Posted on 07/04/2016 2:32:11 PM PDT by Fractal Trader
RETIRED U.S. AIR FORCE Gen. Philip Breedlove, until recently the supreme commander of NATO forces in Europe, plotted in private to overcome President Barack Obama’s reluctance to escalate military tensions with Russia over the war in Ukraine in 2014, according to apparently hacked emails from Breedlove’s Gmail account that were posted on a new website called DC Leaks.
Obama defied political pressure from hawks in Congress and the military to provide lethal assistance to the Ukrainian government, fearing that doing so would increase the bloodshed and provide Russian President Vladimir Putin with the justification for deeper incursions into the country.
Breedlove, during briefings to Congress, notably contradicted the Obama administration regarding the situation in Ukraine, leading to news stories about conflict between the general and Obama.
But the leaked emails provide an even more dramatic picture of the intense back-channel lobbying for the Obama administration to begin a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine.
In a series of messages in 2014, Breedlove sought meetings with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, asking for advice on how to pressure the Obama administration to take a more aggressive posture toward Russia.
(Excerpt) Read more at theintercept.com ...
ping
Channeling his inner General Lemnitzer I see.
No matter where someone is on the political scale, Generals have zero business deciding WHO with and WHEN we go to war.
If he wants to set national policy, run for office. Freakin’ banana republic.
Madness...
We could wrap up Syria in a hurry if we cooperated with Russia and leave Assad in place. I'm not sure how significant the rebel forces were against him during the so-called Arab Spring. Obviously we have made it much worse IMO.
In this case, General Breedlove was wrong.
And in any case we sure as hell don’t need to get involved in ANY war as long as Obama and his communist stooges are in charge.
Nice that our “lead from behind” president was intentionally trying to provoke Russia in regards to Ukraine. It give me such a peaceful, easy feeling.
You’ve got it backwards. Breedlove wanted to arm Ukraine so they could defend themselves from Russian invasion. The Kenyan put the kibosh on that idea and allowed Russia to out gun Ukraine and “win”.
All that flyboy knows is war at 30,000 feet. What does he know about war on a dirt level?
Nice our generals are pushing for an aggressive posture whatever that means toward Russia. As much as I don’t like Obama, I am glad he is holding the line on this one.
You can have the American hating kenyan. I’ll take Breedlove on this one. He was in a position to know the real deal.
All that flyboy knows is war at 30,000 feet. What does he know about war on a dirt level?
Dubious blog “reports” American general tried to do his job. FReepers cheer Obama. Film at 11.
As soon as I saw Gen. Wesley Clark’s name, I said Pristina redux...
His job is not to set national foreign policy, and decide who we arm, who we fight with or against, etc.
His job is to create a well organized and trained fighting force, then execute his orders and nothing else.
His job is to execute war orders from the civilian government, not to push us into conflict.
War with Russia? The whites have done a great job since 1860’s to 1945 of wiping themselves out in all the stupid land wars in Europe. At this point in time, what is needed is more cooperation, and compromise to stop the lunacy of killing your cousins.
True about Wesley Clark. And dim bulb that Breedlove was sought out Colin Powell for advice on how to get us into it in some way.
Powell is still smarting from getting us into Iraq with his WMD thing.
He was probably, “yeah right... I want to get involved in this crap again”.
And what was this Breedlove doing arranging for TOWs to come from Pakistan to Ukraine and other such things? That’s way above a Generals pay grade unless a leader tells him to come up with ways to accomplish “X”, then a general can suggest “Y”.
This guy is no good.
General Turgidson. Colonel Batguano....
General Breedlove is right out of Dr. Strangelove.
Like I mentioned, he should have let Obama handle it.
“Handle it”?
Watch it makes more sense. Never understood this nutty eastward move of NATO. They seem determined to actually recreate battles on eastern front battlefields from WWII.
When America is contemplating battles around Kharkov and Donetsk and action in Crimea..... we have seriously gone off the rails.
War with Russia? The whites have done a great job since 1860’s to 1945 of wiping themselves out in all the stupid land wars in Europe. At this point in time, what is needed is more cooperation, and compromise to stop the lunacy of killing your cousins.
1860? Russia has been invading and murdering its neighbors since way before 1860.
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