Opposing forces are lining up again.
After referring to the Russian annexation of Crimea, the NATO commander asked: “How do we change our deployment? How do we change our readiness? How do we change our force structure such that we can be ready in the future? We need to think about our allies, the positioning of our forces in the alliance and our readiness of our forces in the alliance, such that we can be there to defend against them if required, especially in the Baltics and other places.”
Breedlove added that Russia was now acting as “an adversary” of NATO—underscoring the active preparations of the US and its European allies to launch a war against Russia....
Having installed a regime in Ukraine that includes forces intent on triggering a war between the US and Russia, the White House is now preparing to build up its military capacities. Republican congressman Mike Rogers, chair of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, yesterday told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Obama’s rhetoric did not “match the reality on the ground.” He demanded military aid that the Ukrainian government “can use to really protect and defend themselves.”Napoleon got his ass kicked invading Russia. Hitler got his ass kicked invading Russia. Now NATO is getting ready for a re-do?
World Socialist Web Site
US and NATO use Ukrainian crisis to advance military build-up in Eastern Europe
Patrick O’Connor
Putin nor Russia are true socialists
ReplyDeleteSocialism without popular democracy is just another scam by an elite.
ReplyDeletePoor Nato. Still dreaming up crises to justify it's antiquated existence.
ReplyDeleteA conspiracy-minded individual would suspect Putin and the West had cooked up all of this Ukrainian nonsense to push through military spending increases.
Dan
ReplyDeleteIt is cooked up to push TTIP, transatlantic trade agreement just like the TIPP. Poland, Latvia and Estonia, USA marionetts just as other east block countries, are alarmingly asking USA for fracking gas but since they are not part of free trade group they are not getting that gas that should replace russian gas.
It is a way to push TTIP without democratic discussion about it. EU was resisting GMO untill now, with TTIP in place Monsanto can sue against ban of GMO into EU. And there are other regulation of food quality that is applyed in EU at much more rigourous levels then in USA.
TTIP is just as abusive as TIPP. Transatlantic and transpacific partnerships are heading for idiocracy of the world.
Democracy doesn't roll in on Russian tanks. The implication that somehow the democratic nations of the European continent are mostly undemocratic and that Putin is really bringing freedom seems a bit twisted. Of course, Europe isn't purely democratic and has it's problems as does the US but we are hardly Russia or China when it comes to corruption and elitism. How giant fortifications and troop buildups outside Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine can be caused by US policy all of a sudden after the Olympics are over is odd at best. We were totally unprepared for it. Even Lithuania and Poland are getting nervous and are asking for better cooperation.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing undemocratic in my mind about NATO and Europe defending their Eastern States if they need and ask for help. Ukraine isn't part of NATO but I think is part of the OSCE so we don't have any reason to provide assistance or help to them.
Europe has always been weak and prone to conquest and collapse because of their difficult fractured politics. To think it any different this time is sort of naive, IMO. If the US doesn't draw a line and provide assistance, and instead allows Eastern Europe fall back under Russian control, then there is a real threat of cold war. For Right now, Russia is basically the economic size of Mexico or Italy but with Nukes. If we draw a line somewhere in Eastern Europe, and provide a deterrence threat, maybe along Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia we prevent another cold war or massive violence in Europe. War could easily happen again because of complacency and the widespread belief that it can not happen. I err on the side of caution and an ounce of deterrence. Allow Russia to take Eastern Europe and their economic size doubles or triples and they become a real threat. I don't think you need a ideological revolution like communism to recreate a cold war. I think there is a natural tendency in humans to create teams and simplify complicated divides and rivalries, like the Demo-Repubs do to consolidate power, or Shia-Sunni, or Isreali-Arab, or North vs South or East vs West. People love this stuff. Endless joy of sport.
I think the problem in this case is that the Ukrainian revolution deposed a democratically elected government via extra-constitutional means, and so the US should not have supported it, even if that elected government was not particularly admirable. This is becoming a pattern with us, since US instigators were also behind the recent military dictatorial counter-revolution in Egypt which deposed an elected government.
ReplyDeleteIf the US and western democracies are going to stand by and cheer on the overthrow of governments in the Russian near abroad, allow their countries to be used as funding platforms for these overthrows, involve their intelligence agencies in the overthrows, and violate previous understandings with Russia, then more assertive Russian reactions will be the obvious response.
I think the pecking order goes something like this... Democracy being toward the bottom of the list. Our policies toward China and Singapore and other should make it clear that democracy isn't very important. Right or wrong, our foreign policy usually has a preference list like this:
ReplyDeleteCooperative
Capitalist
Stability
Basic Legal Order & Rights
Democracy
Human Rights
Ryan, I think that in Europe our foreign policy is completely irrational, and is driven by the fact that an older, dinosaur generation is yet to die off completely, and take their retrograde habits of thought with them.
ReplyDeleteWe have no military alliance that exists to contain Germany, even though Germany had a deep 20th century track record of dangerous and destabilizing behavior. But we do still have an alliance that exists to contain Russia. The existence of that alliance is itself a destabilizing factor, since it possesses and internal economic momentum that pushes it into seeking economic resources from the sponsoring governments and provoking tensions that justify its existence. It should be disbanded.
US should give no aid to Ukraine because Ukraine owes $15 billion to Russia. The odds that Russia will attack Baltic nations are way south of zero percent because they are NATO members. Same goes for Poland.
ReplyDeleteA military buildup without an actual war. Priceless.
ReplyDelete