Posted on 11/16/2014 12:32:51 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
FOR several years after Lithuania was annexed by the USSR in World War II, thousands of so-called “forest brothers” waged a guerilla war against the Communist invaders.
Based on the fact that Lithuania remained Soviet Russian-occupied for half a century, it may be thought that the resistance, brave as it was, was ultimately futile.
Yet the deeds of the forest brothers have not been forgotten as a trip through the Lithuanian countryside confirms.
Every so often you come across an official sign on the road indicating that a significant battle against Soviet forces took place at a nearby site.
Until relatively recently, these sites marked with plaques to honour the anti-Communist fighters were mainly of historical interest. But they have taken on a certain resonance as Lithuanians contemplate a fresh threat from Russia hot on the heels of its intervention in eastern Ukraine.
On a recent visit to Lithuania, the homeland of my parents, I was struck by the depth of anxiety about Russia’s intentions. This is despite Lithuania and its fellow Baltic republics of Estonia and Latvia being members of the European Union and the Western military alliance NATO.
Flying into the capital Vilnius from Germany, engineer Vytautas Kairionis summed up feelings in the region.
“Russia is intervening in Ukraine first and we hope that we won’t be next, but we have to be ready,” he said. “There will be some sort of attempt for sure. Maybe not over the next year but over the next few years.
“Everyone is worried, everyone has a Plan B, but so far no one is seriously contemplating it.”
While the chances of an imminent Russian incursion appear slim, people are unsettled by ominous signs coming from their big neighbour to the east. Russia recently sent Lithuania a diplomatic note demanding that the Government track down the culprits who defaced a Soviet war memorial in Lithuania with an image of a Ukrainian flag.
This sort of demand evokes memories of the destabilisation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union in the lead-up to the country’s forced incorporation into the USSR in 1940. There followed a brutal repression, including the murder of innocent civilians and the deportation of tens of thousands of people to Siberian labour camps, from which many never returned.
Arturas Paulauskas, the Lithuanian Parliament’s national security and defence committee chairman, said there was good reason for his country to once again feel threatened by renewed Russian aggression in the region.
“Now occurring is an intensive propaganda and cyber war, and we see every day that Russia is trying to consolidate and unify the Russian-speaking community here,” he told the Herald Sun.
“It doesn’t want non-Lithuanians living here to integrate into mainstream society, it wants them to be oppositional and under its influence.”
Mr Paulauskas pointed to a Russian military build-up in the Kaliningrad region which borders Lithuania as evidence of President Vladimir Putin’s scare tactics.
“We’re not overdramatising the situation — a sober analysis shows that the threat is there, and it’s growing,” he said.
“Everything that’s happening shows that the seemingly peaceful situation here is quite fragile.”
Lithuania abolished compulsory military service some years ago, but the current political situation has sparked a flood of volunteers joining the homeguard organisation Sauliu Sajunga.
Prof Benediktas Juodka, the Parliament’s foreign affairs committee chairman, said that his own son, a lawyer, had signed up.
“He goes every weekend into the bush, stays overnight and does I’m not sure what there,” he said.
“I’m very impressed by this wave of patriotism, which is being driven by educated and professional young people. It shows that whatever happens we will defend our homeland.”
Lithuania, a country of only three million, has security guarantees on the basis of its NATO membership, with US President Barack Obama recently reaffirming the pledge to the Baltic States during a morale-boosting visit to the Estonian capital Tallinn.
NATO has stepped up operations in the region, including the extended deployment of fighter jets as a show of force. But Lithuanians are only too aware that ultimately, they must be responsible for their own defence.
Mr Paulauskas, who temporarily served as the nation’s president during a political crisis in 2004, said there was no doubt that help would come in the face of Russian aggression.
“But we have to be prepared to defend ourselves,” he said.
Mr Juodka said that NATO had “gone to sleep” after the Cold War, but the Ukraine conflict had reinvigorated the organisation.
“Nowhere in the world is 100 per cent safe, but after the Ukrainian tragedy I think that Europe has realised the need to strengthen its defences,” he said.
Hopefully, Vytautas Kairionis will not have to execute his Plan B, which involves heading straight for the Polish border in the event of a Russian invasion.
Millions of his countrymen are also clinging to that hope.
Putin and the rest of the world might quickly learn just what a figurehead obama really is and how little he actually has to do with running this nation from his trips to the gold course.
NATO is not a little toy that is controlled by the whims of this lame duck president, it is a force of it’s own, and the institutional support of the American military and government is part of that.
