You use whatever tool works the best.
It worked for the Tsars for a couple of hundred years...
That is correct on its face, but since the bulk of Russia's military strategy towards Napoleon's invasion involved luring his army deep in to the heart of Russia, waiting for winter to set in, and then "harassing Napoleon's column as it retreated from Moscow", I would argue they were highly effective at their stated mission.
The article pretty much describes them as ineffective as soldiers, but good in cruelty and brutality, which is sometimes useful to Russian leaders.
That is correct on its face, but since the bulk of Russia's military strategy towards Napoleon's invasion involved luring his army deep in to the heart of Russia, waiting for winter to set in, and then "harassing Napoleon's column as it retreated from Moscow", I would argue they were highly effective at their stated mission.
You use whatever tool works the best.
What they are trying to create is a replica of Foreign Legion with a nostalgic name. All the bums, pity criminals and substance abusers currently playing Cossacks are just a cruel parody.
I’m no Biblical or prophetic scholar, just found this interesting since Ezekiel 38 talks about an invasion with “horses and horsemen.” It’s always sort of stuck with me because I figured it a metaphor...who uses horses in battle anymore :)
Putin needs to also bring back the Gulag, show trials, and ethnic cleansing. He should purge the military, too. At the rate he’s going, he’ll never get the prestige of Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Stalin, and other great leaders of the benighted Russian people.
George Washington’s Army mostly ran away from the British and harassed unconventionally (aside from some early battles where they tried to stand and fight and lost).
Were they ineffective?
Running away is how and why they won the war.
And how about the Cossacks, were they ineffective because they didn’t try to shine in conventional standup fights against the legendary Napoleon?
“As supply broke down, the men began to wander off in search of food. Most would never return, falling victim to the cold OR TO COSSACKS. The French had little left by way of organized cavalry, so any small contingent of men were susceptible to the great bands of Cossack raiders that swooped down on the shivering enemy, slaughtered them and looted the bodies.
In one incident a brigade under General Baraguay was surrounded and annihilated. Images of Cossack depredations terrorized Napoleons men.”
No they weren’t ineffective, they absolutely wrecked Napoleon’s army to a degree no one ever had before. 380,000 dead and 100,000 captured, Napoleon quit the army. Prussia and Austria dumped their alliance with France...
The Soviets may have fared better in Afghanistan had they used cavalry in the areas that were not conducive for motorized vehicles or helicopters. Horse mounted troops are more effective in adverse weather in those areas where there are no roads and altitude affects the motorized vehicles. The US SF learned the facts quickly.