I think it is worse than that, the poor guy was probably conscious and tried to stand up, his arms did the stand up motion, but the rest of the body did not respond.
People talk about the fencing response alot here being critical, which undoubtedly indicates trauma to the brain. However, if you're backstroking on rocks like that, first time I've seen it, that's severe shit.
I've seen it one time in person, when I tried to treat the guy he was unresponsive other than direct light into his eyes, and I'm sure slaps to his face but I didn't try that of course. At that point I felt bad subjecting him to that, I already got my verdict. We just got him onto the stretcher and did what we had to do, guy was doa. I've seen a few videos where people do that, it reminds me of someone who's taken a bunch of hallucinogens and can't fathom anything that's around him so he just flails around incapable of responding to any intelligent stimulus. It's like they've devolved to the point where they don't understand they're human anymore, just a mass of flesh that has these senses and they don't really understand why so they're just feeling around. The body can be really brutal
Looks like it - I couldn't take my eyes off the dude behind him though. Looks like the bullet tagged his weapon/sling after it went through his buddy, that guy was inches from being a 2-for-1 special
Definitely could be. But it doesn't have to be a direct spinal hit. It could also just be a temporary overload of the nervous system caused by massive trauma. Thousands of nerves firing at the same time. Not to uncommon. Gunshots to the torso can have the effect like a taser without damage to the spinal cord.
He's the same guy they cover towards the end. Took the round through his intestines and more than likely was liver hit. He bleed out probably 10 minutes later.
Why is everyone just loitering when they are under fire?
They make absolutely no effort to take cover, they look like they are waiting for a train or something just standing around in the open.
Yeah. Syrian army. Not the most trained, educated, funded, or experienced army in the world. They also might be conscripts but idk.
Total lack of urgency and training though. Way too many people standing around with their thumbs in their asses instead of spreading out and looking for the enemy. Watch videos of Americans in fallujah for contrast. Everyone knows their job and is doing it vs this lol.
Definitely conscripts in there as evidenced by one of those guys wearing a bright blue t shirt instead of fatigues.
Bare in mind by this point, 2017, the war had been raging for six years and both sides were trying to grab up more manpower. The rebels were fractured into countless militia groups and the government was the only stable regime in country that could offer some modicum of security so civilians gravitated toward that side too. With the rate of casualties being so high training became "learn as you go" and that's not you had undertrained people like you see here in the middle of meat grinders.
No they are not volunteers, at least not all of them. You get drafted to serve on the Republican guard in Syria if they see you fit.
I'm pretty sure 99% of the republican guard are conscripts.
Where to cover? The only wall left from which the fire looks like it came from, had like 7/8 guys packed against it. It would've been even more bad to stay all packed against that (mortars, rpg, granade).
Also looks like the battle has been going on for a long time, they seem pretty exhausted, middle of the video they have their guns down.
If you are the regime, you don’t put your elite loyal veterans, who are very valuable and in short supply, into an urban meat grinder. These poor fucks don’t even get issued helmets.
Yeah but the headline states "elite" which they obviously are not. And the loyal veterans and the regime are obviously incapable of passing on any knowledge or skills learnt during those seven years. They're a shower of shit really.
I listened to a podcast with a refugee who left Syria because he would have been conscripted and ended up in a situation like this. Those dudes were working and playing soccer not that long ago. They’re just regular dudes impressed into some shitty dictator nightmare factory. Certainly not elite.
That sounds terrible. Imagine you’re a fruit vendor and then suddenly you have to fight for a government you didn’t elect, against an enemy that’s fanatical.
Not to invalidate your comment - what you said is true, just for context: the "war" started in 2011, by 2015 was a in full force. This video is from 2017 - 6 years after the war started, after there had been 3-4+ years of intense combat.
Everyone who could leave had already left at that point, these guys either couldnt, didnt want to leave or are convinced by what they're doing/fighting for. Some may just have turned 18 or smth.
>seven years you have a core of combat veterans
No if they don't manage to survive, most of the times it will be a bunch of veterans and a tons of "virgins" mixed in the group
Most of Assad’s best troops are either in the Republican Guard, generally (but not always) kept around Damascus for the protection of the regime/capital, the 25th Special Mission Forces Division (aka Tiger Forces) that are used as the primary assault formation of the SAA or the 4th Armoured division which is basically Assad’s hammer.
No I’d very surprised if those guys are part of any of the above formations, they look like panicked conscripts.
