beenbannedb4
4146
202
4
https://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/a/828b8e66-625d-4d2a-9276-e93b9f7a2ce8
Jan 24, 2026 1:50 PM
beenbannedb4
4146
202
4
https://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/a/828b8e66-625d-4d2a-9276-e93b9f7a2ce8
CedricDur
'Take it easy'. Is that what's done in a war? Ask the other side to take it easy?
mychesthairlookslikeacatsass
Alright I get it, but that’s war. Being on the defense is brutal enough in war but facing an army that’s climatized and knows the terrain well….yea forget it, especially if the offensive unit has the numbers and technology for the situation
NeverEnoughFoxes
Not entirely surprising, since the units involved don't specialize in arctic warfare, the US has been fighting in deserts for 2 decades, and it's in Finland's backyard.
It's basically the Paul v. Joshua fight at a military level. ;)
UnlimitedTrickPony
mwahaha ... told you so ... US wussies fighting in ice and snow for the first time ... against Finnish "white death" soldiers ... a few of them pushed back the Russian army when they tried to invade Finland ... they erected the frozen corpses of Russian soldiers as a warning for whoever would follow
CorrectMostOfTheTime
Participation trophies for all
rukeman
So now we have to go to war with Finland?
meganical
I’m fine with that because America needs a bigger hit to its ego to remember it ain’t shit
conMan76
this has been like this for as long as I can remember... US fares really poorly in winter exercises. But considering that most in US don't live in cold climates and considering where marine and army bases are placed there is an inherent lack of experience in dealing with winter climate. Its a hassle just staying alive, moderating your sweat and temperature etc. For people in nordic climates this is just any given tuesday.
KAPTKipper
I hope they teabagged the yanks.
keelindsey
"Don't beat them too badly, we don't want them to realize just what is waiting for them if they ever fuck with us for real."
FoxVoxDK
I remember this, most of the Norwegian and Finns were pretty surprised at the gear the U.S. were fielding, wrong color camouflage, exposed metal on some rifles and tactics unsuited for forested engagements.
DarthWaiterSE
More than 25 years ago, I was just another jarhead at Pickel Meadows where I had signed up for winter warfare and survival training; 3 weeks is not enough to do anything other than let a body maybe-possibly-kinda-sorta survive ... and it's certainly not enough to engage an opponent who literally grew up in those conditions.
The U.S. military has long been obsessed with it's toys and not nearly focused enough on it's day-to-day training efforts. None of this is a surprise.
LittleChickadee
1) fucking hilarious! "Guys, you can win, but maybe not so hard on the poor widdle Americans?"
2) OF COURSE Norway & Finland are primed to kick ass in the Artic! I bet Canadian military is too
LogicDude
Learning the same lesson the Soviets learned in WW II?
kriswinters
People always talk about part one of the Winter War. They never seem to want to talk about part two.
Anaphriel
The biggest defense budget on earth by miles remember. Still have nukes on punch cards.
GreaseMonkeyOfLove
Going up against Finnish soldiers in winter is suicide, no matter what country or army you’re part of.
override367
When Russia threatened them the Finnish defense minister said "We already have hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers in Finland, 6 feet below the snow. You're welcome to send more to join them."
PineappleLoopsBroether
That’s fuckin metal.
svon1
ThatGuyFromJustSouthOfTheMiddleOfNowhere
This seems to belong here...
DocFunkenstein
Jesus Christ.
The whole point IS for them to lose, and to learn from it.
Just... Jesus fucking Christ.
DVSBSTrD
I used to want the army on our side in the next Civil War. Now I doubt it will make a difference.
beenbannedb4
Sure, but you know, they have to WIN even if it is a fake win. "Learning from loss" is not in the U.S. secretary of war's dictionary of "warrior excellence". He can't look bad ever.
DVSBSTrD
Well guess which demographic overwhelmingly votes Republican?
