There is no comparison between the PLA of today to the Iraqi Army of Desert Storm. I will bring it up again -- but the PLA predicted that the US-led alliance would suffer casualties similar to the Vietnam War in winning over Iraq. That prediction seriously embarrassed the PLA and led to the reforms that we see today. I say this kindly -- look at the PLA today and you will see the US military all over.
But at the same time, the US military today is not the same as we were in Desert Storm. It may sounds strange but I was both blase and amazed at what we did in Desert Storm in terms of overwhelming an enemy. I was blase at how well we integrated our forces and attacks but amazed at the scale of it, as in utter domination of the battlefields (plural). All armies practices combined arms tactics to some degrees, even back in WW I, but no one did it on the scale that we did as in Desert Storm, and it was the scale of it that shocked military professionals worldwide. That does not mean we found no flaws in what we did. In fact, analysts immediately took apart successes to find flaws and ways to eliminate or reduce the factors contributed to those flaws. No one, not even the technically minded Germans, did it as swiftly as we did. The depth of self criticisms also shocked military professionals worldwide. It started from the top the rapidly poured, not merely trickled, down to the unit levels. I still remember the briefings outlining how we performed in generating sorties and how it could have better support the air war. The self criticisms portions lasted longer than the self congratulatory speeches.
Like it or not, your PLA is at best as half as professional as the US military. An obvious sign of that arrogance is how military badged cars flaunts traffic laws in China.
Rules of the road in the People's Republic of China - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Is this true? In the US, a local sheriff can handcuff a general or admiral easily.
If there is a shooting war between US and China, your PLA will be 'shocked and awed' again. Except this time it will be far worse than being red faced over a report.
Thank you for at least thinking that we are about half as professional as Americans.
Talking about IRaq war of 03 BTW.
So, do you think you can just as easily steam roll us as you did there? Do you think we are trained the same? Do you think any of our men will surrender like the Iraq army? Do you think the equipment difference is as big.
Also the Germans attacked France, another great power, not a middle eastern nut case.
Lastly, to me professionalism isn't the same as readiness. Our men are well trained, our officers are university graduates, our weapons developed and maintained by experts, That I believe is professionalism.
Readiness is another thing all together.
Now there are obviously things wrong with the army, but that is more of a thinking China won't go to war and thus, some may be a tad more relaxed than they should be. But with the recent, developments, you don't seriously think China isn't even a little prepared for war?
As a side note, I never supported a war with Japan or US. Not because of afriad of loss, but how do you achieve victory? In the sense of a treaty is signed. Same applies to US.
You think China or US will negotiate for peace if there is a defeat? I doubt that, same applies to Japan. So how would victory be achieved,, occupation of Tokyo, or Beijing? How likely do you think either is going to be.
The CCP's legitimacy lies in protecting the people, the minute they admit defeat is the minute they lose their power so I doubt they would admit defeat. As to Japan, seriously, we both seen how they fight. And we can barely hurt US mainland short of Nukes, and that would be bad, cause of MAD.