>Moreover, the unit, Finland’s only participant in Joint Viking 2025, said they were not even conducting opposition force activities.
>“The Finnish force operated in the exercise with the U.S. force on the same side,” we were told.
Youare-Beautiful3329 on
That’s a shame they weren’t op forces. They’re one tough group of SOBs. Excellent training potential.
Powerful-Mix-8592 on
The problem with fighting American is not that the US soldiers are better than you – if anything, I can safely say that a French foreign legionnaire or a Swedish Naval Commando can fold the whole lot of us in fifteen minutes, and I serve with a better light infantry unit in the army.
The problem with fighting American is that there’s this thing called “US Airpower.” The Viet Cong and NVA were not afraid of American troops, but mentioned T-28 Trojan (Much less A-1 Skyraider or F-105 or, god forbid, B-52) and they went green with fear. And this is not just American arrogance: pick up any good memoir like Memories of War or Đặng Thùy Trâm’s library or novel based on real event like Laughing forest and Sorrows of war and you will see how much NVA was afraid of American airpower. American airpower was and is no joke.
That, and the US has a logistical network nobody else can rival them. France is the only one with any expeditionary capability and they could not move 10,000 troops; the US can airlift entire divisions in a few days with a functioning Burger King for the enlisted and a Starbuck for the officers.
Anyone who for the past few weeks have engaged in collective mental masturbation because of a few reports about how bad US troops is and how Europe can hold against the US need to have a reality check. 2026 American army is not 2022 Russian army, much less 1939 Soviet Army. Europe is not the Europe of 19th century – Europe no longer has the will, the manpower, the technological edge to bully the world
DABOSSROSS9 on
Wait, so the post with 47k upvotes and over 2k comments was not based on true information ?
AMCorBUST2021 on
Sisu
Haunting-Detail2025 on
Number one, the fact that the “journalists” who made that claim not only lied about a US request that didn’t happen but didn’t even understand Finland wasn’t playing OPFOR in the exercise is just a stunning indictment of *The Times*’ integrity and editorial standards.
Number two…even if it were true, I’m just not sure what difference it would make. I don’t think anyone doubts that Finnish troops are, on an individual level, better trained in arctic warfare than US soldiers. But that hardly matters in an asymmetric war setting where the US would be operating with an insurmountable advantage in terms of personnel count, technology, intelligence, air power, and logistics capabilities. This isn’t World War I, they’re not going be duking it out in trenches.
Any-Original-6113 on
Yes, that turned out to be false.
But the comments on the post, which got 47 thousand likes, were real. And many of them were full of humiliating remarks aimed at Americans.
DanielSon602 on
Can the Mods fact check instead of allowing untrue articles to be posted, the article saying Finland went easy on USA had 40k upvotes
joecool78257 on
The truth is, only certain units in the US military are chosen for winter warfare training. As part of a larger NATO, we deferred to those countries who are naturally acclimatized because of their geographic location.
Musicman1972 on
Considering the fact they weren’t OPFOR it was never likely to be true but I also know that Finland saying it isn’t, in isolation, means very little at this point.
I’m seeing almost every single country pussy foot around the US to an embarrassing degree so if it *did* happen, and the US told Finland to deny it, I see very little reason to think they wouldn’t.
10 commenti
British media’s yellow journalism shines again
>Moreover, the unit, Finland’s only participant in Joint Viking 2025, said they were not even conducting opposition force activities.
>“The Finnish force operated in the exercise with the U.S. force on the same side,” we were told.
That’s a shame they weren’t op forces. They’re one tough group of SOBs. Excellent training potential.
The problem with fighting American is not that the US soldiers are better than you – if anything, I can safely say that a French foreign legionnaire or a Swedish Naval Commando can fold the whole lot of us in fifteen minutes, and I serve with a better light infantry unit in the army.
The problem with fighting American is that there’s this thing called “US Airpower.” The Viet Cong and NVA were not afraid of American troops, but mentioned T-28 Trojan (Much less A-1 Skyraider or F-105 or, god forbid, B-52) and they went green with fear. And this is not just American arrogance: pick up any good memoir like Memories of War or Đặng Thùy Trâm’s library or novel based on real event like Laughing forest and Sorrows of war and you will see how much NVA was afraid of American airpower. American airpower was and is no joke.
That, and the US has a logistical network nobody else can rival them. France is the only one with any expeditionary capability and they could not move 10,000 troops; the US can airlift entire divisions in a few days with a functioning Burger King for the enlisted and a Starbuck for the officers.
Anyone who for the past few weeks have engaged in collective mental masturbation because of a few reports about how bad US troops is and how Europe can hold against the US need to have a reality check. 2026 American army is not 2022 Russian army, much less 1939 Soviet Army. Europe is not the Europe of 19th century – Europe no longer has the will, the manpower, the technological edge to bully the world
Wait, so the post with 47k upvotes and over 2k comments was not based on true information ?
Sisu
Number one, the fact that the “journalists” who made that claim not only lied about a US request that didn’t happen but didn’t even understand Finland wasn’t playing OPFOR in the exercise is just a stunning indictment of *The Times*’ integrity and editorial standards.
Number two…even if it were true, I’m just not sure what difference it would make. I don’t think anyone doubts that Finnish troops are, on an individual level, better trained in arctic warfare than US soldiers. But that hardly matters in an asymmetric war setting where the US would be operating with an insurmountable advantage in terms of personnel count, technology, intelligence, air power, and logistics capabilities. This isn’t World War I, they’re not going be duking it out in trenches.
Yes, that turned out to be false.
But the comments on the post, which got 47 thousand likes, were real. And many of them were full of humiliating remarks aimed at Americans.
Can the Mods fact check instead of allowing untrue articles to be posted, the article saying Finland went easy on USA had 40k upvotes
The truth is, only certain units in the US military are chosen for winter warfare training. As part of a larger NATO, we deferred to those countries who are naturally acclimatized because of their geographic location.
Considering the fact they weren’t OPFOR it was never likely to be true but I also know that Finland saying it isn’t, in isolation, means very little at this point.
I’m seeing almost every single country pussy foot around the US to an embarrassing degree so if it *did* happen, and the US told Finland to deny it, I see very little reason to think they wouldn’t.