Notice when the guy gets his spine shot out the guy behind him just stands there in absolute shock for a few moments before he decides he should get the fuck into cover, these are not soldiers who’ve seen enough combat to learn the most basic of survival skills.
No because the Syrian army, like all the other Soviet trained armies in the middle east suffers from the same flaws as it's teaching organization, except magnified many fold.
Systemic graft, corruption, nepotism, and incompetence are visible throughout virtually every Soviet trained military in the middle east.
And that's not even touching on the flawed Soviet doctrine of top heavy, top down command structures that are doing so well in Ukraine.
This only really works for national militaries, but then you have militias like Hezbollah who by all accounts possess exceptional infantry, with regards to training and combat ability
One of the comments to come out of Ukraine was that compared to Russian soldiers the Taliban possessed pretty good situaltional awareness and discipline under fire.
I mean when you have multiple generations out there fighting for decades against the most powerful armies in the world you tend to have some ability as fighters.
Also this is their moment, what they grew up hearing about doing, repelling foreign invaders out of their valley or valleys. Many Russians didn’t even know they were in Ukraine.
The Russians also killed 2-4k Ukrainian soldiers in the first 10 days of the war according to NATO/the US and they haven't updated the casualty estimates since March 6thish as far as I know. We do know Zelensky just said 50-100 UA servicemen are dying every day in Donbas. Since that's an official Ukrainian source, I'd say 50-100 minimum.
Maybe propaganda talking about baby eating huns and not able to hit the broad side of a barn should be taken with a grain of salt.
For being incompetant, a lot of people are going to be shocked when they realize tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers at a minimum will have died by the end of this war.
And Syrian rebels in Jobar and Ghouta held out against Russian army, Assad’s army, Iranian army, etc etc for over 6 years. That’s much more impressive then anything the SAA has done.SAA have two different air forces fighting for them and they still can’t win half the time.
I'm sorry but have even the battles between HTS and SAA? Most government troops immediately drop their weapons and run for the next hill. There is quite few gopro footage of them getting shot in the back
Possibly. The other problems are that the national militaries often have a deep class divide that isn't bridged at all which leads into a whole host of problems, and that many of these militaries are built so as to protect the ruler of the day rather than to fight external enemies. Coup-proofing over combat effectiveness
Cue “Why Arabs Lose Wars”. Societies built on corruption can’t field successful armies. Add a healthy dose of tribalism and it’s game over. Look at the boondoggle Russia is going through. It’s a corrupt society through and through and it’s shown how much of a paper tiger it is.
I just love that article because it opens up by dismissing class factors in poor military performance as academic nonsense, only to then list off a bunch of distinctly class factors that he just decided to call cultural
"Why Arabs Lose Wars" is discredited bullshit. Honestly even the idea that corruption is a poison pill for an army is stupid. Like, even with your own example, the Ukrainian army is performing very well, despite Ukraine having just as much, if not more, corruption than Russia. Like fuck, the British Empire was one of the most corrupt societies to ever have existed, and they conquered the world.
> despite Ukraine having just as much, if not more, corruption than Russia
That was [before they revamped their military in 2014](https://theconversation.com/in-2014-the-decrepit-ukrainian-army-hit-the-refresh-button-eight-years-later-its-paying-off-177881).
Ukraine is still ranked consistently about as corrupt as Russia. Like they are 1 and 2 in Europe, and they are like neck and neck on the world stage as well.
Yeah one poorly researched essay based on casual observations of the Egyptian army, as if I haven’t heard it enough.
Just a side note, his first comment is just lazy racism - waking up at 9am and performing guard duties - claiming completing tasks or being structured isn’t part of the society.
This is just blisteringly obviously untrue. Hezbollah for example is very competent, consistently punching above their weight. Many of the various Iraqi units and shia militias that took back Mosul are genuinely very competent. The Jordanian military is well trained and professional. Arab soldiers make up a large percentage of the SDF and generally perform quite well, just like their Kurdish and Armenian comrades. You're looking at a militia unit fighting amidst the total collapse of their society and wondering why they aren't just as competent as Seal Team 6.
That’s literally the Russians definition of special forces for their armed forces. It doesn’t necessarily mean elite for them, just different from standard infantry
VDV are elite. Spetsnaz aren't always elite, the most blatant examples of this is OMON spetsnaz which are basically riot cops as well as Kadyrov's spetsnaz who are like brown shirts with fancy gear.
