But Iraq has approximately 30 times more people than Chechnya, making the difference even more pronounced. In occupiers-deaths-per-occupied-nation's-capita, Iraq has been 191 times less dangerous than Chechnya.
Wow.
From the official policy document, National Security Concept of the Russian Federation:
There are growing threats to the national security of the Russian Federation in the information sphere. There is a major threat in the striving of some countries to dominate the world information space and oust Russia from the foreign and domestic information market; the elaboration by some countries of a concept of information wars, which provides for the creation of means of dangerous influence on the information spheres of other world countries...
And later in the document:
The ensurance of the national security of the Russian Federation also includes... ...the elaboration of a state policy in the sphere of spiritual and moral education, the introduction of a ban on the use of air time of the electronic mass media for showing programmes that popularise violence and exploit base instincts, as well as resistance to the negative influence of foreign religious organizations and missionaries.
In "Grozny. A Few Days..." a man tells of living through the increasing evil in Chechnya during early nineties. One bit of homespun philosophy:
Of course, not all the population suffered from malnutrition like our family. We were simply unlucky. As for my mother-in-law's neighbors, it was hard to believe that the power had changed. They used to have a fully stuffed fridge with sausages, meat, bacon and caviar. Probably, I would have been in a clover if my mother-in-law were a jewelry store owner. But then I would have been unlucky with my wife, because one cannot have all the luck of the world. Well, it's better to have a good wife, all the troubles can be overcome together.
Again from Vyacheslav Mironov's "Assault on Grozny Downtown":
At war we usually smoke, concealing cigarette in the fist. That way sniper wouldn't see the flash. This habit worked around the clock, night and day. It makes sense like this. If your habits are different throughout the day, it is easy to make that one fatal mistake.
Eliciting insights from junior officers during Moltke's staff rides:
Periodically Moltke would take the entire student body of the War College and as much of his General Staff as he could spare and literally ride on horseback to one of the actual invasion corridors into Prussia. Moltke would then personally describe the situation he viewed the most likely first clash between invading and Prussian forces.He would then turn to the most junior student present and ask for his plan of battle. He would then ask the second most junior, then the third until he would ask the opinion of the most senior General present. Why? If the most senior spoke first would any junior disagree? Besides the younger officers might come up with something innovative. They would then ride to a hill overlooking where Moltke felt the next phase of the battle would be fought and the process was repeated.
Interesting. I just read about the same technique being used in the Russian army during the first Chechen war. Vyacheslav Mironov wrote in his "Assault on Grozny Downtown".
The time will come for me to stand up and express my point of view, like any other present here. First, the lowest ranking officers will speak, then, all the way up the pyramid. It is done deliberately, so that the opinion of the higher-ranking officers wasn't weighing on their shoulders. At the end, com-brig will do the summing up.
A year in the life of Evelyn Wood:
After recovering, he was sent to India, just in time for the Mutiny, While there, in between fighting the sepoys, he suffered from, sunstroke, low fever, facial neuralgia, indigestion and face-ache. He then went on to be attacked by a tiger, fell off a giraffe, putting holes in both his cheeks and mashing his nose, then went on to burn a hole in a cheek with medicine for a toothache, and again suffering with face-ache and deafness. He also suffered from severe intestinal complaints and indigestion. He then galloped his horse into a tree, breaking his collarbone. This all happened in little over a year while in India.
Stupid joke:
Why are the streets of Paris lined with trees?Becouse the Germans like to march in the shade.
Confucious say:
1. Man who run in front of moving bus will get tyred...2. Man who run behind moving bus will get exhausted....
All through this period US intelligence on the specific characteristics of Japanese weapons and of their training levels was atrocious. Instead of arguing over what they did not know the Navy turned this handicap into an advantage.......Slowly it dawned on the students - the faculty was giving the Japanese different strengths and weaknesses in each war game!
What were the students to do? Unable to simply learn Japanese strengths and weaknesses before the game they had to play the game in such a way that they could learn them through experience before any decisive engagements took place.
From Toward a History Based Doctrine for Wargaming (full text)