Council Foreign Relations discussing resources, sustainability, economics, & national security with of all people... 'Harrison Ford!'...March 2013
“People need to wake up and see what is really going on here. Victoria Nuland is a snake.”
As Robert English, director of the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California, said:
“Given our own hypocrisy — don’t violate agreements (except the one not to expand NATO eastward), don’t invade countries on phony pretexts (except Iraq) and don’t support minority secession movements (except Kosovo) — why wouldn’t we want to restore U.S. credibility by living up to our principles in this (Ukraine) critical case?”
Council Foreign Relations discussing resources, sustainability, economics, & national security with of all people... 'Harrison Ford!'...March 2013
This is interesting...
” Putin’s Actions and the Future of War”
References to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Crimea as some sort of “19th-century behavior” misjudge the enormity of recent events. .....He hasn’t miscalculated;......... “Putin is redefining 21st-century warfare.”
Putin is no longer bound by the constraints of nation-state warfare..... Years of confrontations with separatists, militants, terrorists and stateless actors influenced his thinking. ......In Crimea, Putin debuted a pop-up war — nimble and covert — that is likely to be the design of the future.
Putin moved into Crimea partly because it was a low-stakes way to test out his new warfare. Home to significant Russian military assets and a somewhat sympathetic population, Crimea is geographically isolated from the rest of Ukraine; Putin could confidently predict that there would be no physical response to his invasion by a globally exhausted West.
For years, Putin relied on the heavy, Soviet-style hammer. His recent actions suggest that traditional military and intelligence are no longer the means by which he feels he has to fight. While the West is focusing on the best response to his recent steps, Putin is most likely on to the next stages: determining which, if any, international protocols apply to his actions and how his tactics can be used elsewhere.
It’s time to give up the decadent belief that continental wars are over. Going forward, the terms by which the world is playing are Putin’s — a reality we all must recognize and for which we need an effective response.