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Subject: Top Ten Armies of the World
Arditi    3/4/2004 3:54:10 PM
According to the CIA and other Intelligence Services (European, Asian, African) this is the tally - based on a Combination of Manpower, Technology, Firepower, Training, Resources, Available Reserves, and Nuclear Potential (Current or Likely): 1. USA 2. China 3. Germany 4. India 5. France 6. Russia 7. UK 8. Italy 9. Israel 10. Pakistan
 
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RM-Nod    RE:My point still stands   3/8/2004 8:17:34 AM
Over here we have a very complicated system. We have the TA which are volunteer reserves (civvies and ex regs)of which we have 79,192, we also have the regular reserves who have finished there service but sign up to the reg reserves of which we have 75,367. We then have the liable fore recall number who are still under contract to serve when ordered to, we have about 64,814. Anyway the point is that list still doesn't make any sense no matter how you look at it.
 
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Arditi    RE:Top Ten List   3/10/2004 2:32:51 PM
Very good Gray - I was only talking about ARMY - not Air, Naval, or whatever. I suspect that the controlling issue is "Economics" i.e. the ability to wage long term warfare. Most of the countries on the list are members of the G-7. These are the countries that control the world economy and therefore have the ability to wage long, protracted war. I made no inference as to effectiveness. Of course, most of the arguments that I have seen on this page regarding effectiveness are based on pure conjecture. Few of these countries have been tested since WWII. The Germans have always had an effective military, but that does not suggest that in the next war they will be equally effective.
 
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RM-Nod    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World   3/10/2004 7:24:29 PM
The list still doesn't make sense for various reasons I've already said. Would you mind putting a discription next to each nation as to why you put them where you did (you don't have to do the US I think we all agree with that one)
 
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fall out    RE:My point still stands - misunderstanding   3/10/2004 7:37:11 PM
im not sure that i would agree with india's army beating germany's army with no air assets around. too many factors to take into accoutn such as location, build up, finance, political pressure, stability and "free reigns" for the military. eg, if India 'came over' to Germany and fought the German army then i believe the Indian's would lose, reverse the place and then reverse the outcome aswell. ;)
 
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RM-Nod    RE:My point still stands - misunderstanding   3/10/2004 8:10:30 PM
Just another reason why the list doesn't work. But if you want to suspend reality and put both armies on a neutral island with no advantages then I think the Indians would come out on top. But that's complete balls because that'll never happen but that seems to be what the lists about.
 
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clarkey188    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World - mistake   3/11/2004 3:05:09 AM
Have you counted the long term reserve in that, That's what I'm in now you still have to report anually and are asked if you want to switch to the regular reserve for service abroad. The long term reserve would boost the numbers substantially.
 
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   RE:Top Ten Armies of the World - mistake   3/11/2004 4:00:03 AM
Im confused, how can the german army be growing in the next few years as nasty german said if there miltary buget just got cut by 30% ( i think its 30% but i dont know for sure)..
 
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RM-Nod    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World - clarkey   3/11/2004 10:20:37 AM
The numbers I got off the MoD site, included regular reserves, the TA and liable for recall. Are you in the liable for recall number? Here's the site I got the numbers off, you might have to look around a bit. http://www.dasa.mod.uk/natstats/natstats.html
 
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civvystreet    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World   3/11/2004 1:25:25 PM
The intro to the list is pretty bizarre: "according...other Intelligence Services (European, Asian, African) this is the tally".. This would imply some sort of coordinated international intelligence effort at complying a list which is then, according to Arditi, printed in the World Almanac?! And how pointless if it is restricted to just the armies and not armed forces. That aside, given that Arditi claims that economics plays a part, Germany with its 2 and a half trillion $ economy should rank third in potential. Otherwise bizarre to say the least.
 
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civvystreet    RE:Top Ten Armies of the World   3/11/2004 1:29:32 PM
Besides, if you factor in nukes into scenario planning they would be an equalising factor thus eliminating rankings.
 
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