We are not capable of truly reinforcing Eastern Europe, math is not on our side

[TreasonousBastard]

15. We never were...

I spent a couple of years in 8th Division Signal smoking pot, drinking bier and diddling German girls. That was in the late 60's when all the money was going to Viet Nam.

Rarely were more than half of our trucks ready to go out, and every time we headed for the woods more broke down. Got to the point where we had no more money for field training. And we never had spares, or even much ammo for our M14s. Most of our equipment was Korean War era.

Nobody admitted it officially, but we were simply a token force. Semi-officially, we were supposed to last a few days until reinforcements from the States arrived-- as if we thought we could last that long, or there would be enough reinforcements to fight off a million Russians. And the local NATO forces weren't in much better shape.

The real story everyone knew but didn't talk about was that it was a huge bluff, and we were simply praying that the Soviets wouldn't risk a nuclear war by firing on US troops.

Things have changed, and NATO actually has a more rational mission now. But a land battle with the Russians? Nobody wants that. Nobody thinks Putin is that crazy, either. Or at least hopes he isn't.