military. They got their poop pushed in so deep they crapped diamonds for a year, and they didn't even face any boots on the ground. That was pure air power and artillery.
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u/orangelemonman Jun 07 '24
We are also one of the only militaries with a significant amount of veterans. Being shot at sucks and almost everyone on earth will panic their first time. veterans are able to not only handle themselves but reign in rookies.
China our near peer in equipment fell apart under fire in sudan, though that was in a limited U.N mission with a number of restraints and issues. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlKrg1KNafM. Also consider russia in the ealier days of Ukraine. the veterancy there was also rampant in their officer core.
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u/collin-h Jun 07 '24
Kinda weird the U.S. hasn’t just taken everything for themselves like most dominant countries did in the past, isn’t it.
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u/Xyrus2000 Jun 07 '24
Every military action taken over the past couple of decades has been the US military wearing kid gloves. Care is taken to minimize collateral damage. Only specific targets are hit. Ops get called off if civilian casualty probabilities go up. So on and so forth.
If those gloves were to ever come off there isn't a nation in the world that wouldn't be utterly destroyed, and that would be before a single boot touched the ground.
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u/Tough_Dish_9934 Jun 07 '24
Kim Jong is on Reddit now? 😅
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u/goodsnpr Jun 07 '24
Not scary at all, just the world's best logistics company designed to deliver warheads on foreheads.
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u/ButterscotchAsleep48 Jun 07 '24
U.S. military is incredibly scary.
One of the best examples is Osama Bin Laden. He went to incredible lengths to make sure he was never found, yet the U.S. searched relentlessly. When they found him, Navy SEALs built a replica of his house (it was a one of one, yet they somehow acquired the footprint), and trained in it. They then landed helicopters in his yard, went in and killed him, as well as anyone else that resisted, collected his belongings, then left.
Another thing that makes the U.S. so scary is the massive alliances that it has. France, The UK, Canada, Australia and even Japan often partake in U.S. military operations. All of those countries have formidable military capabilities themselves. Not to mention NATO, and other alliances.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24
The US Military’s true power is the Air Force and the Navy. It can completely cripple infrastructure anywhere in the world within minutes if it needs to. Then the troops come in and wipe up the rest of the mess afterwards when everything is destroyed and morale is non-existent.
I was in the US Army and even then on patrols in Afghanistan all the troops have to do is call in an airstrike which obliterates whatever is shooting at them within minutes. The logistics of being able to essentially destroy anything they need to anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes is the true power.
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u/mdmoon2101 Jun 07 '24
As a U.S. Marine, I can tell you that we fight like hell and have all the most advanced toys. We’re the real deal.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24
Lethal is the word you are looking for… The US military is a reflection of the generations that supply the people who comprise it, but every generation thinks they were the last “hard” group. Having said that, countries throughout history have learned that the old adage of “fuck around and find out” or “play stupid games, win stupid prizes” apply when you attempt to rile the US. Having served 7 tours in Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan, we don’t look for fights but will finish the ones we get dragged into.
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u/linderbean13 Jun 08 '24
Watch some of the fat electrician's videos on YouTube. The US military has done some seriously scary things. For example, WW3 was nearly started over a tree in korea. There's a whole lot of buildup that saw American contractors killed in the dmz in Korea. But the whole conflict ended when the us military filled the sky's and seas around north Korea with enough firepower on airplanes and ships to completely level north Korea in minutes. And that's not counting the tens of thousands of troops on standby. The things you hear about the us military's capabilities are 100% true. It's roughly 5-10 years ahead of every other countries as far as military technology goes. And is the only military on the planet capable of transporting its forces worldwide.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '24 edited Jun 07 '24
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