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human
[Avatar: Legend of Korra] In S4, why was the United Forces during the invasion of the United Republic/Battle of Republic City so small?

Towards the end of Season 4, the Battle of Republic City is about to began, with the United Forces (UF) and Earth Empire Army (EEA) (as I’ll now refer them) facing each other.

Problem was, **why was the United Forces in that battle so small?**

If the capital city of the United Republic was about to be invaded by an imperialistic dictatorship, you’d imagine the ocean being filled with warships, planes and airships patrolling the skies, along with thousands of mecha-suits and soldiers/Marines on the ground preparing to fight for their country’s freedom. 
Instead, it looked like at best a **battalion** or so of soldiers was tasked with defending the city that housed (presumably) millions of people, while less than like 10 battleships showed up. It’s almost like having one or two battalions of the 3rd Infantry Regiment tasked with defending Washington, D.C. from an entire division or two of the Russian Army or something. 
While we’re on the topic of troops, why didn’t the United Forces entrench themselves? I guess the barbed wire/crude No Man’s Land was sort of alright, but why didn’t some Earth bending combat engineers rig up defensive barriers or trenches or foxholes? If you don’t have the numbers advantage, then at the very least dig some foxholes and erect some makeshift walls. 


Did I forget to mention that it appeared that the UF had *no* air superiority during the battle compared to the EEA? Why is that? They clearly have biplanes in their aerial fleet and they obviously have airships. But where were they? To win a battle, air superiority over the enemy plays a crucial role. You’re going to have a hard time fighting when your enemy is dropping lead from possibly thousands of feet above in the air where your bending can’t touch them. 
Speaking of planes, why didn’t the EEA bring along some biplanes as well? Oh, we can bring along a multi-story mecha-giant that can fire a laser made up of pure energy that can slice buildings to bits a la Shin Godzilla, but ***no***, biplanes are too much? Again, **air superiority**. 

Lastly, despite all the flaws of the battle, would Iroh and the United Forces had stood a chance against Kuvira if she didn’t have her mecha-giant?
gpt
We don’t know if they had other people hiding in the mountains or planes waiting for a command. They also didn’t expect Kuvira’s army to be that huge. They were one city versus the army she had amassed from the entire earth kingdom.

They probably would have won if Kuvira didn’t have the mech, especially if they did have hidden airships somewhere, but mostly because they had the avatar on their side.