Food for thought:
When I was in high school, our football coach used to tell us all kinds of chit about the other teams. Things like, " they're bigger, stronger, faster" that were designed to motivate us. Looking back, I seem to remember that a lot of these teams that were supposed to be bigger, stronger, and faster were really none of those things. But it did the trick to make us play hard. I feel like a lot of the things we've been told about the Russian military might be exaggerated in much the same way. Many people tend to put in extra effort if they feel like they are the underdog.
I have been thinking the exact same thing. I believe as Americans, we have been engrained with this idea of the mighty Russian military in part to justify our exorbitant military budgets every year. And now it seems the Russian military isn't so mighty after all.
