Holy crap! I'm going to say this again, I was in the US military during combat. None of this would be in the realm of possibilities in the US military. You would never ever EVER see the 3rd Marine Division just straight up say, "Fuck the 101st Airborne. We're going after them." It would never happen.
Agreed. For comparison, I was also in the US military (not during combat) and had the opportunity to briefly work alongside some former Soviet soldiers in a former Soviet Republic (not Russia) several years after the break up. Fighting each other was these dudes primary mode of passing the time. It was absolutely wild. I imagine that the culture hasn't changed much.
I mean, imagine a dictator in charge who started a bloody war on Canada which has been going for more than a year and cost a few hundred thousand lives already. Maybe then it would be in the realm of possibilities.
I served in the 80's and let me heartily agree. We "wind dummies" derided "Jar-Heads" and "Wing Nuts", but the thought of actually trying to kill them is just ludicrous. Not even the ones from the wrong side of the political aisle. It's hard to imagine what kind of sick environment the Muscovites have in place that could give rise to this kind of in-fighting. It's hard to understand how they've managed to last this long with this level of rot.