Nidan1

It could be that, and also the Syrian Army may be spread too thin to make decisive moves in so many different large towns.

Luckily none of the FSA video missions require sound discipline.

Damn, those tank crews don't have much of a chance the way those T-whatevers light up after being hit. That one video shows quite a few scenes of rebels being cut down on street corners by small arms fire. Is the average Syrian soldier equipped with an ACOG like device on their rifles, or are they just good marksmen?

Horrible!, now the Zionists are not only targeting civilians but chickens as well. The Syrians had to close the KFC in Damascus due to a poultry parts shortage. No shortage of tank ammo however.

God is certainly great....I wonder which side He is on in this fight? Seems odd that the West still cannot determine who these rebels are with all the video being uploaded to the internet. At least the US and others are claiming that they do not know who comprises these rebel groups. I wonder if the intelligence agencies are critiqueing these videos as deeply as we are on this forum.

Again, as they continue to turn their country into a moonscape. The buildings in this latest video look as if they were recently constructed and are still unfinished. Decent housing that the average Syrian will probably never get to live in as this civil war drags on.

http://youtu.be/VtAZeHYmO20 Young American Cubscouts test "Non-Lethal Aid" US plans to send to the FSA.

More like, "fortunately" they were no longer there, John. They may have gotton some lucky shots on the invasion fleet before being destroyed.

Dont know how this thread deteriorated as it did. When did Isreal or Iran become part of the incredible video discussion? In any event, when looking at this video of Men vs Tanks II, I for one am struck by the sheer amount of destruction that can be seen. After nearly two years of war this city of nearly 100,000 souls has been transformed into a virtual moonscape with rubble piled on top. It is so sad to see this happen.

The fact that they are using video and uploading to the internet almost daily shows a high level of motivation and sophistication. They are using the media of the 21st century to get their message out there. While they may not have modern weapons yet, they are using Youtube to win the proverbial "Hearts and Minds" battle, while the Syrian regime depends on a rogue billionaire from a breakaway Soviet republic to assign his fledgeling TV network to cover the SAA side of things. WhilepreventingWestern news agencies from getting into the country. What we in the West are left with is a "who do you want to believe" coverage of the war with each side blaming the other for atrocities and wanton killing. While also wondering if the videos we are getting are real time events or staged propaganda pieces. What seems to be real is a death toll of nearly 70,000 since fighting began, with additional hundreds of thousands of Syrians escaping to Jordan and other countries. The West jumped in on Libya with just a threat of mass casualties, oh wait, Libya produces nearly four times as many barrels of oil per day as Syria. How horribly cynical I have become.

This thread sort of tracked through the human interest content, and for us non-Germans (I speak for myself), how would Germans portray some of the atrocious behavior their ancestors perpetrated on other people during the war. The fact that a Russian soldier was using a Panzerfaust in 1941 or maybe that the war actually started in 1939 was not really the paramount point of discussion.

I agree completely, for the type of conflict that they might expect to encounter the technology of the T-72 is more than enough for the Syrian Army. They have been a client state of the Soviets and now friendly with the Russians, and have received these weapons systems since the 1960s. They have trained on them and learned to maintain them for decades. I am not suggesting that they should have more sophisticated weapons, I am saying that they might not have the ability to provide adequate logistical supply to the land weapons systems they are now employing, either because the parts are no longer available or because they do not have stocks of parts near the front lines.

I think you are quite right here. The majority of casualties inflicted by the Assad regime have been from artillery and airstrikes. They dont seem to be doing much of anything except destroying their own cities when they go head to head with the rebels on the ground.

