Iraq also was not a third world military. They were a poorly maintained and trained 2nd world group.
Mexico is a 2nd World Group along with Brazil, Vietnam, North Korea, and till relatively recently Turkey and China. And of these Vietnam and China beat the US on the field of battle and forced it to the table.
Iraq's Army was nowhere near these nations in capability. It was effectively a 3rd world militia in effectiveness.
Also no, you have no idea at how why the Russians are having difficulties and why zelensky didn't mobilize earlier.
We know full well why. All prior drills the Russians confiscated cellphones, used encrypted comms and had full logistical support and Ukraine called up reserves.
This last drill before Russia invaded, the Eastern Divisions were brought up, they were given unencrypted radios, weak logistical support, allowed to keep their cell phones and were posting on social media.
Zelensky who had had seen numerous Russian Drill by now and the UkA High Command as well, took a look at the sloppy drill of the Eastern Divisions and their complete unprofessional postings on Social Media and concluded Putin was sabre rattling.
What Western Intelligence thought is irrelevant, the Russians only had to fool one person: Zelensky who alone had the authority to call up the reserves. They succeeded and gained complete operational surprise.
Plus it would have actually been slightly worse as now they can have more ways to hurt the Long fight and deep fight instead of the close one. Of course you don't understand these terms.
Russians don't fight that way and its irrelevant at the operational level they work at. So what if Ukraine has successful local counter-attacks against the Eastern Divisions? They got pocketed and unable to actually stop the operational encirclement of Chernikiv and soon Kyiv. By committing them to battle as they did, Kyiv sacrificed its best troops with which to form the core of a Corps level counter-attack that could have actually knocked the Russians back and enabled them the ability to extract their best troops from Donbas and get them behind the Dnieper where they could form the Core of an Army level counter attack to retake the East.
Now that window is gone and they do not have the time to do more than keep an escape route open from their capital with whatever scratch forces they can get together from the reserves. And that is just frittering them away piecemeal.
That you don't understand this shows what an incompetent analyst you are and that you drank your own Kool-Aide.
The US would have basically done a desert storm or a Iraq invasion. It is all about planning, keeping them guessing, even when obvious.
You also deploy the largest air campaign in modern history against them and claim the skies for weeks way before ground forces ever go in.
Yeah and if Putin had done that, the Ukrainians would have mobilized all it reserves, made the cities fortresses, and the fighting would have bogged down into a series of sieges that would have sent deaths on both sides soaring.
Sorry but Putin is not playing that game, he is going for a relatively quick campaign of operational encirclements that pocket the bulk of UkA Forces from their supplies and forces their operational surrenders.
That way fewer people die and there is less he has to rebuild later plus less of a core to form guerrilla movements from as he can screen out the hardcores and ship them to Siberia.
Basically, look at Desert storm and the invasion of Iraq on how a country should properly invade another
Russia is a failure militarily, and has proven to the west we have nothing to truly fear, so might as well not need America to help as we could defend on our own.
The US lost the Iraq War, Iran took over the nation under your nose, got you to pay for it, and openly looted your military aide and shipped it to Syria to use against the Rebels.
And the US lost Afghanistan on top of that.
Again, make a comeback when you actually k on how Large scale Combat Operations work, and why dropping VDV so far away from support is a horrible idea the 82nd thought it was stupid
The VDV mission was a success, they held till relieved and forced Kyiv to fritter away an entire SOF company to no purpose and prevented Kyiv from sending units to bust escape corridors open to the pocketed troops in the North East of the Country.
Kyiv is dancing to Putin's tune, not their own.
Do everyone a favor and stop drinking your Kool-Aide. The US military is incapable of winning wars and is incapable of fighting mass maneuver warfare with a peer competitor.