Posted on 05/03/2016 11:19:04 AM PDT by StCloudMoose
Ash Carter is the same person who accuses Russia of trying to destroy our fiber optic cables.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter used a U.S. military changing-of-the-guard ceremony Tuesday to blast Russian aggression in Europe, saying Moscow is "going backward in time" with warlike actions that compel a U.S. military buildup on NATO's eastern flank.
"We do not seek a cold — let alone a hot — war with Russia," Carter said. "We do not seek to make Russia an enemy. But make no mistake, we will defend our allies, the rules-based international order, and the positive future it affords us."
Carter presided at a ceremony installing Army Gen. Curtis "Mike" Scaparrotti as head of U.S. European Command and the top NATO commander in Europe. Scaparrotti most recently commanded U.S. and allied troops in South Korea and has commanded troops in Afghanistan. He succeeds Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, who has pointedly and repeatedly warned that NATO must better prepare for an adversarial relationship with Russia.
I give this little bundle of sticks ZERO credibility in any matters related to national defense.
Globalist = neocon = Nazi
“What actually happened is that, as part of the deal to reunify Germany, Russia had been given assurances that NATO would not be expanded in its direction - assurances that were then repeatedly broken.”
Russia was never promised that NATO would not expand beyond a unified Germany.
http://www.nato.int/docu/review/2014/russia-ukraine-nato-crisis/nato-enlargement-russia/en/index.htm
As for the possibility of NATO membership for Russia, there have been both back-channel discussions and very public expressions of interest, the latter going back to Molotov in 1954.
NATO is hardly an uninterested party in the dispute.
This is plain common sense. When the Cold War ended, the need for a military alliance against a no-longer-in-existence USSR ended with it.
To then expand the alliance to the borders of Russia is nonsensical, UNLESS the intent is to make enemies of them again. Without such intent there is no reason to expand the organization.
The only way to not see this is to be completely unable to put oneself in another person’s shoes. How could Russia possibly see NATO expansion as benign, especially in the wake of the war in Yugoslavia, and the later war in Iraq?
And then Libya, and Syria, and Ukraine... the US has been systematically overthrowing governments friendly to Russia.
If we were in their shoes, the need to act in self-defense against the growing threat of US aggression would be so obvious that anyone who didn’t see it would be regarded as crazy or suicidal.
“If we were in their shoes, the need to act in self-defense against the growing threat of US aggression would be so obvious that anyone who didn’t see it would be regarded as crazy or suicidal.”
Exactly what threat does the U.S. or NATO pose to Russia? Neither has any design on Russian territory. What the U.S. and NATO oppose is the rebuilding of the old Russian empire at the expense of the economic and political freedom of the people of the former Soviet satellite countries. Putin can’t put the old Soviet genie back in the bottle without risking an all-out military conflict.
“Gov. Romney, I’m glad you recognize al-Qaeda is a threat, because a few months ago when you were asked what is the biggest geopolitical group facing America, you said Russia — not al-Qaeda. And the 1980’s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back — because the Cold War has been over for 20 years.” Resident Obama.
> Exactly what threat does the U.S. or NATO pose to Russia?
Can’t believe you even have to ask that question.
The US government invades a lot of countries, you know. Like, a LOT. Need I list more of them for you?
Let me list just a few of the countries that the Soviet Union/Russia has invaded since 1939:
Finland (1939-1940), Hungary (1956), Czechoslovakia (1968), Afghanistan (1979-1989), Georgia (2008), and the Ukraine (ongoing).
What Russia also did repeatedly in the 20th century is *annex* forcefully part or all of many countries: Poland (1939–1956), the Baltic states (1940–1991), Finland (1940), Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina (1940).
Almost all of that is WW2 era. That was 70 years ago already.
Once we start talking post-WW2, the list of countries invaded by Russia is very very short; and post-Cold War, even shorter.
Compare it to the list of countries invaded and governments overthrown by the US in that time frame. Right at this very moment, the US is militarily engaged in more nations than your entire list INCLUDING the WW2 era.
Go ahead and make a list of countries the US has invaded, and let’s compare them. I’m interested to see what you can come up with and what you omit.
Oh and don’t forget to include the many governments overthrown via covert ops, those count too.
There is no rational reason for Russia to view the U.S. or NATO as a threat to its sovereign borders. Now, if you have a Putin-esque definition of those borders, which apparently includes enveloping any nation with a substantial ethnic Russian minority, like the Baltic states, then I hope Russia is sufficiently deterred by its irrational fear of NATO.
Russia and the U.S. would seem to be natural allies in the war against terror and the looming expansionist threat posed by China. It’s a pity that both sides have not been able to find common ground to put aside the Cold War rivalry and pursue their many joint interests.
> There is no rational reason for Russia to view the U.S. or NATO as a threat to its sovereign borders.
You keep insisting on it but it’s plainly contradicted by reality.
I can name one very specific and recent threat, that was the coup in Ukraine, which briefly handed nominal authority over Russia’s largest naval base to a government which was explicitly hostile to them.
I can see you’ve swallowed the NATO Kool-Aid and gone back for more, so we’re not going to make any further progress in this conversation.
Ash Carter...blah blah blah whining and complaining is unseemly. The only reason Putin gets aggressive is because Obama is so weak and disengaged. Obama is very disengaged now that he only has 270 or so days left as president.
Why on earth would Putin and his guys respect an idiot who pushes the gay and tranny agendas? Who pushes gay ambassadors onto third world nations? Putin and his guys laugh at Obama. They cannot believe Americans were so stupid to elect him twice. Add in some Russian racism and their opinion of 0zero sinks lower.
” ...we’re not going to make any further progress in this conversation”
Agreed.
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