So, it all started with a
post on
The Wars of Pooch about a game of
Flames of War involving New Zealanders in Italy against Germans. Well, the Kiwis were using three M3 Stuart Light Tanks and as is my want, I ended up on Wikipedia
reading about the Stuarts. I already knew about them. Not a lot, but they weren't new to me. That's when I saw something that made me do a double take. Apparently, Paraguay's army
still uses Stuarts and M4 Shermans. At first, I thought it was BS, since that bit of info had a [citation needed] tagged on at the end, so I looked up the article about the
Paraguayan Army and that's when I facepalmed. They do indeed have twelve Stuarts (of which, only six still work) and three Shermans.
Holy crap. I know a lot of third and second world countries rely on older military vehicles, since they can't afford more up-to-date stuff, but Stuarts from World War II? Tanks from World War II? I did some checking and according to Wikipedia, a
T-72 tank costs like one or two million dollars and their military budget is about $248 million. Maybe Paraguay can do a fundraiser on Kickstarter or IndieGoGo and raise money to buy tanks that aren't over sixty years old?
God, I hope they don't expect those things to actually hold up against an invasion. Paraguay, guys,
be nice to your neighbors! Then again, I just read that they've only ever been in two wars, the last of which was the
Chaco War in the 30s, so they should be okay.