I guess you know that we have been conducting military exercises in Ukraine and in Poland.
“NATO is not a little toy that is controlled by the whims of this lame duck president, it is a force of it’s own”
But the American military won’t move without orders from the CIC and that is Obama. NATO has almost no logistic capabilities of their own. They’re totally dependent on the US military for that.
L
Ansel, check my post and read that pravda article and tell me what you think. You seem to have a great deal of knowledge on this subject, so perhaps you can debunk or confirm the boasts of the Russkie article.
After watching what we do to Soviet tanks for 20 years, do you really want to make a big deal of them as they try to move, we have been practicing and building weapons and defenses to wipe out masses of Russian tanks for generations and today they have 2700 of them ready instead of 69,000.
Same with tactical nukes, Russia wouldn’t go nuclear to attack NATO, and we have all the advanced and tac nukes we need, and decades of advance weaponry to duplicate the benefits of tac-nukes, without the negative repercussions.
Fortunately obama prefers to “lead from behind,” which means deferring to London and Paris.
Back in the early ‘70’s I remember chatting w/ a guy who was in the Norwegian resistance during WWII (a lot of stories there). At any rate the big news when I knew him was that the Noregian Gov’t had finally decided to pay them for their service —30 years after the fact.
Did Hitler start with all those countries or make it one at a time? How’s your Putin doing it?
I am absolutely comparing Hitler and your buddy Putin.
My “buddy”?
I’m glad this dude doesn’t live rent free in my head like some of the people here.
Heaven forbid anyone starts to think the the super-Hitler image some of you around here has attributed to this guy is going a bit overboard. That will get you labeled as his best friend.
Soon some of you will get so paranoid from all of the articles that you will see Russian soldiers marching into Peoria and Sao Palo in a few weeks.
You can describe any silly scenario.
In the meanwhile in September—”US and Nato troops begin Ukraine military exercise”
“About 1,300 troops from 15 countries - including the US and other Nato members - have begun a military exercise near Lviv in western Ukraine.”
In August—”WASHINGTON — Approximately 600 soldiers from the Army’s 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division will deploy to Poland and the Baltic states to help reassure European allies who feel threatened by Russian military moves, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.
The troops and their equipment — which include M-1 Abrams tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and armored personnel carriers — will go to Europe in October for a three-month series of training exercises.”
I don't think we should underestimate what the Russkies are willing to do. These are not rational people, or, perhaps, they do not operate under the type of rationality that we do. They are psycopaths, killers and rapists who carpet bombed entire cities in Chechnya, committed terrorism against their own people even in recent history, and historically have killed between 20 million to 70 million of their own people, and today they still honor the gulag guards who helped do it as "honorable veterans."
“How’s your Putin doing it?”
Wow...
And here I thought DU was where the conspiracy nuts resided. dont let me get in the way of your groupthink.
For a guy that is going to invade or attack over half a dozen nations (so far), he seems to have little to show for it so far and kinda sucks at it.
But my goodness, pointing that out must mean he is my hero!
Pravda? No thanks.
Those must have been some stories!
Regarding the pay: better late than never.
There is a group of Freepers who are bootlicking, lying, treasonous Putin lovers who do the will of the Kremlin on this forum. Under this climate, it is easy to get confused for one of their number. If you aren't among them, you should be okay as long as you don't start vomiting up stuff about the "Kiev Junta" and Christian Czar Putin.
So he was telling me about a time late one night they had an old truck loaded w/ arms'n'explosives they were taking to the hideout --and the damn thing breaks down-- and right when they were frantically trying to coax it back to life along comes a big ass German convoy. What my friend said they did then was to walk out in the middle of the road waving their arms for help real freindly like and he got them to tow the truck into town and left them to repair it the next day and continue on.
It was that the German/Norwegian feelings were so tense that the Germans jumped at any chance they could find to boost cooperation --it never occurred to them to inspect the cargo.
Me I'd have cr@pped in my pants.
“OK, so Hitler is going to invade Poland, Russia, Holland, Belgium, France, Greece, Egypt, Yugoslavia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Denmark? Seriously?”
Awesome retort!
How many more countries does he need to invade before it registers in your head? Seriously . . . you might think that you're being sober about it, but you're really just being thick.
In sum, a nation that has been occupied by the Russians twice, and suffered genocide at their hands once, is concerned that the Russians might invade a third time, but the paleo/paultard/peacenik/putinista brigade is assuring us there's nothing to worry about.
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