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The View From NATO’s Russian Front
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ^ | Feb. 6, 2015 | Sohrab Ahmari

Posted on 02/08/2015 11:07:13 AM PST by tlozo

‘I believe the Russians are mobilizing right now for a war that they think is going to happen in five or six years... with somebody within the next five or six years.” So says Lt. Gen. Frederick “Ben” Hodges, commander of U.S. Army Europe... "American engagement is essential if the West is to deter a revanchist Russia that has set out to “redraw the boundaries of Europe,” Gen. Hodges says... Russian President Vladimir Putin “has done in Ukraine,” he says, “is a manifestation of a strategic view of the world... This level of assistance suggests Ukraine “is not a foray, not a demonstration. They are deploying capabilities way above and beyond anything that any militia or rebel organization could ever come up with.”

The fact that the political class in the West is still splitting hairs about the nature of the insurgency in Ukraine is testament to the success of the Kremlin’s strategy of waging war without admitting it... Gen. Hodges notes that the Russians already have an advantage in the information battleground: “They’re not burdened with the responsibility to tell the truth. So they just hammer away, and whenever somebody in the West puts out a blog or a tweet, there’s an immediate counterattack by these trolls.”... Gen. Hodges won’t comment on the U.S. strategic-force posture in Europe other than to say he is “confident in that process.” But he adds that the fact that the Russians rehearse nuclear-strike scenarios “shows that they’re not worried about conveying a stark message like that. You know, frankly, you hear this often from many people in the West, ‘Oh, we don’t want to provoke the Russians.’ I think concern about provoking the Russians is probably misplaced. You can’t provoke them. They’re already on a path to do what they want to do.”

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Germany; News/Current Events; Russia; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bhorussia; crimea; donetsk; germany; nato; putinsbuttboys; ruble; russia; ukraine; unitedkingdom; vladtheimploder; war; waronterror
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To: tcrlaf

:) The word normally used is “Bandershtat”.


101 posted on 02/08/2015 4:10:43 PM PST by Ivan Mazepa
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans

Oh please, stop your lying.
After a full year, nobody buys it anymore.


102 posted on 02/08/2015 4:18:12 PM PST by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans

I’m really surprised you can stay on FR, with all of your insults and childish name-calling.


103 posted on 02/08/2015 4:19:50 PM PST by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans
The Russian language isn't banned--

Thanks to Yanukovich. When I traveled to the Donbas in November, 2005 to get married, all official documentation had to be provided in Ukrainian --despite the fact that residents of the Donbas speak Russian. Something you will learn when you visit there.

104 posted on 02/08/2015 4:21:22 PM PST by Drew68
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans
You're a scumbag who is still spreading this lie even after I already proved you wrong. How many ethnic Russians are there, you dimwitted monkey, compared to Ukrainians, even in the Donbass? And how many ethnic Russians want to join Russia or "be autonomous"?

Your Washington Post polls prove nothing. Why won't you take me up on my challenge to vacation in Donetsk? Airfare is cheap. You might even have fun! The Kiev train ride is a blast! You'll definitely meet some smoking hot chicks.

105 posted on 02/08/2015 4:28:31 PM PST by Drew68
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Comment #106 Removed by Moderator

To: Drew68; tcrlaf
Why are you speaking for them? Time and time again, "they" say they want to be part of Ukraine. i.e. they don't believe the Russian TV fairy tales of being oppressed in Ukraine for one simple reason, they live there and know that stories about ethnic cleansing is BS.

Another poll from couple of days ago had less than 5% of people in Southern and Eastern Ukraine wanting to separate from Ukraine. one fifth for federalization but part of Ukraine, and more than half for unitary government in Kyiv. Yet here you making up nonsense. "They don't wish to be governed by Kiev" - wtf? it's moronic, like that idiot Putin, living in parallel reality.

107 posted on 02/08/2015 4:41:40 PM PST by Ivan Mazepa
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans
You're a scumbag...

I've asked my post #106 be deleted for unnecessary vulgarity. I'm above you.

As I've suggested countless times, visit the region and then get back to me.

108 posted on 02/08/2015 4:46:35 PM PST by Drew68
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To: tcrlaf
It's amazing you would give a link to this song and argue that Russians aren't into empire building.

The chorus has a line "Мы в империю верим с новой силой" - "We believe in the Empire with new strength"

Then the next verse, "we'll march on to the west" with US, nukes and Statue of Liberty in the background

My goodness, why would you give this link?? LOL

Here's some better music

109 posted on 02/08/2015 4:59:27 PM PST by Ivan Mazepa
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To: tcrlaf
It's amazing you would give a link to this song and argue that Russians aren't into empire building.

