Russia could beat US in conventional war?

via Daily Beast...

“Against an adversary like Russia, we can’t take the kind of air dominance we’ve had in conflicts since 9/11 for granted,” a second defense official explained. “Any conflict of significant magnitude against an adversary like Russia means we’d need to commit airmen and resources that are now operating in other parts of the world at a rate that minimizes their ability to train for that kind of fight.”
The official added, “We may very well be able to provide the airpower that would allow us and our allies to prevail in a high-end fight, but the current state of our air forces definitely doesn’t make that a sure bet.”
Around the time of that TTX, in June, the U.S. military also conducted four major field exercises with its NATO counterparts, called Allied Shield, consisting of 15,000 troops and 19 member countries. In March, Russia conducted its own exercises, at one point deploying as many as 80,000 personnel.

Here.

I've been beating this drum for awhile now.

The USMC is reorganizing to chase terrorists but SPMAGTF-CR's and Distributed Operations have NO PLACE in fighting the real threats that our nation is facing.  Additionally that disease has spread to the US Army and Air Force.

Everyone is optimizing toward fighting small wars...but those days have passed.

If a table top demonstrates that we would "eek" out a win against Russia then you can bet the reality is far more stark.  The reality is that Russia could move against our allies and there would be little that we could do.  A tabletop exercise is a perfect world of timely decisions, political unity across the board and a fight in a vacuum without others taking advantage of the chaos.  Real life will have hesitation, political maneuvers and an inability to sortie troops quickly to where they are needed.

This generation of leaders has given the nation the worst gift ever.  Military and political weakness.  I thought only China was trying to drink our milkshake...seems like Russia is too.