best army

[Togakure]

Probably KISS.

Eheheheheheheeheheh! That was good. Thanks for the chuckle.

I'm a member of the KISS army: I saw them in the mid-90s on their revival tour, in full make-up and with a fabulous set from the old days. It was hilarious to see all these 30-40 year-olds (me and six of my mates and their mistresses included) headbangin', gettin' loaded, and having a great time just like in the ol' days. They put on a monster show, even after all these years. GET UP, GET DOWN!

KISS ROCKS!

[Papewaio]

The smallest army is the best army.

The winner is the one who spends the least on its military and more on its social health.

New Zealand?

[Kaiser of Arabia]

The smallest army is the best army.

The winner is the one who spends the least on its military and more on its social health.

Canada?

*tacks on list of "To Bomb by 2050 if I ever become dictator of a nation that has the technology for bombers, simply because someone likes that nation" list* jk of course.

[Reverend Joe]

I'll not disappoint any patriots here this time..

USA IS THE BEST USA IS VERY GOOD USA JUST MAKES UP MY DREAMS USA ALL THE WAY HEY HEY I SAVED THE WORLD TODAY !!

Seriously, I think Tribesman nailed it. However, I can't seem to make myself think in the present... too much time in the past. In that case, the Scots are on the level as well; the highlanders were some of the best single regiments in history.

Also, the Turkish troops at Balaclava were, apparently, very highly disciplined; theywithstood a continuous, 30-gun barrage and a massive Russian assault for three hours before they were forced to abandon their redoubt; not to mention the fact that they made up two-thirds of the "thin red line", and without them the Highlanders would have folded. From what I have heard, this was, in large part, due to the Turkish military school at Constantinople, which was an underrated institution, as it was located at the heart of the Sick Man of Europe, and not a modern empire.

(Sorry for the rant. But modern times are so damn boring.)

[Papewaio]

If you are going to use history and quality then the Aussies did pretty well.

http://africanhistory.about.com/libr...stenemies3.htm

In early August, a force of 150 Queensland Mounted Infantry, 100 New South Wales Bushmen, smaller numbers of Victorian and Western Australian Bushmen and 75 Rhodesians under command of a British officer, a Colonel Hore, were sent to guard a huge consignment of stores at the Elands River Post. They arrived at the post after a running fight with Boers front a commando of 2,500 to 3,000, commanded by General Jacobus "Koos" de la Rey, and quickly improvised a defensive position out of ox wagons and boxes and bags of stores. The commando surrounded the post and during the next two days poured 2,500 artillery shells into it from the hills around. Nearly all of the 1,500 horses, mules and oxen were killed or died of wounds from the shelling, but the troop casualties were very light, since the men burrowed into the rocky ground and stayed down. After the second day the bombardment eased, probably because the Boers realized they were destroying the stores they badly needed, but they kept up intense rifle and machine-gun fire.

During the day, the defenders lay motionless in their holes in the ground, but at night they came out. Some ran the gauntlet of fire to bring water from the river, while others repaired shattered defenses and dug deeper holes and others went out into the darkness looking for Boer field-gun and machine-gun positions, which they attacked loudly with grenades or silently with knives and bayonets. Many sleeping Boers and even wide-awake sentries lost their lives in this night stalking and attack. A Boer who had been at Elands River wrote: "For the first time in the war, we were fighting men who used our own tactics against us. They were Australian volunteers and though small in number we could not take their position. They were the only troops who could scout our lines at night and kill our sentries while killing and capturing our scouts. Our men admitted that the Australians were more formidable opponents and far more dangerous than any other British troops."

On August 8, de la Rey, under a flag of truce, advised the Australians that the whole area was in Boer hands and there was no hope of relief for the post. He offered safe conduct to the nearest British garrison if they would surrender. It was that, or destruction by his artillery. The offer was refused, and the bombardment began again. On the 12th, de la Rey sent another offer of honorable surrender, to which Colonel Hore replied: "Even if I wished to surrender to you--and I don't--I am commanding Australians who would cut my throat if I accepted your terms."

http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-heroes/monash.htm

The role of the Australian Corps in 1918 was indeed a remarkable one. Comprising only 9.5% of the BEF, it captured 18.5% of the German prisoners, 21.5% of the territory and 14% of the guns captured. This represented an effectiveness 1.95, 2.23 and 1.47 times that of the British Army average. These victories came at a cost, but this was still considerably less than that of the Somme fighting of 1916, or the Passchendaele fighting of 1917 or even the fighting at Bullecourt and Messines in mid 1917, and the results were immensely greater. The casualties were more or less matched by the 25,000 German prisoners taken; that many more Germans were killed or wounded is certain but their numbers are not known. Some 623 square kilometres of France was recaptured from the enemy.