The chorus has a line "Мы в империю верим с новой силой" - "We believe in the Empire with new strength"

Then the next verse, "we'll march on to the west" with US, nukes and Statue of Liberty in the background

My goodness, why would you give this link?? LOL

Here's some better music

110 posted on 02/08/2015 4:59:29 PM PST by Ivan Mazepa
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To: Jim Noble
I can't read Hungarian, but the striped area represents the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867 to 1918. The thin sliver just west of present-day Hungary was historically part of Hungary but the people voted to be part of Austria since most were German-speaking. There are some Hungarians in the present-day Slovakia and in Vojvodina (part of Serbia) and Transylvania, but the Slovaks, Croats, Serbs and Romanians in those areas have no reason to want a revival of the Kingdom of Hungary.

To be sure, the Hungarians have ample reasons to resist Russian expansion--memories of 1849, 1945, and 1956.

111 posted on 02/08/2015 5:04:45 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: Jim Noble
I can't read Hungarian, but the striped area represents the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867 to 1918. The thin sliver just west of present-day Hungary was historically part of Hungary but the people voted to be part of Austria since most were German-speaking. There are some Hungarians in the present-day Slovakia and in Vojvodina (part of Serbia) and Transylvania, but the Slovaks, Croats, Serbs and Romanians in those areas have no reason to want a revival of the Kingdom of Hungary.

To be sure, the Hungarians have ample reasons to resist Russian expansion--memories of 1849, 1945, and 1956.

112 posted on 02/08/2015 5:04:45 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: Ivan Mazepa
Yet here you making up nonsense.

Nonsense? We know what you think of the Russian-speaking Donbas in regards to my wife;

Don't pretend to be ignorant of the reasons Novrossiya wants independence.

113 posted on 02/08/2015 5:05:48 PM PST by Drew68
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To: Drew68
all official documentation had to be provided in Ukrainian --despite the fact that residents of the Donbas speak Russian. Something you will learn when you visit there.

That's like asking immigrants coming to US to learn English when they fill up official documents. That's just crazy. My goodness, how did your wife take to all the English being spoken in America?

114 posted on 02/08/2015 5:06:58 PM PST by Ivan Mazepa
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To: Ivan Mazepa
That's like asking immigrants coming to US to learn English when they fill up official documents. That's just crazy.

No, its closer to demanding all official documents in Ireland be written in Gaelic.

115 posted on 02/08/2015 5:10:55 PM PST by Drew68
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To: Ivan Mazepa
That's just crazy. My goodness, how did your wife take to all the English being spoken in America?

She learned English just fine. Why should a Russian be forced to speak Ukrainian? But she lived in Ukraine, you might say. And we come to the crux of this dilemma.

116 posted on 02/08/2015 5:14:49 PM PST by Drew68
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To: Drew68

It was Russia that forced other countries to learn Russian, which they are now doing in Crimea, not the other way around.


117 posted on 02/08/2015 5:16:21 PM PST by GeronL
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To: Ivan Mazepa

1 million westerners left Russia in the second half of 2014

http://www.businessinsider.com/westerners-leaving-russia-2015-2?utm_content=buffer20d2a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer


118 posted on 02/08/2015 5:19:20 PM PST by GeronL
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans

Refer to Jim Noble’s comment about the ethnic composition of Eastern Ukraine, he knows a lot more about this situation than you do.

Right now this is small nasty border war. We should be trying to help them settle it.

The first time an American weapon kills Russian Civilians or soldiers it’s going to change into something different all together.

Sorry you lack the basic common sense to see that.


119 posted on 02/08/2015 5:19:50 PM PST by desertfreedom765
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To: GeronL
It was Russia that forced other countries to learn Russian, which they are now doing in Crimea, not the other way around.

Crimea has been predominately Russian since the 18th Century, since Catherine the Great. Everyone speaks Russian in Crimea --even moreso than in the Donbas. I was in Sevastopol in August, 2013, before the re-annexation. Russian flags flew everywhere. Russian was spoken everywhere. They loathed Americans. I was shunned and ignored until I attempted crappily to speak Russian. At that point, the locals became friendly, respectful of the fact that I at least made an effort to speak their language.

120 posted on 02/08/2015 5:26:34 PM PST by Drew68
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