Kaliningrad, Russia’s Westernmost Outpost, Is Again a Flash Point in East-West Relations

NY Times ^ | June 22, 2022 | Dan Bilefsky

[McGruff]

A former American national security adviser once called Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave sandwiched between the NATO members Poland and Lithuania, “a dagger in the heart of Europe.”

The latest flare-up with Lithuania is not the first time Kaliningrad has been the locus of tensions.

In 2016, about 70 nautical miles off Kaliningrad, two Russian Su-24 planes buzzed the American guided missile destroyer Donald Cook, simulating an attack and drawing protests from Washington.

In another episode that same month, a Russian warplane intercepted an American reconnaissance plane at an unsafe distance over the Baltic Sea.

[Travis McGee]

The guys in the sonar rooms did not take off their headphones, or take their eyes off the screens (even in the 1980s) until the oncoming watch was fully briefed and up to speed.

The submarine navy in the 1980s was literally on a hair-trigger, no different than sappers belly-crawling across no-man’s-land in WW1 trench warfare.

I never in my life experienced such focused professionals. They understood that mistaking some subtle difference between natural fish/whale/commercial ship sounds and an enemy submarine could mean their death, and that their survival would come down to coming to the correct conclusions and making the right decisions, literally in seconds. Minutes might as well be hours in that kind of warfare.

Not to mention the pressure of knowing that any mistakes in any direction could result in accidentally triggering WW3, or conversely, getting wiped out in an enemy first strike.

Those guys were so professional, I can’t even convey their level of focus. Surface warship CIC’s were somewhat relaxed by comparison.

The submarine guys lived in a universe of seconds, not minutes.

[kiryandil]

There are a LOT of pinwheels-for-eyes Ukrainian hopium posters today.

The Kaliningrad stuff is like mainlining heroin for them.

Lookin' for war to fap to.

Personally, I'm in favor of neutral countries, myself:

[Travis McGee]

Oh, great, wikipedia.

Does your mommy know you’re still on the computer down in her basement?

Or are you in a CCP boiler-room operation, serving in the “50 Cent Army”?

https://tibet.net/these-2-million-internet-trolls-get-paid-to-comment-on-social-media-heres-why/

How about YOUR stories, about how YOU know the submarine force was “only rhetorically on hair trigger alert?”

We’re all waiting, and not for wikipedia.

[kiryandil]

The equipment buildup in Ukraine has been slow. But lacking the massive Cold War surplus that was used in Desert Storm, it’s understandable that Ukraine’s resupply has proceeded in fits and starts. But it’s getting off the ground.

Russia has demilitarized quite a few of the NATO countries, according to some commentators...

[kiryandil]

If I told her she has a beautiful body, would she hold it against me?

Youth is wasted on the young.

[Zhang Fei]

[Oh, great, wikipedia.

Does your mommy know you’re still on the computer down in her basement?

Or are you in a CCP boiler-room operation, serving in the “50 Cent Army”?

https://tibet.net/these-2-million-internet-trolls-get-paid-to-comment-on-social-media-heres-why/

How about YOUR stories, about how YOU know the submarine force was “only rhetorically on hair trigger alert?”

We’re all waiting, and not for wikipedia.]

---

We’re all waiting for your account of your personal experience of nuclear war due to a false alarm. Spare me the histrionics. I’m sure you felt like it was gonna happen from your lowly position as cannon fodder on a sub. That’s why they left those decisions up to someone higher up on the food chain, not an excitable greenhorn like you.

I think you have this idea that everyone wants to be you. I don’t want to be you. All I want is for people like you to do your job. A little less back talk to the people who funded your paychecks would be nice. To me, folks in the military are like cops and firefighters, except they wear green/tan uniforms. The nice thing about cops and firefighters is that we don’t generally get any back talk when we point them at crooks and fires. I wish military people were as consistent.

[saintgermaine]

Could happen if the Russian empire falls apart at the conclusion of a defeat in Ukraine.

I wouldn’t hold my breath for this happen.

[kiryandil]

That’s why they left those decisions up to someone higher up on the food chain, not an excitable greenhorn like you.

This has got to be one of the dumbest comments I've ever seen on Free Republic.

Travis McGee, greenhorn who just fell off the turnip truck.

   

[kiryandil]

A little less back talk to the people who funded your paychecks would be nice. To me, folks in the military are like cops and firefighters, except they wear green/tan uniforms. The nice thing about cops and firefighters is that we don’t generally get any back talk when we point them at crooks and fires. I wish military people were as consistent.

Black keyboards upon their desk
These are men, the neocons' best
One hundred men will agitprop today
But only three win the Green Keyboard.

sung to the tune of Barry Sadler's Ballad of the Green Berets

Run your mouth on the Internet, boy - because you certainly wouldn't do it to his face.

[Zhang Fei]

[Russia has demilitarized quite a few of the NATO countries, according to some commentators... ]

---

Ukraine has demilitarized Russia to some extent. The problem for Russia is that it can’t really stand against NATO formations because unlike Ukraine and Russia, the West is pretty good at taking out anti-aircraft batteries. This is how the West operates against Eastern bloc air defenses, even without stealth:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mole_Cricket_19

Once those air defenses are peeled away, this is what awaits Russian invasion forces:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_of_Death

Note that the bulk of munitions used against Iraq’s ground troops were dumb bombs, making this a fairly cheap operation.

[CodeToad]

All the tactical/space operations centers operated the same way: Every second was a detail not to be missed. Shifts for the scope dopes were sometimes even just 30 minutes at a time based on demand load. Within the mobile crews, it was even more intense because they were also their own security, just like the boomers. There HKs were there but that was an iffy proposition at best.

[kiryandil]

Once those air defenses are peeled away, this is what awaits Russian invasion forces:

If we had ham, we could have ham and eggs.

If we had eggs.

[CodeToad]

” To me, folks in the military are like cops and firefighters, except they wear green/tan uniforms. The nice thing about cops and firefighters is that we don’t generally get any back talk when we point them at crooks and fires. I wish military people were as consistent.”

Which means you have never served so you have also have zero idea about what you just said and how wrong it is. You have a very juvenile view of the military.

[kiryandil]

If you hang around on this thread long enough, maybe he'll teach you how to field-strip a keyboard...    

[EEGator]

I stated the US was behind Lithuania’s actions, and was deemed an idiot conspiracy theorist.

[Zhang Fei]

[This has got to be one of the dumbest comments I’ve ever seen on Free Republic.

Travis McGee, greenhorn who just fell off the turnip truck.

face with tears of joy face with tears of joy face with tears of joy ]

---

Did Matt Bracken leave just short of getting his first star? Did he reach his 20-year minimum for a pension? Did he have command responsibility - or any kind of responsibility for launching a nuclear weapon? If not, he is a nobody in that chain. This is not to say he is worthless or unimportant, just that the risks - outside of a movie script - are not what he conjured up.

Of course, being an author may require a certain degree of inborn excitability. A well-balanced mind may have serious difficulty dreaming up the off-the-wall plotlines he comes up with.

[EEGator]

Good God she’s hot...

[Zhang Fei]

[Which means you have never served so you have also have zero idea about what you just said and how wrong it is. You have a very juvenile view of the military.]

---

I’d say you have a very juvenile view of military. My view is that the military is just another tool of government. Its job is to do as it’s told and fight the nation’s wars. That’s all there is to it. If you want to view them as gods in human form, that’s certainly your prerogative.

[kiryandil]

You’re an arrogant git, I’ll give you that much.