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How many in a troop?
didyw
Posts: 3,573
I always thought a troop of people (or soldiers) was an unspecified number of people. Yet nowadays it seems to refer to individuals, as here (from today's Guardian):
"Tensions between the two countries are running high, with Washington warning that Russia could attack Ukraine at any time. Moscow denies any such intention, despite massing more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders, and has accused western governments of hysteria."
In this context it suggests 100,000 individuals, not 100,000 troops of soldiers as I would have thought it.
"Tensions between the two countries are running high, with Washington warning that Russia could attack Ukraine at any time. Moscow denies any such intention, despite massing more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders, and has accused western governments of hysteria."
In this context it suggests 100,000 individuals, not 100,000 troops of soldiers as I would have thought it.
Gardening in East Suffolk on dry sandy soil.
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“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
https://link.newsletters.theknowledge.com/view/60433d32e2c3c71ae92d5964fvutr.17w/ff370922
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We seem to have taken over wherever and whenever we've wanted to ... anyone listen to the interviews with the Chagosians this morning 😡😭
This is how NATO has advanced towards Russia since the breakup of the USSR. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/10/europe/nato-troops-eastern-europe-map-intl-cmd/index.html
is it any wonder that Russia feels the need to protect its own interests?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
So not just in Russia. What are they doing in those places? Easy to criticise your own country and not others perhaps?
Every year for yonks Russia and Belarus have conducted joint exercises ... just as the US has been conducting over our heads in East Anglia just lately.
Russia feels the West has broken a promise
"...Vladimir Putin believes Ukrainians are really Russians, and he wants America to agree that Ukraine will never be a member of Nato. He’s still spitting teeth about Western troops piling into eastern Europe after the Cold War. In his mind, says Joshua Yaffa in The New Yorker, Western leaders promised not to advance towards Russia’s borders after the fall of the Soviet Union – standing up to Nato on Ukraine is merely “rectifying a historical injustice”. At a press conference last December, Putin made his understanding of history clear: “‘Not one inch to the east,’ they told us in the nineties. So what? They cheated, just brazenly tricked us!” (see my earlier links)
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
But troops? Found this in Merriam-Webster:
As a collective noun, in reference to a unit of military personnel (or boy or girl scouts): “The general ordered three troops of cavalry to move forward.”
As a singular noun (which is always used in the plural), referring to a mass of individuals: “16,000 troops were stationed outside the city.”
As collective military forces (indicating a large, indeterminate number of people): “They were holding a bake sale to support the troops.”
As a singular noun (which is condemned by almost everyone): “Two jeeps were destroyed and one troop was taken hostage last weekend.”
Are we ever given the truth?
Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.