Someone who isn’t an arm chair general and has some military experience please explain to this old Marine what the hell the US can do militarily in this situation. Because for the life of me I see no military option here. We are coming out of 13 years of constant combat operations. Our troops are tired, our equipment is beat up with zero prospect of replacement anytime soon. Ask yourself this; Is this fight worth the death of just one more soldier, sailor, airman or Marine? I don’t think it is.
Sorry, America blew that option when they elected Obama.
You know this tough-talk by the Obama kids is all about domestic consumption. The Media know he’s looking like Jimmy Carter when the Russians rolled into Kabul in ‘79 and they’re nervous — the one’s that aren’t already flacking for Hillary that is... Those Mediots are happy to scuff-up Obama’s perception of being weak.
Look for Hillary to dust off her State Department pants suit and make a very serious pronouncement. It won’t mean squat, but it’ll sound good!
I am no general, so armchair is the best description of my thoughts.
However, the question is whether or not Putin is willing to roll over top of American troops if they’re already on the ground in the Ukraine. Next, would east Ukrainians stand up for Ukraine or for Russia, because Putin wants a clear pathway to the Crimea that is now in their hands.
So, would Putin roll over already present American troops? Their purpose would be cannon fodder initially, but to put them there would mean a commitment had been made to back them up with all out firepower if the trip wire were tripped.
How to get a credible force there in a brief amount of time. The initial force couldn’t be ship-borne. That would be no surprise. It would have to be a large force air dropped to a critical location regarding the massing Russian forces.
The only possible locations to launch nap of the earth airborne troops would be ideally from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Moldova, or Bulgaria. Would they even allow it? Certainly not if they saw spinelessness in charge of America.
The Ranger Regiment and a quick reaction brigade from the 82d would be the initial cannon fodder trip wire.
Would Putin attack or would he flinch? To force him to flinch, those troops would have to attack on any cross border incursion by Russian troops. We would have to be clear that this would escalate into the stratosphere if those troops were brought under fire in any way.
And then we’d be stuck doing another Germany for the next 50 years.
“Someone who isn’t an arm chair general and has some military experience please explain to this old Marine what the hell the US can do militarily in this situation. Because for the life of me I see no military option here. We are coming out of 13 years of constant combat operations. Our troops are tired, our equipment is beat up with zero prospect of replacement anytime soon. Ask yourself this; Is this fight worth the death of just one more soldier, sailor, airman or Marine? I don’t think it is.”
On the ground, there is no option. By the time we start moving troops near there, russia will invade and already occupy Ukraine. Now if we had already stationed troops close by, we could move into Ukraine and the Russian troops would not invade.
What we are left with is air and naval superiority. We can blockade all sea trade with russia. And very few countries can withstand a full blockade due to the interconnectedness of the world economies.
We can also publically announce that we will provide air cover for Ukraine and against any russian invasion. That might deter the russians, or it might not.
We have no legal reason to put boot on the ground. It would be a great idea if Turkey went ahead and closed the Bosporus to Russian shipping. With the murder of a Tatar activist in the Crimea they now have grounds to take action.
That would greatly complicate life for Putin.
I'd love to hear that myself. Apparently the author thinks "military option" involves marching a nonexistent NATO force under a Russian land-based air umbrella, magically supplying it from somewhere, all to achieve an unstated objective with a never-ending deadline. What could possibly go wrong?
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I could not agree more. It sickens me.
This old Marine agrees. Certainly NOT under the present CIC.
It`s time for the Ukrainian boys and girls to step up to resolve this one . If they have the will to fight an all out balls to the wall war, with their own rules of engagement ...turn em loose. Anyone who would like to suit up and go assist them...have at it.
We can send a bunch of fighters, and some airborne troops. But unless we have a port they won’t last long. Poland will have to get get involved at that point. Luckily they’re already mobilizing.