Reply With Quotedon't judge an army by how impressive they look, there's more to it
Cuban Military pictures
I digitalized and uploaded a couple of newsreels from Cuban TV Cubavision about Bastion 2009 military exercises.
A couple of things struck me as odd watching these staged propaganda pieces. In the first video, after (somewhat ridiculously) sounding the "Alarma de Combate", equipment is distributed among the young conscript soldiers. Take a look at their equipment: an AK-47 and a canvas bag with a few clips. That's it.
Doesn't such a light equipment make you doubt the fighting capabilities of this army of conscripts?
Now take a look at the pot-bellied NCOs and the apparent clumsiness of the conscripts. Do they impress you? Bear in mind this is supposed to be a carefully staged propaganda clip. Is this the best they can do?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg3Rm...layer_embedded
Now take a look a this other video. It ends with the head of the political commisars giving a motivational speech to the soldiers. Take a look at them. Again, really not impressing, are they?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEky8...layer_embedded
Interesting things to see: a peek at the famous network of military tunnels.
For those of you who might ask me to translate what is being said, it would take too much work and it isn't really worth the effort: it consists of the uniquely Cuban bloated official talk, artificial, pedantic and propaganda-heavy shenanigans.
don't judge an army by how impressive they look, there's more to it
Actually, it usually is the other way around: most armies look impressive in propaganda pieces and exhibitions but are not that effective in reality. So this actually strengthens my point.Originally Posted by kerim
Cuba was the 2º military power in America after US in 1988. but went the Soviet Union collapsed, they get a serious problem in the military expenses.
Today the a little better because Venezuela sent oil almost free to them.
Your only point is that Cubans can't make a good video...
Well, historically, even very poorly trained armies can cause alot of trouble because of the complete unpredictability of their actions. Hell, their own commanders probably wouldn't know where they were 90% of the time or if they understood their orders correctly. Their best bet would probably just be to arm the conscripts and send them on their way to fight a guerilla war. Hoping to fight a conventional war against the US is just madness.
The thing that strikes me most is the complete lack of motivation you see here, there is just no urgency to them.
I doubt these guys are anything like the regular army, or anything like most country's conscripts. I think they are more of a "militia" force in the old-fashioned sense, like the thousands who turned out during the bay of pigs invasion.
According to wiki, Cuba has a number of paramilitary organizations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_Cuba
So I think those are what we are seeing here as far as the infantry, not their regular forces.
I undertand what said the video my native language is Spanish
Is that what you got from my post? really?
I see why you might think that, but it is definitely regular army. Militias don't use those uniforms.
I agree to some extent, but then again lets take a WW2 example, Germany.
Tactics matter formost then equipment, along with training comes a close second. Equipment is fine and dandy, but in todays society, advanced equipment is on the open market; off the shelf. So in other words, if they really wanted to, they can get the systems needed to build lets say their basic verson of optical survailance, from UAV's to other such stuff (will it be as good as Russian, American, Israeli, etc varient? No, but it will still do the job needed). So using simple looks and technical aspect, its wrong and not as a good example of power.
Thanks for the link, Skutatos. Reading it brought some surprises: I was totally unaware of the existence of Pakistani training in the Cuban Army.
I would disagree with that. Canada, Brazil and Argentina (which at that point still had the 25° de Mayo in service) were all at least the equals of Cuba at that particular time.
In 1988 the FAR were still involved in a war in Angola which had been going on for nearly a decade with little success. Keep in mind that the following year Fidel Castro would institute a massive purge of the armed forces and place them under the control of his brother, Raul.
You are 100% correct about the subsidies from the Soviets keeping the FAR (and the larger Cuban state) afloat. That is the only reason they were able to fight for so long in Angola and to send assistance to Communist groups in Central America.
So while Cuba's military power probably did reach its peak in 1988, such a level of capability was sustained only briefly.
News to me as well.
A unique display of typical Cuban bravado: see that slogan at the entrance of the barracks? "Aquí no se rinde nadie, c..." It is Spanish for "Here no one f...ing surrenders!". Yeah, they wrote that on their walls. Only in Cuba.
The "c..." is a way of writing the expletives "¡coño!" (fvck!) or "¡carajo!" (damnit!)
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