In a direct confrontation, could the American military take on Russia? ‘

According retired Army Colonel General Douglas Macgregor, Russia would win that fight.

“Defeated isn’t the right word,” Macgregor told Politico. “The right word is annihilated.”

Macgregor is a decorated combat veteran who has made a name for himself as a defense analyst and author. During his military career, his greatest accomplishment was destroying 70 armored vehicles in under half an hour during Operation Desert Storm and suffering only a single American casualty.

Despite his love for his country and military service, Macgregor is also an avid critic of Army policy. He told Politico that the Army’s top brass was disorganized, “self-interested” and “wasteful.” He also says that Army technology is too “obsolescent” to stand a chance against the Russians.

To prove his point, Macgregor put together a 21-slide powerpoint presentation on the Army’s weaknesses and how it would fare in four battle scenarios against Russia. Two scenarios represented the Army’s current command structure and basic strategy to send forward brigade combat teams. In both simulations, the Army lost. The two winning scenarios feature a new structure concocted by Macgregor to eliminate the need for supply lines and decrease the amount of deployed soldiers.

“The problem with the U.S. Army is much bigger than numbers,” Macgregor said. “It’s not organized, equipped, or trained for a high end, conventional, integrated joint battle with a numerically and at least in some ways qualitatively superior enemy on the enemy’s chosen turf. In the simulation, it’s Russia. But it could just as easily be China. Even if you increased the Army to 600,000 in its current form … it would still fail. That’s the problem and, by the way, the Army knows it.”

(Photo Credit: US Army | Cpl. Tyler S. Giguere)