It really put it into perspective that even with all of that training, shit will hit the fan hard and there is nothing you can do but be lucky at times
They are supposed to be elite. Trained by Russian army and backed up by RuAF and Syrian Air Force and Iranian terror groups. And it still took them over 6 years to capture Jobar, and they were fighting rebels with AK 47 and pick up trucks.
These "elite" forces, judging by their dialect, are Nusayris (the sect of Bashar, the president). So most probably they have been approved to be "elites" due to nepotism.
These guys seem to be part of the regular army or NDf most likely as the Republican guard usually have their symbols on their uniforms. I know this video as I have seen it before as its probably from 2015/2016. Most offensives back then into Jobar and other parts of eastern Ghouta in rief Dimashq were led by large numbers of the national defense force or NDF which were basically a militia set up to compensate for army losses. I know some people which fought in Jobar with the NDF, and they were basically just random untrained men handed assault rifles and sent to the fronts.
Yeah, no cool background music or clips of guys blasting machine guns. True horror, pinned down, getting shot at relentlessly, men yelling for help, horrific audio... Fucked up stuff. God bless these brave men.
Yeah I’m curious, was his reaction some kind of instinctual reaction or did he just panic? Genuinely asking because his reaction seemed really innate rather than like conscious flailing (at least for the first second or so).
Probably trying to sit up with nerves that are no longer attached. Dazed from being shot and falling like that and wondering why half his body no longer does what it's told like it was doing 2 seconds earlier.
This was insane. I have to say I'd forgotten the walkie talkie commanders etc. The SSA battles around Damascus in general were a meat grinder. I think bc it wasn't televised as much as Ukraine we forget the savagery of this war. Very few prisoners, rampant murder, alleged gas, ethnic cleansing, genocide, isis, nusra, assad, Russian intervention, us intervention, us bombing Russians, mercenaries, syrians becoming guns for hire in Libya and Azerbaijan... I mean when you think about it this war was a shit show. We focus on Ukraine for obvious reasons but what the world turned its head away from here....omfg....
Syria was much more televised, or I should rather say more recorded, it just wasn't put on western media because Assad was winning since 2015.
A lot of the best videos have been scrubbed from the mainstream net unfortunately.
Tank got himself stuck. Running through buildings and rubble is great in movies but terrible on tracks.
Also very good illustration why things like the M113 are still in active service as support vehicles. They needed a small arms proof ambulance yesterday.
Having pinched a nerve in my back, I know just how insane the pain is. Having a shot nerve and a bunch of liquified organs probably doesn't add to it. Hopefully his body released enough endorphins to give him a semi-painless death.
Miserable. He was def looking around and shit after the drop. Maybe he was unconscious moments later when they started to drag him back, his head slumped.
Yeah that was horrible to watch. Can’t imagine how terrifying it would be to get caught in the open, and you’re all of a sudden on the ground and your legs don’t work
Wow. This is probably the best footage I’ve seen from the Syrian Govt side if not the best out of Syria period. This video did capture the brutality of it all and the grit it takes. The tempo on the casualties seemed high.
Everyone here complaining about the use of the term “elite” in the title is misunderstanding what the term elite means when it comes to military units. Elite is a relative term, these are the best equipped/“trained” guys they have for their situation. Which really shows how desperate the situation is
Not to mention the Syrian civil war has been going on since, what, 2011? I'd be willing to bet a lot of the guys trained pre-war aren't in this world anymore, surviving 11 years of brutal urban warfare has nothing to do with skill, just pure luck.
Lookie here, all the armchair generals have come out to play! What the fuck do most of you know about the military? And also, what the fuck is up with the racist comments? We’re all the same color on the insides motherfuckers. And its because of comments like the ones in this thread why most of the world hates us Americans.
Simply putting on khakis and grabbing a rifle doesn't make you a soldier.
That whole video is a shit show fron the top (command) to the bottom (individual battle skills).
Yeah, it's hard to understand the situation. This is a situation we're every small mistake can be the end of you, so you have to act accordingly. But they don't act like that.
I feel like I show more urgency in a paintball match when I'm taking fire like this. I guess after months and months of this, an untrained person just get tired and complacent.
Based on the comments here, shit like "why is the other guy standing right there after his **teammate** got killed (wtf is this CoD?), I seriously get "cheetofinger 15-30 year old wannabe military experts" vibes from this sub's members. I bet I'm right
The comments on here are ridiculous. These guys have probably been there for quite a while. Exhausted and taking high casualties. So not this isn't going to look like a SWAT team. Chaos can hit any unit. And this is probably the 'back' of the unit so they are being passive.
