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Russian military exercises gaze toward Poland
https://www.msn.com Jamestown Foundation ^ | 8.10.2021 | Janusz Bugajsk

Posted on 08/10/2021 7:55:24 AM PDT by RomanSoldier19

Russia is preparing its quadrennial Zapad 2021 military exercises along NATO’s eastern borders. The exercise is focused on potential armed conflicts with Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

This extensive military drill in September will also involve troops from Belarus, one of Russia’s few remaining partners. Zapad 2021 is intended to demonstrate Russia’s military readiness and to simulate a clash with a neighboring state in which Moscow prevails. But with this year's exercises being conducted in the midst of the Russo-Ukrainian war and the social turmoil in Belarus, tensions are increased. Especially notable is the impact on the historic rivalry between Poland and Russia over the states that lie between them.

Kremlin propaganda depicts Poland, the largest and militarily strongest state on NATO’s eastern flank, as promoting pro-Western coups in Ukraine and Belarus that are intended to tear these countries away from "Mother Russia." In reality, the region is not witnessing a contest between two imperial projects but a struggle between two strategic concepts. That is to say the concept of a centralized Russian dominion that subordinates neighbors and that of a voluntary, multinational confederation embodied in the trans-Atlantic alliance and the European Union.

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


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: baltics; poland; russia
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To: skepsel
Openly admitted by who?

Brzezinski himself. He has talked about it for years. He tried to couch the result, but the facts are the facts.

Here is a link to an interview from 1998: https://dgibbs.faculty.arizona.edu/brzezinski_interview

Excerpt:

B: It wasn’t quite like that. We didn’t push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.

Q : When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against secret US involvement in Afghanistan , nobody believed them . However, there was an element of truth in this. You don’t regret any of this today?

B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter, essentially: “We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war." Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war that was unsustainable for the regime , a conflict that bought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire. ...

61 posted on 08/11/2021 5:53:59 AM PDT by billakay
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To: billakay

Thank you for the info, sounds like a successful operation then.


62 posted on 08/11/2021 7:43:09 AM PDT by skepsel
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To: rbmillerjr

Fifteen of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, 2 from the UAE, 1 from Lebanon, and 1 from Egypt. (source MSN news)

Since you have decided to resort to insults, I think we’re done here.


63 posted on 08/11/2021 8:32:38 AM PDT by Pining_4_TX (You know you're old when all your dates are with doctors. )
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To: NorseViking

From the British Medical Journal

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1122273/

See also The Atlantic Monthly on line article of 8/4/14.

The estimates for the Afghan War are 1,000,000 dead civilians, 90,000 mujahedeen fighters and 18,000 Afghan National Army dead, with 5,000,000 refugees displaced to Pakistan and another 2,000,000 internal refugees.

See also the University of California Press:

https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft7b69p12h&chunk.id=d0e5195

E-book detailing Soviet atrocities, mass killings, reprisals.

Genocide was a feature of Communist rule everywhere.

Deportations, colonization, suppression of local language and culture, deliberate famine and mass killings were used to break resistance throughout the period of Soviet power.


64 posted on 08/11/2021 8:33:19 AM PDT by skepsel
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To: rbmillerjr
I base my perspective on my personal experience. I lived/maintain a residence in Russia. I actually just got back from my summer vacation there.

Its easy to talk trash from a distance. When you are on the ground and get perspective from the actual people, from veterans, from the ones most affected by the things we complain about, an entirely different picture is painted.

I don't know a lot of Georgians or have reference from that conflict, but I can speak to Crimea with personal experience. It was justified, and the people there supported it. Full stop.

65 posted on 08/11/2021 9:26:39 AM PDT by billakay
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To: skepsel; NorseViking
Its very easy to dehumanize people, but let's face it, the Soviet people were regular people too. Soviet soldiers were human men, many of whom were conscripted. You can be against Communism and against the government without dehumanizing the people themselves.

I've encountered Russian veterans of the Afghanistan War. They tend to have psychological issues and disturbances. A lot of people suffered a lot of pain because of Brzezinski's games.

66 posted on 08/11/2021 9:31:50 AM PDT by billakay
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To: RomanSoldier19
"Russia is preparing its quadrennial Zapad 2021 military exercises along NATO’s eastern borders."

Phase 1 initiated.


67 posted on 08/11/2021 9:47:23 AM PDT by Grzegorz 246
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To: Pining_4_TX

Irrelevant that most were from Saudi Arabia. They were a non state terror group, AQ.

Saudis hated AQ long before we did. They attempted to overthrow the govt.


