"Poll: Nearly Half Of US Armed Services Households..." Topic

… View Russia As An Ally.

"Russian efforts to weaken the West through a relentless campaign of information warfare may be starting to pay off, cracking a key bastion of the U.S. line of defense: the military.

While most Americans still see Moscow as a key U.S. adversary, new polling suggests that view is changing, most notably among the households of military members.

The second annual Reagan National Defense Survey, completed in late October, found nearly half of armed services households questioned, 46%, said they viewed Russia as ally…"
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Amicalement
Armand

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And that's how much you can trust the Russians.

Being a retired military member, I do not see the Russians in the same light as I used to. They are not communist anymore. Their military is very small compared what it used to be. They were actively engaged against ISIS. If NATO is concerned about Russia they differently do not show it. Germany has 250 tanks, Austria 56, Belgian 0, Denmark 57, France 406, Netherlands 18. So if they feel safe I see no reason for concern.

No indication of the sample size, sample method, or what questions are being interpreted to give this result.

Don't worry – it's a completely legitimate poll. The Russians confirmed it 100%!

How is that even a survey question? Seriously, who came up with that question and why? Sounds like someone has an agenda; and sensational headlines sell advertising. Obvious political quackery.

Regardless of what our soldiers views are on who our allies may or not be; I'm sure they will obey their orders and shoot the right targets when the time comes to do their job.

They are certainly not a friend or ally, and they do have the capability to nuke us and the rest of the world out of existence.

Barring that though, China poses a far greater threat to the USA, given their rising economic and military strength, and oppressive government, bent on stifling their peoples' free speech, and that of others around the globe, as much, if not more than Russia.

We will always be opponents in global game, and within 10 years we'll have to make a decision what we're going to do about China. Nearly all what is happening in the world is very similar to corporate competition games, covered by various wishful thinkings and talks about democracy/patriotism/values/ets. In corporate world you have deals, you have acquisitions and you have constant fighting without (much) bloodshed. At certain times you ally with your competitors to influence the market or ruin a bigger competitor. Even that current US foreign policy is extremely hostile to Russia I guess nobody in both countries want to see the missiles flying.
And in order to minimize this threat we should weight the gains and losses of our current state of things.

we'll have to make a decision what we're going to do about China.

More pertinently, what decision will China make about what to do to the US.

While I'm not too happy with it, at the moment Russia and China are establihing closer ties in both business and military, at the same time competing in FSU Asian republics, Pakistan, and some African countries.
As long as USA is stil antagonizing both coubtries and Europe is hanging somewhere in between, it is the only logical course of actions. Chinese are using their wealth to tie the whole regions to them and it works.
On the other hand, trade wars started by USA are shaking WTO foundations and we might lose former "world order" either from Chinese getting upper hand in global production or internal struggle between other countries…
PS this year I see dozen of Chinese students in our technological institutes when I travel to work – much more than I've seen a couple of years ago…

Agree…

Amicalement
Armand

Good to hear from you Barin, and to get your insight.

I'm surprised Putin and Russia do so many military deals with their erstwhile ally, given China's theft of your technology, and the clear and present non-nuclear danger they pose to your country, especially in the East.

I suspect your nuclear umbrella may keep them at bay, but it is interesting nonetheless, especially given their very large population, increasing economic power, and all those untapped resources you have in Siberia.

Of course, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, which does sometime breed strange "alliances", though your country's dealings with China remind me a lot of the Soviet alliance with Germany in the early days of WWII.

It will be interesting to see how things play out.

China isn't strong enough to do anything about/to the USA, really ochoin, much to some peoples' dismay. I suspect it will be decades before they'll be in a position to do that, if ever.

Apparently, the latest news report says they've cancelled their plans to build two nuclear aircraft carriers, which if true, makes it appear they've given up on creating a true, "blue water navy".

Сhina's main idea is soft power. At the moment even with the delayed growth they're still going to be N1 in production very soon, and most of it is real production, not services or bank operations.
They're securing resources, fertile land, political power worldwide, this, and not a couple of aircraft carriers will tip the balance in the future.
As far as I get it, they'll not risk the nuclear conflict, so we're more or less safe.
Very big problem they have is basic engineering, materials and metallurgy. That's why their Kalashnikovs will break much sooner than Russian original, their jet engines will be gone much earlier than those that we do…I got very good Chinese monitor earplugs – sound is excellent, 3D printed details, etc, but they went for thermal binding of one plastic detail to the cord – in Russia every nornal engineer graduate knows that certain plastics becoming brittle after heating, but it seems they don't. In 4 months I've returned these relatively expensive plugs back to the shop…
But as I wrote about students….they're aware of it, and trying to cover the gap.

They're securing resources, fertile land, political power worldwide, this, and not a couple of aircraft carriers will tip the balance in the future.

By economic colonialism, which ultimately comes with much the same problems as actual colonialism. Throwing money around, particularly with those states whose credit status is poor and whose 'governments' dislike being hectored on their human-rights record buys a certain amount of 'friendship' and 'loyalty'. However landownership in Africa is very much a hot button issue and will remain so particularly as long as countries have large rural bases. The Chinese state would be very silly to assume that there corporate interests are at any less risk of expropriation than other 'foreign' landowner. Now when it happens I will be very interested to see what will their response will be! Particularly as they become increasingly reliant on these foreign ventures for resources.