Then there is WWII...

[Shaka_Khan]

The ones with the best army are aliens who live in a galaxy far far away.

[Ice]

The smallest army is the best army.

The winner is the one who spends the least on its military and more on its social health.

Until their neighbors with the larger army come knocking on their door. They then proceed to rape their women, burn all the buildings, and murder all the men and children.

Who needs an army!

[LeftEyeNine]

Zorba, if there is something very good around here, it is generally American, haven't you learned ?

[Strike For The South]

Zorba, if there is something very good around here, it is generally American, haven't you learned ?

We are gods choosen what do you excepect? now al of you on your knees

[LeftEyeNine]

We are gods choosen what do you excepect? now al of you on your knees

Nah, I don't believe God makes mistakes..

[Reverend Joe]

Zorba, if there is something very good around here, it is generally American, haven't you learned ?

Then call me a no-good half-Irish, half-Khazar pinko freak!

[Strike For The South]

Nah, I don't believe God makes mistakes..

why dont you go kill some armenians

[Papewaio]

We are gods choosen what do you excepect? now al of you on your knees

I thought we were talking about armies not corny pickup lines...

[LeftEyeNine]

why dont you go kill some armenians

Here is another Turkish proverb for such situations :

" That's a magpie on the rooftop,
Hit it with an pickaxe in the waist "

I bet you all said " WTF ?! ", and bingo ! That's what the proverb wants to tell.

[Strike For The South]

I thought we were talking about armies not corny pickup lines...

is there honestly that much diffrence

[PanzerJaeger]

USA IS THE BEST USA IS VERY GOOD USA JUST MAKES UP MY DREAMS USA ALL THE WAY HEY HEY I SAVED THE WORLD TODAY !!

Exactly!

[bmolsson]

If we assume that two armies meet in full amount on a location unkown to both, surely the US army are the strongest and largest today. But if we see the purpose of the army itself, defense, there are not so many armies to put up.

[Zalmoxis]

The smallest army is the best army.

The winner is the one who spends the least on its military and more on its social health.

Great philosophy. I'll be sure to conquer whatever country you rule first when I become instated as dictator .

[Tachikaze]

Until their neighbors with the larger army come knocking on their door. They then proceed to rape their women, burn all the buildings, and murder all the men and children.

Who needs an army!

There are many successful nations in no danger of invasion without large military budgets.

[Tachikaze]

Until someone decides they hate the US for what it is culturally and blows our buildings up.

In 2001, the Twin Towers fell in spite of the fat, overfed US military.

The Pentagon itself was hit. Not much defense.

[Watchman]

The winner is the one who spends the least on its military and more on its social health.

Huh. That'd put us Finns pretty high on the ladder. Coscript armies run comparatively cheaply, you know ?

[Ja'chyra]

We are gods choosen what do you excepect? now al of you on your knees

Now if only God had chosen to give you the gift of spelling then the US would rule supreme.

No, wait, don't you just change the words to suit yourselves anyway?

Honour, metre....................

[Arcanum]

Sad, sad world... no doubt the U.S. army is the most well-fed army of today. So if my peaceful country would get attacked by the evil-weevil neighbours I would simply call the Americans and tell 'em to bomb the damn crap outta the aggressors.

Well...no...my pride would feel hurt. I'd set up the Prussian Army again! All hail!

[yesdachi]

Although the US only has ¼ of the population of China the US has 8 times the GDP as China and both are nearly the same size (in total sq miles) with the US being only slightly larger. But because of the US’s more industrialized infrastructure, economy and logistic capabilities the US would have an advantage against all others with any kind of short term or prolonged military action.

The biggest adversary the US military faces is its own people. The US citizens tire quickly of war and can cause a major disruption to the country leading to poor decisions on the part of the government. If the conservatives were joined by the liberals, who are usually opposed to war (and too many other things to mention), to collectively work as a total united country against a common threat the US would be completely unstoppable. It is out fractured population that turn prolonged military actions into a soup sandwich.

