I would recommend looking at the Norwegian system, where each region elects multiple candidates proportionately to the local votes, and all parties above a certain percentage nationwide shares a pool proportionally as well. It's not perfect, but it gives a sane amount of different parties without the inevitable deadlocks of 100-party systems.
The national pool limit can tune the approximate number of viable parties.
I had a look at some of the recordings, and the whole thing was just poorly executed. Surely the us military can march better? I have seen kids in school wind orchestras get drilled to a much higher standard in a few evenings, some of the soldiers were walking completely out of beat with the rest.
I would have agreed with you if I thought such a war could have been fought conventionally, but a single nuclear missile slipping through the air defenses would be too high a cost to pay for anything outside NATO.
It is ca. 1 pm here, and I am amused. Thank you for your funny picture random person on the internet :)