RealRaceRiotsAreAboutGettingBlueshelledInMarioKart
Went with some JTACs on a training exercise with Italian troops. Purpose was to call in a strike on a particular building. Our guys were amazed they beat the record by like 30 seconds, just under eight minutes. Italians did it in three. Listening to the translation the next day, the instructor was pissed that they skipped all kinds of protocol for verifying the building. Lead Italian said "We still got the right building didn't we? What's the problem?"
p40thawk
Unpopular opinion: yeah, this makes sense. If you are training people and they keep getting slaughtered out of the gate, then their morale is going to be low and they aren't going to learn much. You reduce the difficulty, give them a chance to get their bearings and improve, and then increase the difficulty again. That is how training works. Hegseth sucks balls, but this is unlikely to involve him much and it is pretty typical for how training people works.
SOLARvsFACISM
Also of the 10,000 I don't know how many were Americans, but the US Military has specific cold climate divisions. The one I know of is the 10th Mountain Division in NY, which isn't mentioned in the article, but I assume there are also divisions in Alaska and the Rocky Mountain states. Seems like the non-cold climate divisions should do some training with the cold climate divisions before arctic war games.
NoneOfYoBiseniss
Sounds par for the course, rather than admit they know shit the higher ups try to game the numbers. Semper Fi
mksu
This is Hegseth's "warrior culture" in action.
zagibu
Yep. What these "warriors" don't know is that actual fighting is only a very small part of war. The much larger part is surviving.
AlienJeffries81
“Intoxicated Masculinity”
beenbannedb4
LOL perfect
Turbogoat
Makes good headlines but the US military stacks these exercises against themselves so they have to train under the most adverse conditions - that's how you learn.
Seras91
Just that in exercises where other countries are the host nations most likely they have the exercise planned. And that normally means chances for all sides.
Turbogoat
Its an exercise, not a competition.
Seras91
Indeed, but that doesn´t mean that chances aren´t the same.
Exercise can mean pretty much but alone the fact that one side is told to go easier should tell you that both sides have the chances to win/reach their goals if they do the right things.
Turbogoat
What do you think the goals are of an exercise? Not of the lower level units, but of the greater strategy? To score a win in a game of tag or to learn more about their capabilities and limitations?
Seras91
You realize that there are a bunch of different exercises ? But maybe you should try to read what the comments about this one saying.
I was on exercises and trainings were every single soldier counted and got evaluated and i was one some where we where basicly NPCs because only leadership decisions counted. And everything in between.
And besides, it can be both. And for the lower level that often enough involves the chance to win.
mercyPandaRunner
"found the losses too humiliating"
AKA, they are not training for a war? In a peer to peer war, not a surprise attack beating up operation on a small country with a smaller military budget than the LAPD, losses are a reality. They found the losses too humiliating? Good. That's a learning experience. It teaches you 1. You are not invulnerable. 2. Your enemy is not necessarily stupid, incompetent or defenceless 3. You will have to learn how to keep functioning after heavy losses.
I can tell >
mercyPandaRunner
you, who learned those lessons will be able to fight a 21st century war.
whipyougood
A good anecdote comes from the start of the war in Ukraine. a lot of american(and other countries) veterans from the afghan and iraq wars showed up as volunteers. A bulk of them left after they found out that it was a peer conflict. The Russians would shoot back, and they had these things called artillery, aircraft, tanks and missiles. It wasn't like before where you were just executing people.
mercyPandaRunner
One remark i heard in several variations from several veteran volunteers in interviews: "If you're a military veteran, efore you decide to come here, your military service does not prepare you. A russian artillery barrage or airstrike is something completely outside anything you experienced in Iraq or Afghanistan."
That was in 2022. Now the war has so drastically changed that it lies even outside of the experience someone may have made in a peer to peer conflict.
This is kind of why i was >
mercyPandaRunner
dead wrong in 2021 and early 2022, when i was convinced Russia was just posturing and wouldn't attack. Nobody back then knew how a modern war would look like and everyone who thought about how it was already assumed to look like 30-40 years ago was shitscared of finding out. Anyone could have told you that a peer to peer war is bad news for both peers in any case and that military technology had gotten even more deadly now. I was fooled, because I assumed the Russians to be less stupid than >
mercyPandaRunner
they actually turned out to be.
imnotinthewitnessprotectionprogram
It’s Vodka-Economics my friend. They still believe that their nukes will get off the launch pad