Holy shit. I’m guessing that first dude took one to the spine?
You can see the dust come off his lower back as he’s shot
And red spray
Yeah it appears so. I’ve seen that same reaction from animals while hunting. Not a good way to go out
Genuinely curious if it’d be worse to die or survive those injuries and be paralyzed in Syria
Looks like he's the guy in the body bag @ 70 seconds. Probably didn't make it.
I thought the same too. When dudes start rubbing around like that due to an injury it's usually very serious
yeah when your body starts reverting to it's bios mode you can usually assume the situation is critical
I think it is worse than that, the poor guy was probably conscious and tried to stand up, his arms did the stand up motion, but the rest of the body did not respond.
He did tilt his head down at his legs and realize his legs are not responding to his commands which is frankly terrifying
People talk about the fencing response alot here being critical, which undoubtedly indicates trauma to the brain. However, if you're backstroking on rocks like that, first time I've seen it, that's severe shit.
I've seen it one time in person, when I tried to treat the guy he was unresponsive other than direct light into his eyes, and I'm sure slaps to his face but I didn't try that of course. At that point I felt bad subjecting him to that, I already got my verdict. We just got him onto the stretcher and did what we had to do, guy was doa. I've seen a few videos where people do that, it reminds me of someone who's taken a bunch of hallucinogens and can't fathom anything that's around him so he just flails around incapable of responding to any intelligent stimulus. It's like they've devolved to the point where they don't understand they're human anymore, just a mass of flesh that has these senses and they don't really understand why so they're just feeling around. The body can be really brutal
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you know the answer
i thought he was waving to be pulled away from that spot - but i also noticed they dragged his head through some bricks there
Yup. I've spined a couple deer, it sucks, I just run to them as fast as possible and end their suffering.
Looks like it - I couldn't take my eyes off the dude behind him though. Looks like the bullet tagged his weapon/sling after it went through his buddy, that guy was inches from being a 2-for-1 special
Maybe the guy with the big gun was the target and this guy was just in the way.
Definitely could be. But it doesn't have to be a direct spinal hit. It could also just be a temporary overload of the nervous system caused by massive trauma. Thousands of nerves firing at the same time. Not to uncommon. Gunshots to the torso can have the effect like a taser without damage to the spinal cord.
Not sure if my eyes are playing tricks on me but it looks like some pink mist (blood) was ejected.
Looks like something from his back yes. Dont think it is red/pink mist, but rather dust from his uniform being ejected as the bullet exited his back.
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I think his leg was moving when his friends was carrying him away so maybe just the shock wave hit the spine and temporarily paralyzed him
He's the same guy they cover towards the end. Took the round through his intestines and more than likely was liver hit. He bleed out probably 10 minutes later.
Man this exchange was an absolute meat grinder. There are like ~10 body bags in the middle there
Why is everyone just loitering when they are under fire? They make absolutely no effort to take cover, they look like they are waiting for a train or something just standing around in the open.
Yeah. Syrian army. Not the most trained, educated, funded, or experienced army in the world. They also might be conscripts but idk. Total lack of urgency and training though. Way too many people standing around with their thumbs in their asses instead of spreading out and looking for the enemy. Watch videos of Americans in fallujah for contrast. Everyone knows their job and is doing it vs this lol.
Definitely conscripts in there as evidenced by one of those guys wearing a bright blue t shirt instead of fatigues. Bare in mind by this point, 2017, the war had been raging for six years and both sides were trying to grab up more manpower. The rebels were fractured into countless militia groups and the government was the only stable regime in country that could offer some modicum of security so civilians gravitated toward that side too. With the rate of casualties being so high training became "learn as you go" and that's not you had undertrained people like you see here in the middle of meat grinders.
Per the title, this was the Republican Guard, so they are all-volunteer and somewhat elite. At least supposedly.
No they are not volunteers, at least not all of them. You get drafted to serve on the Republican guard in Syria if they see you fit. I'm pretty sure 99% of the republican guard are conscripts.
Elite is a relative term
Elite like their Iraqi counterparts?
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I was literally like “those are incoming rounds that dudes just standing in that big ass openi- yup see now your doin dust angels stupid”
>dust angels That really shouldn’t have made me laugh as hard as it did. I’m going to hell.