And hence this discussion reinforces some of the things I have been posting about the staying power of so called "modern armed forces". Here we see the Syrian armored infantry forces which we all agree can be considered a "well equipped" armed force (as were the Iraqis in 1991 and 2003). Using just ERA deployment as a specific example, we have seen that some tank units have ERA and some don't. Without knowing exactly what the SAA is trying to accomplish in the various larger towns, we can see they they are foward deploying tanks and IFVs exposing them to all kinds of AT fire. They are not going up against a comperable conventional force but the rebels/jihadists seem to have sufficient stocks of RPGs and the like, and they are scoring multiple hits on Syrian T-72s, with and without ERA fitted on board. What we are not seeing is the SAA logistical system, replacing spent ERA modules or adding ERA to those tanks currently without that extra protection. What we are seeing is inprovised extra armor protection consisting of street rubble and scrap metal. Military folks will be inclined to improvise if they feel that they are not getting proper support from their supply chain. The Syrian Army seems to be no different in that regard but they appear at this stage to be unable to support their armored forces with repairs to their damaged vehicles.

Just finished with part three. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I could understand everything that was said, but I still found it a worthwhile movie. Its not so much a war movie in the genre of "SPR" or "Cross of Iron" as it is a human interest story set in the craziness and brutality of wartime. I give it three and a half stars.

That's disappointing, but I'll give it a shot anyway after investing the time to watch the first two with my German-English dictionary in hand .

Why, is part three not worth the effort?

I'm still waiting for part three, so I can judge the show in its entirety. First two parts were good. I really wish it had English subtitles since my German is weak. I think it is well done from a dramatic standpoint. Aha teil drei is up!.

Again examples of obsolete Soviet military hardward being sold to client states. Modern Russian tanks are usually equipped with the new KORD AA MG, but I dont think that they can be fired remotely either. They use the same mounting on a tank as the NSV system so retro fitting tanks is easier. Since the NSV system is basically out of production it is telling that Syrian tanks still mount this old system.

I am beginning to think that there is a real story behind the Abkhazian Network News Agency, the folks that are bringing most of the Youtube footage of the Syrian Government side of things to the world. Why would a small breakaway country from Georgia want to get involved like this? The network was founded by Marat Musin an expert in financial intelligence (whatever that means), and lecturer at Moscow State University. He sends his reporters into the battlefield in Syria to "counter the advanced information technologies that are used by al-Qaida to make insurgents in the Middle East look like freedom fighters." Interesting development I think, wars are now fought on the internet as well as on the ground. We all get involved whether we like it or not in this new information age.

Endymion....who are you quoting in your replies? There is a quote feature in this forum that displays the name of the person you are quoting...it makes it so much easier to follow a thread if you use this feature. BTW, although this has been an interesting exchange, I think you all have beaten this dead horse enough.

If we are talking strictly about the human reaction and emotional investment given by people who lived during that time, you would have to ask yourself who were the better men at the time, those who landed on the shores of France to liberate an enslaved continent, or those who defended those shores? Soviet soldiers also considered themselves to be "good guys". Where do they fit in to our present day perception of who is more self-righteous, in light of how the world evolved following the war.

I was referring to German entertainment businesses in General, but after I watch this entire program, I'll try to determine if what you say is true. Once again my German is poor so I really cant judge the fine nuances of the dialogue. I can get the general gist of what is being said, and obviously the visual tells a lot as well.

Can Germany ever make a movie about WW2 and really face the truth? What made for TV movies produced in any western country realistically and truthfully portray the chaos and horror of World War Two? With my limited grasp of the German language, I was still able to watch and enjoy part 1. Sometimes if you watch something just for the pure entertainment value rather than trying to pick apart the motives and politics of the show, it becomes a far more rewarding experience.

To see these tanks in an urban battleground without ERA attached only proves the lack of upgrading to SAA T-72s. While they are quite adequate against forces only armed with RPGs, they are still 70's technology, and without the benefit of ERA they are vulnerable to lucky hits, and would be mincemeat in the face of modern fire and forget AT weapons and modern tank guns. Typical of the way the Soviets and now the Russians and their clients have supplied their Arab partner states. Lots of good looking stuff, but mostly obsolete.