68 posted on 08/11/2021 10:44:07 AM PDT by rbmillerjr
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To: billakay

“I can speak to Crimea with personal experience. It was justified, and the people there supported it. Full stop. “

The entire international community, less China/NK has said it was a violation of international law, and it did not meet recognized Ukrainian election procedures.

I guess we could allow the Hispanics to vote themselves part of Mexico in SanDiego and other SWest states.

No. It’s illegal and not recognized by anybody.


69 posted on 08/11/2021 10:48:43 AM PDT by rbmillerjr
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To: billakay

“A lot of people suffered a lot of pain because of Brzezinski’s games.”

You mean Brezhnev’s games...Well big deal. Russians aided communist Vietnam with support, interrogated US POWs, and used their pilots in the war. Excuse me for not laughing at the Russians.

Brezhnev is the Politburo crony who invaded Afghanistan, because the Afghan leaders were seeing the machinations of the communists.


70 posted on 08/11/2021 10:58:04 AM PDT by rbmillerjr
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To: rbmillerjr

The fact of the matter is that it is no one’s business but the countries involved. Ukraine tried to pull a fast one (with US encouragement) and they bit it. Too bad. They didn’t deserve to have Crimea (it is astounding how bad the infrastructure, etc. was before Russia took over).


71 posted on 08/11/2021 11:33:22 AM PDT by billakay
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To: rbmillerjr

About Vietnam, you make a fair point. This is one of the reasons that as I get older, I get more and more against the idea of war for political BS ideas.


72 posted on 08/11/2021 11:34:31 AM PDT by billakay
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To: billakay

“The fact of the matter is that it is no one’s business but the countries involved.”

A more accurate assessment would be to say that it is only Ukraine’s business. None of Russia’s business.

They did it for geopolitical reasons and the military aspect of Crimea. I think it is foolish and Crimean naval unite could easily be bottled up and destroyed in detail.


73 posted on 08/11/2021 12:04:14 PM PDT by rbmillerjr
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To: rbmillerjr

Read the UN court ruling on Kosovo.

It recognized the right of people to self-determination as supreme, where the national legislation doesn’t apply.

Why shouldn’t it apply to Crimea?

Not to mention that Ukraine doesn’t want it and Donbas back, because it will change the electoral map and not into the ruling regime’s favor.


74 posted on 08/11/2021 12:39:11 PM PDT by NorseViking
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To: skepsel

Do you realize that the same crap is written on the US operation in Iraq? Doesn’t make any of it truth.


75 posted on 08/11/2021 12:42:58 PM PDT by NorseViking
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To: NorseViking

This was brought up before. That case was unique and different than Crimea. I don’t remember the specifics.

Ukraine doesn’t want Crimea and Donbas back? LOL


76 posted on 08/11/2021 1:07:03 PM PDT by rbmillerjr
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To: NorseViking

“annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, but is still internationally recognized as being part of Ukraine.”

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=does+ukraine+want+crimea+back

Are you getting your Putinesca propaganda from Tass or Izvestia lol.
You claim Ukraine doesn’t want Crimea or Donbas back, which is completely false.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/01/ukraine-still-hopes-to-reclaim-crimea-and-donbass-from-russia.html

” We need to get both occupied territories of Crimea and Donbas back.


77 posted on 08/11/2021 1:14:46 PM PDT by rbmillerjr
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To: NorseViking

According to a recent Guardian article about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan civilian casualties of that war total 35-40,000.

The Guardian is not commonly considered to be a pro-US news outlet.

A study published by the Watson Institute of International & Public Affairs at Brown University puts civilian casualties of the US involvement in Iraq at between 184,000 and 207,000, caused by the US and allied nations and Iraqi police and military forces.

The figures for US and Soviet inflicted casualties are not comparable, despite the much longer commitment of forces by the US.

For the record, I was against US involvement in both Iraq wars and in Afghanistan as no US vital interests were at stake.

I did and do support US aid to anybody willing to take arms against Communist tyranny.

I don’t believe their was ever such a thing as a “Soviet” people, there were numerous peoples oppressed by the Soviet government, aided by quislings from among the oppressed populations, including the Russian people.


78 posted on 08/11/2021 3:50:10 PM PDT by skepsel
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To: skepsel

Okay, you support Brzezinski and Osama bin Laden. You could simply say it without excessive wording.

Your trust in Guardian and Watson is laughable either.


79 posted on 08/11/2021 9:38:33 PM PDT by NorseViking
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To: RomanSoldier19

Poland is one of the few European countries we should defend. As far as this report, I see as speculation not reality.


80 posted on 08/11/2021 9:47:57 PM PDT by McGruff (Resistance is futile, you will be vaccinated.)
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