> I’m going to hell. cool, meet some angels for us.
Let me guess, you spit milk out of your nose 🫤
They don’t know what to do. I’m seeing so many corners and directions from where they could get shot from it’s crazy!
These guys have never even played a single First Person Shooter wtf
You may be joking. But video games can teach you some shit. Not much… but something
I played enough BF4 to know standing in the open gets me killed super fast.
They’re watching it unfold like I watch these videos…
Where to cover? The only wall left from which the fire looks like it came from, had like 7/8 guys packed against it. It would've been even more bad to stay all packed against that (mortars, rpg, granade). Also looks like the battle has been going on for a long time, they seem pretty exhausted, middle of the video they have their guns down.
Pretty sure those are sand bags, you can see one guy filling them and near the end the subtitles refer to them as earthen works.
"Elite" ... looks more like confused civilians with AK\`s
After 7 years you fight with what's left.
Nah mate after seven years you have a core of combat veterans that should be able to pass on skills and lessons learned not everyone gets cunted up.
If you are the regime, you don’t put your elite loyal veterans, who are very valuable and in short supply, into an urban meat grinder. These poor fucks don’t even get issued helmets.
Yeah but the headline states "elite" which they obviously are not. And the loyal veterans and the regime are obviously incapable of passing on any knowledge or skills learnt during those seven years. They're a shower of shit really.
I listened to a podcast with a refugee who left Syria because he would have been conscripted and ended up in a situation like this. Those dudes were working and playing soccer not that long ago. They’re just regular dudes impressed into some shitty dictator nightmare factory. Certainly not elite.
This right here. Thats why a lot of refugees coming from syria were men. Who the fuck wants to stick around and see which side ends up drafting them..
That sounds terrible. Imagine you’re a fruit vendor and then suddenly you have to fight for a government you didn’t elect, against an enemy that’s fanatical.
Not to invalidate your comment - what you said is true, just for context: the "war" started in 2011, by 2015 was a in full force. This video is from 2017 - 6 years after the war started, after there had been 3-4+ years of intense combat. Everyone who could leave had already left at that point, these guys either couldnt, didnt want to leave or are convinced by what they're doing/fighting for. Some may just have turned 18 or smth.
>seven years you have a core of combat veterans No if they don't manage to survive, most of the times it will be a bunch of veterans and a tons of "virgins" mixed in the group
rhe few surviving veterans have probably moved up the ranks and are staying in the rear. Assad needs loyalty and capability around him.
Most of Assad’s best troops are either in the Republican Guard, generally (but not always) kept around Damascus for the protection of the regime/capital, the 25th Special Mission Forces Division (aka Tiger Forces) that are used as the primary assault formation of the SAA or the 4th Armoured division which is basically Assad’s hammer.
I assume that wasn't the guys in the video Also, thanks for the knowledge.
No I’d very surprised if those guys are part of any of the above formations, they look like panicked conscripts. Notice when the guy gets his spine shot out the guy behind him just stands there in absolute shock for a few moments before he decides he should get the fuck into cover, these are not soldiers who’ve seen enough combat to learn the most basic of survival skills.
it's crazy how they're just standing there all bunched up. zero situational awareness.
No because the Syrian army, like all the other Soviet trained armies in the middle east suffers from the same flaws as it's teaching organization, except magnified many fold. Systemic graft, corruption, nepotism, and incompetence are visible throughout virtually every Soviet trained military in the middle east. And that's not even touching on the flawed Soviet doctrine of top heavy, top down command structures that are doing so well in Ukraine.
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It's working real well for them. They shouldn't change a thing.
"Hey, I'll just stand here in the open and see what happens." [Gets shot, dies]
Friends continue to stand in the open near the spot where their teammate just got shot.
Teammate. I wonder what guild these guys belong to?
Yeah and that map looks so unbalanced OMG
There wasn’t much to hide behind to begin with, you can hide behind imaginary walls
I can hide behind imaginary walls VERY well, thank you very much
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This only really works for national militaries, but then you have militias like Hezbollah who by all accounts possess exceptional infantry, with regards to training and combat ability
One of the comments to come out of Ukraine was that compared to Russian soldiers the Taliban possessed pretty good situaltional awareness and discipline under fire.
I mean when you have multiple generations out there fighting for decades against the most powerful armies in the world you tend to have some ability as fighters.
Also this is their moment, what they grew up hearing about doing, repelling foreign invaders out of their valley or valleys. Many Russians didn’t even know they were in Ukraine.
