You know I have never seen so many “specialists” on the US Military as I see here on li.ru. Anyone and everyone seem to know the US Military inside out, they can point all the problems in it right away tell you exactly what will cause the downfall of the US Military force.

The problem is that everyone who “thinks” they know something about the US military have ever served in the American forces or have even done any kind of extensive research or even try to understand why the US Military does what it does. However it does not stop them from having an opinion and thinking that they are right.

As a person whose knowledge about the US Military didn’t come from Russian books and movies, but rather came from actually serving in the US Military, let me try to analyze some of the arguments seen here on li.ru

The most popular idea (look at the post by “Klushkin” for example) is this:

The problem with the US Military, and the reason why the US Military will never win a serious contest is that American Forces are too obsessed about ZERO Casualties in the war (which can never be achieved), and that their soldiers are not ready to sacrifice their lives for the cause, and that Americans are to reliant on their technology and if that was to fail, Americans will be destroyed…and blah, blah, blah, blah…

The people who are saying that not only know nothing about American military, but they also know nothing abut the Military science in general and are judging US Military by the same standards as the Russian military is judged.

Let’s not even talk about how technology makes the soldiers better, how they can kill their enemy from a distance and the enemy wouldn’t even know they are there. That’s obvious, let’s talk about the HUMAN factor.

First of all, US Military is a PROFESSIONAL organization; it’s a BUSINESS like any other. That means that EVERYONE who join any branch of US Military (just for record the US Military branches are: US Army, US Marine Corps, US Navy, US Air Force, US Coast Guard, US National Guard – falls under Army, a bit different from other branches) has done so VOLUNTARY and is making HIS LIVING in the US Military for which he/she gets paid for. The contract is usually for 4 years, after which you can extend your contract for another term.

Second of all, let’s talk about this ZERO casualty policy of the US. First of all, everyone knows that ZERO casualty in a war is impossible to achieve, but minimizing the loss of man power is the BEST possible strategy in any military conflict for a professional Army.

It cost US Government upwards of $50,000 to make ONE professional and capable soldier, after you include the training, food, clothing, salary paid, and other expenses. It costs more then $100,000 to make a capable Middle Management soldier (Sergeants and above, since those are almost all served more then 4 years already). It costs a lot more to make an Officer.

So every time a US soldier or an officer is lost, US government loses a lot of money, and that simply makes no Business sense. So as you can see, it would be CHEAPER for the US government to lose a couple of tanks, a plane or some other piece of expensive technology than to lose 30-40 soldiers including sergeants and officers.

That’s one side of the coin, the other side of the coin is CONFIDENCE in your own command. Every single US Soldier knows that his Command will do EVERYTHING humanly possible to make sure he survives and comes back to his base. Every single soldier knows that he’ll never be simply wasted away, because he is too expensive to waste.

Just how important is that? Who do you think would be willing to fight better and more confidently? A scared 18-19 year old soldier who is unsure of his officers and command, or an older, better trained professional who knows that technology and support of this command will be always there for him?

The point is any PROFESSIONALY run Military organization should strive for minimizing their human casualties as much as possible if they want to succeed in a military conflict in the 21st century.