Posted on 07/26/2014 2:00:50 PM PDT by free_life
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey said Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s new use of Russian military force inside Ukraine harkens back to 1939 when Joseph Stalin led a Russian invasion of Poland, and Dempsey predicted Putin was far from finished.
The latest development represents a dangerous escalation of the crisis on the part of Putin, and the Russia-Ukraine crisis is now a global problem, he said.
“It does change the situation. You’ve got a Russian government that has made a conscious decision to use its military force inside another sovereign nation to achieve its objectives. It’s the first time since 1939 or so that that’s been the case,” Dempsey said. “They clearly are on a path to assert themselves differently not just in Eastern Europe, but Europe in the main, and towards the United States.”
Since 2008, the Russian military has increased its capability, proficiency, and the level of its activities, indicating Putin’s worldwide ambitions, Dempsey said. The strategy is Putin’s alone, he added, and said much of Russia’s military were probably reluctant participants in Putin’s war.
“This is very clearly Putin, the man himself, with a vision for Europe as he sees it, what he considers to be an effort to redress grievances that we burdened upon Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union and also to appeal to ethnic Russian enclaves across Eastern Europe,” he said. “He’s very aggressive about it, he’s got a playbook he’s been successful with two or three times, and he will continue.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
“The Soviet Government cannot regard with indifference the fact that the kindred Ukrainian and White Russian people, who live on Polish territory and who are at the mercy of fate, are now left defenseless,” read the note from the Soviet Foreign Ministry to the Polish Ambassador to Moscow on the day Stalin invaded.
“Putin may actually light a fire that he loses control over,” he said. “There’s a rising tide of nationalism in Europe right now that has been created in many ways by these Russian activities.”
"....new evidence that the Russians intend to deliver heavier and more powerful, multiple rocket launchers to the separatist forces in Ukraine, and have evidence that Russia is firing artillery from within Russia to attack Ukrainian military positions,” ....
...... Longer article worth reading at link.
Whoopsie. Now they’ll have to compare our response.
Ridiculous. The Ukraine, separate and as a part of Western Europe (and thus a threat to Russia), is hardly something Russia—under Putin or anybody else— will easily accept.
Some kind of joint association is almost inevitable; and of course now is the time for Russia to act, while Obama is playing golf.
But this hardly merits comparisons with Hitler, Stalin, the division of Poland, world war II, or the notion that Putin wants to march to Paris.
Lets all jump on board with The daily beast and the Obama flunkie Dempsey.
Stalin invaded Poland almost three weeks after the Germans did. He wanted to make sure most of the heavy lifting had been done. If anything this situation more resembles the Russo/Finnish War of 1939/40.
A major difference between Poland and The Ukraine mess is that the West has known since the nineteen fifties that any move by the West that would result in Russia losing political control over Crimea would have to overcome all of the Military power Russia could muster, and that this would not be in any way negotiable.
There was no surprise here.
Men who fought the cold war (myself included) pointed out during the EU/Ukrainian trade pact negotiations that Russia was going to counter that militarily. It didn’t take a rocket scientist or a prophet to see this coming. It also does not take one to understand that the Russians will not back down and that diplomacy in this case is mere embarrassing public masturbation.
The EU only has two choices. Give it up, or war. Even if they try to pull the US into this, diplomacy will not even slow the military response down.
So the Russian invasions of Georgia and the Crimea and eastern Ukraine didn’t happen under Putin?
The world heard excuses when the Nazis under Hitler and the Red Hoard under Stalin invaded Europe too. Remember what happened next? World war!
Just like the US would have the right (if we chose to do so) to make northern Mexico safe so the invaders into the US could return there. (Instead, Obama wants to get involved in eastern Ukraine.) Anyone who had the guts could make eastern Syria safe for Syrian refugees to return. The Iraqi Kurds are helping outside their borders, aren't they? etc
Isn't Israel going into Palestine pretty much the same situation?
Really, the DC crowd and the military analysts should SHUT UP about anything except how to secure OUR southern border.
Dempsey is silly? I wouldn’t doubt it
“Obama flunkie Dempsey”
If we’re making spurious comparisons to dead commies, Dempsey makes a pretty good slapstick Nikita Krushev toad to Obama’s mincing, lisping Stalin.
Since the potential Russian naval base in Syria is iffy, then the Crimea port with its 50 year lease would have to be Russia’s sole operational point in the Black Sea/eastern Med. And an eastern Ukrainian strip connecting Russia to Crimea is necessary.
These people fled the war between Ukraine military and Russian military including Putin’s proxy army of Russian rebels fighting in eastern Ukraine.
So Putin invades Ukraine and starts a war and in your mind he has right to continue that invasion and war because people are fleeing the war Putin started, got ya!
Actually, I think we've done this a few times, too.
The Ukrainians want out of Russia’s control and are paying the price for that freedom. EU was their only move.
They fled to Russia for safety. They didn’t flee to Kiev for safety. Doesn’t that indicate they feel safer as refugees in Russia than they would under the protection of the Kiev government?
The U.S. is a member of NATO, why do people keep ignoring that?
By definition, it must, since both cases are an invasion of a soveriegn nation to force your will upon them, which is what Putin is doing.
Ridiculous. The Ukraine, separate and as a part of Western Europe (and thus a threat to Russia), is hardly something Russia—under Putin or anybody else— will easily accept.
Russia is one giant cesspool of murder and massive corruption. In fact, corruption is Russia's number one export. I am against trade of this sort.
First of all, that's not accurate. Many more have fled East Ukraine to the West due to the murderous Russkies. Secondly, the Russkies have been claiming that hundreds of thousands have fled to them for ages now, but refuse to let outside people confirm it.
Yes it does for the Russians.
1) Majority of people in eastern Ukraine want nothing to do with rebels or Putin and their war.
2) Rebels hold that territory and fleeing west was not an option unless you wanted a rebel bullet in the back. East to Russia is only semi-safe way to flee. A lot like Poles fleeing Nazis into Stalin’s frying pan of death. Declaring one’s self a loyal Russian is a necessary survival instinct in that region right now. We are seeing the non militants in areas Ukraine forces have retaken from rebels are not actually loyal to rebels or Russia. What else are old men, women and children do and say to stay alive when living in the midst of Psycho’s with AK-47’s?
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