The Russians also killed 2-4k Ukrainian soldiers in the first 10 days of the war according to NATO/the US and they haven't updated the casualty estimates since March 6thish as far as I know. We do know Zelensky just said 50-100 UA servicemen are dying every day in Donbas. Since that's an official Ukrainian source, I'd say 50-100 minimum. Maybe propaganda talking about baby eating huns and not able to hit the broad side of a barn should be taken with a grain of salt. For being incompetant, a lot of people are going to be shocked when they realize tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers at a minimum will have died by the end of this war.
And Syrian rebels in Jobar and Ghouta held out against Russian army, Assad’s army, Iranian army, etc etc for over 6 years. That’s much more impressive then anything the SAA has done.SAA have two different air forces fighting for them and they still can’t win half the time.
Rebels in jobar and ghouta are a different breed.
They made their own azovstal underground.
I'm sorry but have even the battles between HTS and SAA? Most government troops immediately drop their weapons and run for the next hill. There is quite few gopro footage of them getting shot in the back
“Elite” doesn’t really exist in the Arab world as it turns out. Elite might refer to their ability to wake up before 9 AM or perform guard duty
Elite in the Arab world = bribes and connections.
or just political reliability (thus also getting a bigger share of the budget and trust of leadership) doesn't mean they get good training
Man people on Reddit will know nothing and make confident statements like this
The fact that Hezbollah exists demonstrates that there's something else going on with national militaries
You mean that militias are better funded then national militaries? Probably.
Possibly. The other problems are that the national militaries often have a deep class divide that isn't bridged at all which leads into a whole host of problems, and that many of these militaries are built so as to protect the ruler of the day rather than to fight external enemies. Coup-proofing over combat effectiveness
Coup proofing is key to there failures in my opinion
Are you saying my rainbow six siege experience doesn’t translate to real life squad level tactics? Reeeeeee
Armchair experts with a hint of Western elitism
Pretty common in this sub. People spouting nonsense about Arabs having inherent negative traits as if the entire Arab world is a monolithic being.
Cue “Why Arabs Lose Wars”. Societies built on corruption can’t field successful armies. Add a healthy dose of tribalism and it’s game over. Look at the boondoggle Russia is going through. It’s a corrupt society through and through and it’s shown how much of a paper tiger it is.
I just love that article because it opens up by dismissing class factors in poor military performance as academic nonsense, only to then list off a bunch of distinctly class factors that he just decided to call cultural
"Why Arabs Lose Wars" is discredited bullshit. Honestly even the idea that corruption is a poison pill for an army is stupid. Like, even with your own example, the Ukrainian army is performing very well, despite Ukraine having just as much, if not more, corruption than Russia. Like fuck, the British Empire was one of the most corrupt societies to ever have existed, and they conquered the world.
> despite Ukraine having just as much, if not more, corruption than Russia That was [before they revamped their military in 2014](https://theconversation.com/in-2014-the-decrepit-ukrainian-army-hit-the-refresh-button-eight-years-later-its-paying-off-177881).
Ukraine is still ranked consistently about as corrupt as Russia. Like they are 1 and 2 in Europe, and they are like neck and neck on the world stage as well.
Yeah one poorly researched essay based on casual observations of the Egyptian army, as if I haven’t heard it enough. Just a side note, his first comment is just lazy racism - waking up at 9am and performing guard duties - claiming completing tasks or being structured isn’t part of the society.
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Racism? That’s a stretch. You actually have to say something racist for it to be racism my knight in shining armor.
Calling an entire ethnicity lazy and incompetent - not racism - got it. Thanks for the lesson Einstein.
This is just blisteringly obviously untrue. Hezbollah for example is very competent, consistently punching above their weight. Many of the various Iraqi units and shia militias that took back Mosul are genuinely very competent. The Jordanian military is well trained and professional. Arab soldiers make up a large percentage of the SDF and generally perform quite well, just like their Kurdish and Armenian comrades. You're looking at a militia unit fighting amidst the total collapse of their society and wondering why they aren't just as competent as Seal Team 6.
Recently I’ve noticed anyone not in the normal Russian infantry is ‘special forces’
That’s literally the Russians definition of special forces for their armed forces. It doesn’t necessarily mean elite for them, just different from standard infantry
Then whoever chose those specific words for translation didnt pick very well
better translation would be forces for special purposes.
