[tolbiny]

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Iran vs. Iraq, Britain during WWII (But the navy/air force more than the army), Russia in WWII, any country during WWI. Probably a dozen other cases. Armies are sometimes a necessary evil and ideally aren't needed, but things don't always work out so well.

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Iran V Iraq i already discussed a little- Iran's army did almost nothing for weeks and it was Iraq suddenly halting their advance that led to the drawn out war, not Irans defenses.
Russia in WW2? No- there army was totally destroyed, they lost 20million soliders and 20 million civilians, and what was it that stopped the German invasion? A nasty winter and over extended supply lines, and peasants with virtually no training and poor equipment dying by the millions in Stalingrad.
England in WW2 was in horrible shape when Germany declared war on the russians, and their biggest asset in defense was the Channel.
France had one of the largest militarys in the world pre WW1 and WW2, and they did a piss poor job defending that country.
WW1- "over the top one more time boys"- soliders sent out to charge machine gun nests with bold action rifles and bayonets?
The governments involvement in war is horribly inefficient, and rarely works once war breaks out, it most situations the standing army at the begining of the war was totally ineffective, there are almost no cases of a government providing "good" national defense.

EDIT: i should say that Isreal is a glaring exception to the general rule.