Are European troops better than US troops?

Question

If there is anyone who had some expirience with european troops i'll apreciate the answers

Answer 1

Unlike some who just rubbish the question with a short brisk no! I prefer to look deeper into what you are trying to find out.

It would be better to take the answer along the following lines.

1. There are soldiers in various European Military Formations, who are as highly motivated and trained as the various elements in the U.S. Military.

2. The major difference being in the amount of money that is spent to train and equip these European troops, which is far less than the U.S. Military Budget.

3. Most of the European Militaries are considerably smaller, for example the British Armed Forces, The German Bundswehr, The Danish Army, the Scandinavian Countries, even the Swiss Army, (which is purely defensive in nature but has top of the range equipment.

4. There is a tendency to to place to much reliance on new technology in an effort to keep combat casualties down and the politicians back home happy.

5. While there is nothing wrong in national pride, just to assume that the U.S. is the greatest because you are an American, or you have the "best" equipment can be misleading as the German Wehrmact found to its cost in WW2. And indeed as the U.S. military found out during the Vietnam war.

6. There are many variables that come into play, for instance political meddling in military affairs as can be seen in the current Iraq war, each military force has to be weighed on its merits and the job its been trained to do.
As for example the Irish Defence Forces, while not being a member of N.A.T.O. the Irish have specialized in working as U.N. Peacekeeping Forces or as back in the 1960's U.N.Peace-Enforcing troops in the former Belgian-Congo. From 1978 until 2000 they maintained a battalion in South Lebanon as part of U.N.I.F.I.L. in late 2006 they went back into South Lebanon as "U.N.I.F.I.L. 2" mission and at the end of October the last members of the battalion finished their tour in South Lebanon.

Even if you take your question outside the realm of Europe, in the Middle-East the Israeli Military is a formidable force, but its performance in the last minor conflict was severely hampered by political Interference.
Going into the former Soviet Block countries you will find highly motivated soldiers, with poor to moderate equipment, and many are slowly retraining their military to the more Western doctrine to fit into N.A.T.O.

Outside of this, you will find equally well trained troops in the former Soviet Forces, and lets not forget the Asiatic countries.

As all countries seem to be in the habit of forming military alliances this to my mind is further proof that no one nation can declare itself as militarily superior to another, and I doubt if it will ever come down to a brute force slogging match where only one Nation can stand and declare we are the mightiest, because that would ultimately lead to the deployment of nuclear Force and we all know that is a lose - lose situation.

Answer 2

Other than Great britain, which isn't on the European shelf, does Europe have any troops? Oh yeah, Poland has troops, but I believe Italy, France, Spain, Holland, Portugal, Germany and Switzerland have a large boy scout troop, because their troops are growing grey, waiting for something to happen!

Answer 3

Interesting, but the only true test of "better" would have to be a war to see who would win....

And that wouldn't really tell us because beyond any doubt our American forces are better equipped than any European military.

Do we really want to know? Not I , there's been enough war, when this world calms down(if it ever does) lets just hope for our military to become nothing more than peace keepers.

And yes in 22 years I worked with many of our European allies, Some are more professional than others but again its hard to say anything about better.

Answer 4

At what?

At some thigns, yes, at other's no. There are a LOT of things that we can do that the European nations simply have build no or very little capacity for (force projection for example).

Answer 5

Worked with German, Dutch, Swiss, and French Troops. I Say we are all great, but Army Tankers are better than the German Tankers and our Recon is better than the French. The Swiss medics seem pretty good.

Answer 6

Other Than the French, Brits and Germans, Not Really

Answer 7

You can never answer a question like that because maybe the person that you are with in either military is not giving thier best.

The technology, well thats all U.S.

Answer 8

well, think about it this way: Revolutionary War and WWII. There is nobody better than a US soldier

Answer 9

Yes, that's why Hitler won World War 2....lol...what a joke !!!

Answer 10

That question is a bit crazy. What is a life worth? They are all giving it their "all"!