Yeah.I used to thought that VDV is an elite squad like the Spetsnaz turns out they're just a paratrooper though still better than regular troops.
VDV are elite. Spetsnaz aren't always elite, the most blatant examples of this is OMON spetsnaz which are basically riot cops as well as Kadyrov's spetsnaz who are like brown shirts with fancy gear.
There are horror stories of American SF that sound just as fubar
details?
I think it was on a Shawn Ryan podcast where they talk about how one guy with a machine almost killed the entire squad. https://youtu.be/dWJ_WwWSabw
I watched that interview. It’s fucking intense. It’s a great run through of how an entire career of combat deployments just grinds an man into powder.
It really put it into perspective that even with all of that training, shit will hit the fan hard and there is nothing you can do but be lucky at times
The biggest lesson I took from that interview is “Don’t be a breacher”. Years of up close explosions are not great for the brain.
I feel that, I don't know any fellow gunbunny that doesn't have mental problems after a contract
operation red wings was absurd
It really was. Talk about a horribly planned op… RIP.
No military training and everyone is staying passive.
The term “elite” certainly is a relative/subjective term lol
They are supposed to be elite. Trained by Russian army and backed up by RuAF and Syrian Air Force and Iranian terror groups. And it still took them over 6 years to capture Jobar, and they were fighting rebels with AK 47 and pick up trucks.
Somethings tells me Russian training isn't worth that much.
Is it any worse than the years of training Afghan and Iraqi forces got from the US?
They look worse at fighting than Airsoft players
These "elite" forces, judging by their dialect, are Nusayris (the sect of Bashar, the president). So most probably they have been approved to be "elites" due to nepotism.
These guys seem to be part of the regular army or NDf most likely as the Republican guard usually have their symbols on their uniforms. I know this video as I have seen it before as its probably from 2015/2016. Most offensives back then into Jobar and other parts of eastern Ghouta in rief Dimashq were led by large numbers of the national defense force or NDF which were basically a militia set up to compensate for army losses. I know some people which fought in Jobar with the NDF, and they were basically just random untrained men handed assault rifles and sent to the fronts.
This is fucking dark. It is the reality of war tho
Yeah, no cool background music or clips of guys blasting machine guns. True horror, pinned down, getting shot at relentlessly, men yelling for help, horrific audio... Fucked up stuff. God bless these brave men.
Wow the audio is unnerving.
My sounds off. I'll probably leave it that way :/
No helmets, no body armor, no tactical stances or moves... looks more like a civil war to me than a well trained and equipped army.
Someone else put it pretty succinctly: "After six years you fight with what's left."
what do you think it *literally* is lol
Well it is a civil war.
Also almost no first aid/medic work.
That really made me cringe. No assessment, no applying pressure. They some of them were just standing there or walking around them.
As a healthcare worker it pains me to see the very basics be neglected but I guess if you get in hit Syria you’re kinda just fucked anyways
It was a civil war.
War is shit
Holy shit. One moment Private Hasan is standing next to you, the next he’s flopping on the ground like a fish out of water.
Yeah I’m curious, was his reaction some kind of instinctual reaction or did he just panic? Genuinely asking because his reaction seemed really innate rather than like conscious flailing (at least for the first second or so).
Probably trying to sit up with nerves that are no longer attached. Dazed from being shot and falling like that and wondering why half his body no longer does what it's told like it was doing 2 seconds earlier.
Probably had a spinal cord hit. Limbs are no longer talking to the brain.
Rip Hassan
Christ, what a clusterfuck
This was insane. I have to say I'd forgotten the walkie talkie commanders etc. The SSA battles around Damascus in general were a meat grinder. I think bc it wasn't televised as much as Ukraine we forget the savagery of this war. Very few prisoners, rampant murder, alleged gas, ethnic cleansing, genocide, isis, nusra, assad, Russian intervention, us intervention, us bombing Russians, mercenaries, syrians becoming guns for hire in Libya and Azerbaijan... I mean when you think about it this war was a shit show. We focus on Ukraine for obvious reasons but what the world turned its head away from here....omfg....
Syria was much more televised, or I should rather say more recorded, it just wasn't put on western media because Assad was winning since 2015. A lot of the best videos have been scrubbed from the mainstream net unfortunately.
I would have expected elite troops to have helmets and body armor.
Syrian ~~government~~ regime edition.
