generalspeaking

Avoiding World War III

"We pray that our ongoing NATO mission isn't accompanied by the escalation of deadly force and the shedding of blood."
"We have everything to lose and nothing to gain through a show-down with our former Eastern Bloc foes."
Lt.-Gen.Yvan Blondin, chief, Canadian Air Forces

"It's best not to mess with us. Thank God, I think no one is thinking of unleashing a large-scale conflict with Russia."
"I want to remind you that Russia is one of the leading nuclear powers."
Russian President Vladimir Putin

"It could all blow up at any moment if we don't take action. Moscow does not believe the West, and the West does not believe Moscow."
"Such a war today would probably lead inevitably to nuclear war. But the statements and propaganda on both sides make me fear the worst."
Former Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev

"It is not difficult to imagine scenarios in which either U.S. or Russian action could set in motion a chain of events at the end of which American and Russian troops would be killing each other."
"In these debates many ask whether President Obama would risk losing Chicago, New York and Washington to protect Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius."
"It is a troubling question. If you want to either dumbfound or silence a table next to you in a restaurant in Washington or Boston, ask your fellow diners what they think."
Former assistant U.S. Secretary of Defence, Graham Allison and Dimitri Simes, publisher of National Interest

"The full financial force of the West is concentrated on attacking us. What they are doing is smashing the foundations of a great geopolitical construction that will become their competitor."
Nikolai Starikov, Russian pundit linked to the Putin regime

Russians adore their president, he is their champion and can do nothing wrong. The $51-billion Sochi winter Olympics showed the world that Russia knows how to put on a party. Cost overruns mean little when a country's reputation is to be made. Vladimir Putin's palace on the Black Sea, a personal getaway for the great man, wasn't built on his salary, but if it was sold for $350-million guess who pockets the proceeds?

What other president does deep-sea dives to come up with ancient amphora, wrestles with tigers, rides a stallion bare-chested, guides endangered birds to haven, and hangs out with motorcycle thugs; only the inimitable Putin. Who re-unified Greater Russia, annexing the beloved Crimean Peninsula preparatory to absorbing Mariupol and more of eastern Ukraine? Russia and Mr. Putin take great umbrage at the colossal, interfering nerve of the West in Russia's affairs.

Who do they think they are to challenge a nation on the verge of putting a "sold" sign on the Arctic? The untold mineral riches that lie on the sea floor awaiting Russia's exploitation will solidify its reputation as the largest and most natural-resource-wealthy country in the world. The sanctions imposed by the hypocritical and envious West have done nothing to dissuade Moscow from its current path, challenging the world and terrifying the Baltic States.

On the other hand, there are challenges which are meant to be answered. NATO's appearance on Russia's very doorstep, for example. When Europe has a fit whenever Russian planes or naval vessels come too close to their international boundaries. Oddly enough it is the international military hierarchy that is cautioning the potential for misunderstood communications to be translated into the horrors of a nuclear conflagration.

While national leaders fulminate and engage in bellicose threats. Latvian Foreign Affairs Minister Edgars Rinkevics warned that Russian-Western relations were at their most dismal level since the 1960s and the Cuban missile crisis. This deplorably dangerous state of affairs in geopolitical realpolitik is an issue that dominates the global agenda, irrespective of the Middle East's tinder-box status with Islamic State and Syria challenging one another for title of mass-murdering-state-of-distinction.

Neither has nuclear weapons; yet, but may if the Iranian nuclear entitlements proceed as they appear to be headed with a proliferation of nuclear-owning states in the region and the trickle-down effect to jihadi terrorist groups. And on the other side of the equator there is North Korea threatening South Korea and the wider geography. But it is to Russia that eyes swivel where under the USSR an tacit understanding of mutual assured destruction prevailed, but even yet catastrophe was barelyaverted in Cuba.

A soldier takes part in the international military games 'Masters of Antiaircraft Battle - 2015' outside the Russian southern town of Yeisk on August 6, 2015. Teams of the Armed Forces of the People's Republic of China, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Belarus and Russia took part.  Credit: SERGEI VENYAVSKY

A massive Russian military exercise took place across Eastern Europe in March : "Some Russian military exercises have caught us by surprise, and our textured feel for Russia's involvement on the ground in Ukraine has been quite limited", stated U.S. General Philip Breedlove, testifying to Congress. Former military officers in Russia and the United States have called for new safeguards on the use of nuclear missiles.

Russian military doctrine states the use of nuclear weapons even in a conventional conflict are permissible if the country believes its forces could be overwhelmed.

Retired U.S. General James Cartwright commander of American nuclear forces retired, and retired Russian Maj.Gen. Vladimir Dvorkin, head of the research institute of Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces, joined to warn both countries appeared at increasing risk of an accidental war with the deterioration of the situation in Ukraine.

NATO troops make a massive amphibious landing off the coast of Ustka, northern Poland, during NATO military sea exercises BALTOPS (Baltic Operations) on June 17, 2015 in the Baltic Sea. A multinational exercise of NATO allied and partner nations  Credit: JANEK SKARZYNSKI

Former USSR republics of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania all have ethnic Russian population groups and they're now NATO members. Under whose agreement alliance countries have an obligation to aid fellow members under attack. Should Russia interfere in any of those Baltic countries as it did in Ukraine, how would NATO forces react?

"Russia and America: Stumbling to War" an article published in the National Interest, a U.S. foreign policy magazine, underlined the willingness of Russian hardliners in the use of nuclear weapons should a conventional conflict get out of hand, according to Messrs Simes and Allison. The Pew Research Centre's survey of ten NATO nations gauged views on the crisis in Ukraine where the majority of Canadians and Americans felt their countries should be militarily involved.

That sentiment found agreement in the United Kingdom, Poland and Spain. "At least half of Germans, French and Italians say their country should not use military force to defend a NATO ally if attacked by Russia", noted the Pew Centre.

Labels: Conflict, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, August 22, 2015