- MOSCOW -- The quick defeat
of Saddam Hussein's military, which was modeled on the rigid Soviet war
machine, at the hands of a motivated high-tech adversary has thrown a spotlight
on the weakness of Russia's own crumbling armed forces and strengthened
the hand of proponents of radical military reform.
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- "The Iraqi war has proven once again that a volunteer
contract force equipped with state-of-the art weapons and using modern
tactics can fulfill any task ... and do it with minimal casualties among
civilians," said liberal lawmaker Alexei Arbatov, a leading advocate
of a Russian volunteer army.
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- When the U.S.-led war against Saddam began, Russian generals
forecast a long and fierce battle, claiming that U.S. forces would suffer
massive casualties if they tried to storm Iraqi cities. Just a week before
the fall of Baghdad, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov extolled the
strength of the Iraqi army and said that a U.S. victory was "far from
certain."
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- "There were expectations of a new Vietnam,"
said Yuri Fyodorov, a deputy director of the PIR-Center, an independent
Russian think-tank.
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- Russian generals and diplomats, who predicted an all-out
battle for Baghdad, relied on Russia's own botched experience in storming
Grozny, the capital of the small rebel region of Chechnya that was virtually
destroyed during the first war 1994-1996.
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- "The U.S. victory in Iraq has become an unpleasant
surprise for the Russian political and military elite, which based its
plans on the assumption that the Americans would get bogged down in Iraq,"
said Yevgeny Volk, head of the U.S. think tank Heritage Foundation's Moscow
office.
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- The Iraqi army closely copied the Soviet military organization
and tactics and was equipped with mostly Soviet-built tanks, aircraft and
missiles. Although official military contacts were severed after the 1990
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, some retired Russian generals reportedly visited
Baghdad just days before the U.S.-led attacks started in March to advise
its defenders.
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- After coping with the initial shock, Russian officials
and analysts began discussing the war lessons. Some said that apart from
its nuclear forces, the Russian military has much in common with Saddam's
army in both weapons and morale.
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- "Go on the street and ask who is ready to defend
the motherland, and you will immediately see unpleasant parallels,"
said retired Gen. Andrei Nikolayev, head of the defense affairs committee
in the lower house of parliament, the State Duma. "The outcome of
a war depends on army's morale."
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- Nezavisimaya Gazeta's commentator Maxim Glikin recalled
his own experience in the Soviet military in the late 1980s, saying he
and his comrades would have surrendered just like Saddam's soldiers.
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- "We would have thrown away our rifles and changed
into civilian clothes before an aggressor approached our unit," Glikin
wrote, adding that the troops' morale has further plummeted in the last
decade.
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- The Russian military has seen a steady decline since
the 1991 Soviet collapse, lacking funds to modernize their Soviet-built
weapons, hold exercises and even properly feed and dress servicemen.
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- Miserable conditions and rampant hazing of young conscripts
have led to suicides, desertions, shootouts and widespread draft dodging.
All Russian men aged 18-27 are required to serve two years in the military,
but 90 percent avoid the draft.
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- President Vladimir Putin has sought to reverse the military's
meltdown by ordering a gradual transfer from the draft to a volunteer force
by 2010. The plan has faced stubborn resistance from the top brass, who
have tried to preserve a bulky, Soviet-era military on a meager budget
equivalent to US$11 billion this year.
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- The Pentagon budget for this year stood at US$ 365.6
billion, even without the war.
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- The Russian military has sought to retain its giant Cold
War arsenals - even though the lack of fuel and spares has stranded aircraft
on the ground and left most navy ships rusting berthside for years.
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- In stark contrast with the computerized, satellite-guided
U.S. military, the Russian army's arsenals are of Cold War vintage, precision
weapons are few and tactics largely imitate the World War II patterns.
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- Bad maintenance of weapons, the lack of proper training
for the troops, rigid command and poor coordination, which are believed
to have contributed to the Iraqi defeat, are also sapping the readiness
of the Russian army.
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- While the top brass is using the Iraqi war as a pretext
to plead for more funds, critics are urging the military to further trim
ranks, get rid of excessive weapons and radically streamline its bloated,
antiquated structure.
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- "Pumping more cash into the outdated defense structure
would be a useless waste of money," said Konstantin Kosachev, deputy
head of the Duma's foreign affairs committee.
- http://www.russiajournal.ru/news/cnews-article.shtml?nd=37133
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