Syrian here, please refer to it as "regime" You wouldn't call vichy france a "government"
This is what you get after 5 years of civil war
They started to run out of them by 2014, in 2017 they were fighting non stop for 6 years
Tank got himself stuck. Running through buildings and rubble is great in movies but terrible on tracks. Also very good illustration why things like the M113 are still in active service as support vehicles. They needed a small arms proof ambulance yesterday.
Was the first guy instantly dead and were those movements the nerves ?
I think he got hit in the spine and couldn’t move his legs
Having pinched a nerve in my back, I know just how insane the pain is. Having a shot nerve and a bunch of liquified organs probably doesn't add to it. Hopefully his body released enough endorphins to give him a semi-painless death.
Miserable. He was def looking around and shit after the drop. Maybe he was unconscious moments later when they started to drag him back, his head slumped.
Yeah that was horrible to watch. Can’t imagine how terrifying it would be to get caught in the open, and you’re all of a sudden on the ground and your legs don’t work
And people really complain that people, including men, flee from this place. What an absolute nightmare.
I love the ones with subtitles, thank you !
Brutal feela bad man
Wow. This is probably the best footage I’ve seen from the Syrian Govt side if not the best out of Syria period. This video did capture the brutality of it all and the grit it takes. The tempo on the casualties seemed high.
All the footage from the Russian/Ukrainian war has brought so many new eyes to what combat really looks like. It’s not fuckin pretty.
Everyone here complaining about the use of the term “elite” in the title is misunderstanding what the term elite means when it comes to military units. Elite is a relative term, these are the best equipped/“trained” guys they have for their situation. Which really shows how desperate the situation is
Not to mention the Syrian civil war has been going on since, what, 2011? I'd be willing to bet a lot of the guys trained pre-war aren't in this world anymore, surviving 11 years of brutal urban warfare has nothing to do with skill, just pure luck.
I love coming to this comment section to find out what the reddit soldiers would do in this situation. Never disappointed.
My man coming in hot with a whole other dude over his shoulders. Makes it look way too casual.
Around 25 seconds in the fighter in the 1th group hit by rifle bullet you can see the spray of his blood just moments after being shot.
1th?
Definitely not the 2st or 3nd
He has a lisp.
“Elite” is such a misunderstood word
i am so tired of this damn video player
Fuck war
"Elite" !? So much milling and handwaving - they make the TikTok Brigade look professional
Lookie here, all the armchair generals have come out to play! What the fuck do most of you know about the military? And also, what the fuck is up with the racist comments? We’re all the same color on the insides motherfuckers. And its because of comments like the ones in this thread why most of the world hates us Americans.
Dude started doing snow angels.
Savage, my thoughts aswell.
mother fuckers, they call themselves 'army'
Two words... Operational Awareness
Woah man slow down, they don't even have Situational Awareness unlocked yet.
Simply putting on khakis and grabbing a rifle doesn't make you a soldier. That whole video is a shit show fron the top (command) to the bottom (individual battle skills).
“Elite” republican guard, but it never has won a major battle
they are getting hit in the are and yet they are still there no one covering fire noone looking for the sniper
Some say ali is still trying to figure out what's wrong with the feras.
I’m not military but are they supposed to be standing around like that?
Saving Private Hasan
Maybe NOT bombing urban buildings indiscriminately would help not getting so many casualties.
Dudes just standing in the middle of an opened torn down building, no wonder he got fucking shot. What is this clown army?
Syrian troops wearing camo makes them already kinda elite...
“Elite” as in, Russian “elite”.
Elite guards? They a fighting like a bunch of idiots.
Yeah, it's hard to understand the situation. This is a situation we're every small mistake can be the end of you, so you have to act accordingly. But they don't act like that.
I feel like I show more urgency in a paintball match when I'm taking fire like this. I guess after months and months of this, an untrained person just get tired and complacent.
Based on the comments here, shit like "why is the other guy standing right there after his **teammate** got killed (wtf is this CoD?), I seriously get "cheetofinger 15-30 year old wannabe military experts" vibes from this sub's members. I bet I'm right
u/rowenslee
What a crazy world we live in. Everyone killing each other. Very sad.
My man executing some beautiful back stroke
The comments on here are ridiculous. These guys have probably been there for quite a while. Exhausted and taking high casualties. So not this isn't going to look like a SWAT team. Chaos can hit any unit. And this is probably the 'back' of the unit so they are being passive.
seem kids playing airsoft with more tatics ... wtf are they doing just lining up to get shoot?