I can find my car using google earth but it isn’t there now and in fact hasn’t been there for years.
From recollection I disagree a lot with Tom’s opinions and politics but his factual analysis seems well informed.
The Russian’s beat the Germans because they had better kit and bigger numbers . German technical superiority was very much theoretical the vast majority of their supply and main units were horse drawn their tanks though well designed were unreliable and few in number they were also slow to build . like Napoleon Germany also failed to appreciate the scale on the undertaking or the severity of winter.
The American army is vast and equipped with quality functioning kit. Unlike 1930s Germany the USA is a very big country with significant resources.
Any way despite my strong dislike of Putin he plays geopolitics with skill (but no ethics) I doubt he will slide into war with a NATO power over this but he will use the incident to wrestle a lot of room to manoeuvre in Syria.
Thanks Crankboy, I don’t really believe my own politics anyway and I don’t like ascribing to a set world view (eg left vs right). I like anyone with a good opinion, even if it’s not my own, that is backed up with some reasoning….and then I like arguing with that person 🙂 If very few people here like my politics, it’s simply because I can’t help playing the contrarian.
Anyway, I’m going to quote a line in a Guardian comment that made me laugh. “Let’s keep the present trend in supported ignorance going, pretty soon the morons will only be able to utter their shallow and incredibly ill considered vitriolic opinions through a series of short form chicken scratches, because they’ll be incapable of even stringing a few coherent sentences together to form an argument.”
The world would be more peaceful if people took the time to understand conflict and politics a little more.