Rachel interviews Douglas Macgregor:
The title--U.S. NOT Ready for WAR with Russia--however should be expanded. It actually never was. The conventional weakness of Russia in 1990s-early 2000s as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union was NEVER the result of technological lag. In fact, as I wrote in my latest book:
Even against the raging economic crisis in the 1990s Russia and the chaos which ensued in the wake of the barbaric U.S.-directed economic reforms and the essential demolition of the Soviet Armed Forces, the military-technological heritage of the Soviet Union was preserved to a very substantial degree. This is precisely the point which the overwhelming majority of American geopolitical thinkers, even those who pass for the so-called realists with whom Brzezinski was mistakenly identified, cannot grasp because they do not have a proper background, reliable information, or both. Already in 1996–97 it had become clear that the truncated Russian military-industrial complex was still engaged with a backlog of highly advanced Soviet military R&D which was much more impressive than America’s “technologically peerless military establishment” as proclaimed by Brzezinski, in the wake of euphoria from beating a backward third world military. Russia in 1994–95 was already offering on the international market systems such as:•3M54 Kalibr anti-shipping cruise missile (NATO reporting SS-N-27 Sizzler).•S-300 PMU 1 and 2 Air Defense Complexes (NATO reporting SA-20 Gargoyle).•P-800 Oniks supersonic cruise missiles (NATO reporting SS-N-26 Strobile).•A variety of deeply modified combat aircraft such as international arms market-oriented SU-30MK, and Russian Air Force variant of SU-30, later SU-30SM.•In 1997, demonstrating the SU-34 (as SU-32FN) prototype in Le Bourget, including first versions of R-73 long range AAM.•Advanced radar and signal processing systems.•Combat ships and diesel submarines.•Since 1982, the GLONASS satellite constellation, while maintaining the use of Parus system.•T-90 tanks.This is just a short list of what Russia was offering on the international market, despite a marked decline in her arms sales due to the loss of the arms markets of the former Warsaw Pact countries.
In other words, warfare technologies and know-how were there even before the collapse of the USSR. And they have been more advanced than most of what the US demonstrated (mainly PR) in the Gulf War. The US was so high on defeating a grossly incompetent and backward Saddam's military, that very few were paying attention and could grasp military-technological ramifications. Today we all know the result.