Here is a nice article I found on the subject.
Its not really a spoiler, I just wanted to try putting the article in the post without taking up all the room. There is a link in there too.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Ten Most Powerful Armed Forces on the Planet
by James Dunnigan
June 17, 2004
Which country on the planet has the most powerful armed forces? It's not a matter of numbers, although that's a major factor. It's more a matter of other things that are not often discussed.
By size (number of troops), the top ten nations looks like this;

China
United States
India
Korea, North
Russia
Korea, South
Pakistan
Israel
Turkey
Iran

But anyone who has studied military history knows that the number of troops is a misleading measure. There are several factors that make the troops of one army more effective than others. The most obvious modifying factor is weapons and equipment (quantity and quality). Closely related to this are the “combat support” elements. The most important of these are logistics (being able to move troops, and their supplies, long distances and in a timely manner) and maintenance (keeping things in repair and running under all conditions.) Then there are the intangibles (like leadership, training and the most intangible item of all; military tradition.) Apply all of those to the raw number of troops and you get different number. This number is called "combat power."

Top Ten By Combat Power

United States
China
Israel
India
Russia
Korea, South
Korea, North
United Kingdom
Turkey
Pakistan

The most unusual entry here is Israel. But this is because Israel is one of the few nations to have a reserve army that can be mobilized for action more quickly than most countries can get their active duties into shape for combat. The mobilized Israeli armed forces number over half a million troops. In addition, the Israelis have world class equipment and weapons, as well as exceptional intangibles. The downsize of this is that mobilizing its armed forces also cripples the Israeli economy. Under these conditions, Israel must conduct a war that ends within a few months. After that, supplying the armed forces becomes difficult and actual combat power begins to decline.

The other nations in the top ten have large armed forces that are well equipped and trained, at least compared to most nations farther down on the list. Britain’s armed forces, like Israel’s, are better equipped, trained and more experienced than most. Turkey benefits from having a strong military tradition and excellent leadership at the small unit level, as well as good combat training.

Overall, the U.S. combat power is about three times that of second place China, and ten times that of tenth place Pakistan. But another modifying factor is how you plan to use that combat power. Wars are not fought in a vacuum, but in places that often inconvenient places for one side. Most armed forces are optimized for fighting on their own borders; for defending the homeland. Only the United States is capable of quickly moving lots of combat power to anywhere on the planet. Moreover, given a few months, the United States can put enough combat power just about anywhere, and become the major military force in that neighborhood. Countries like Britain and France can move some forces to just about anywhere on the planet. But no one can put forces anywhere quite like the United States.
For most nations with powerful armed forces, it's mainly a matter of having the most formidable military force in the neighborhood.

[English assassin]

The winner is the one who spends the least on its military and more on its social health.

Then than would be Iceland which has no armed forces at all.

The US army is obviously without any serious challenger (including the Chinese, whose equipment is far too poor) but I'd rather PAY FOR the British Army any day.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

If the question is whos has the most pwerful armed forces the clear winner is the US. We have the most powerful military in the history of the world by a large margin.

[LeftEyeNine]

We have the most powerful military in the history of the world by a large margin.

I'm sure Johnnies would route off the battlefield when they saw the Golden Horde..

Anyway, I want to repeat : (altogether, clap your hands)

USA IS VERY BEST AH USA WHAT WOULD WE HAVE DONE WITHOUT YOUR MIGHTY PRESENCE, I NEED USA, USA IN MY DREAMS, HEY HEY THEY SAVE THE WORLD EVERYDAY. WHAT IF THE ALIENS ATTACKED ? OF COURSE IT WOULD BE USA SAVING THE WORLD HEY HEY HEY !!!

[Gawain of Orkeny]

I'm sure Johnnies would route off the battlefield when they saw the Golden Horde..

I doubt that very much. Even the German army of WW2 wouldnt last a month against the small force we have now.

[Lazul]

Thay ofcourse... they have the Red Wizards man!

... oh wait... in our world?

USA ofcourse... most money = most firepower.

[LeftEyeNine]

I doubt that very much. Even the German army of WW2 wouldnt last a month against the small force we have now.

I think the cows will fly one day..

How do you assume that ?