Posted on 08/20/2008 11:53:51 AM PDT by zencat
Norway's Defense Ministry says Russia has informed it that it plans to cut all military ties with NATO.
Ministry spokeswoman Heidi Langvik-Hansen says the country's embassy received a telephone call from Russia's Defense Ministry on Wednesday, saying Moscow plans "to freeze all military cooperation with NATO and allied countries."
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
They think they’ve got the west over a barrel - of oil. And apparently they do, because the EU response has been, “let’s not do anything to make them mad”.
Good point.
I’m with you through #9. I do not see what they have to gain by # 10 a. and/or b.
Huh? When did Russia ever “co-operate” with NATO? When NATO had to salvage the Kursk for them?
They won't have too. It's already been done.
Iran will come to them, as will NK, and some other minor players.
China, for the time being, will likely stay out of it, or at least I would think they would.
As Russian forces crossed South Ossetia into Georgia, the moment arrived for inescapable acknowledgement that Putin had revoked the Cold War armistice. Justifications contain too many parallels to Hitler’s concern for Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia to ascribe less than brutal motives. Extravagant armored attacks through the Greater Caucasus Mountains demonstrate traditional Russian ruling elite neurotic insecurity; neurosis requiring rival power destruction without political compromise. Genetic, multi-millennial paranoia infects the current cabal to regard NATO, former Warsaw Pack countries, and former Soviet republics as encircling enemies. Such perceptions, not shared by the Russian people, repudiate years of Western support for emerging Russian representative government, political security, and economic stability.
There can be no permanent peaceful coexistence with a totalitarian Russia, but traditional warfare is not inevitable. Illogics lead this cabal onto unacceptable paths, but these elites remain highly susceptible to logics of force accompanied by determination to use it. Forceful initiatives require immediately curtailing efforts to integrate the former Soviet Union into the economic, cultural, and political life of the Free World. Next initiatives require increasingly serious discussions of cooperation and membership between NATO, and former Warsaw Pack countries and former Soviet republics. Finally, the United States must update Cold War plans through cooperative military exercises in Europe and the Mediterranean. This country must wage war, where diplomacy uses overt and clandestine activities to exploit, contradictions, stresses, and tensions between Putin’s ruling elite, and the Russian people and countries with which he needs alliances.
Such progressive, consecutive initiatives establish constraining negotiating positions Putin must consider. Such actions must proceed inexorably, subject to adjustment only following verifiable pacific initiatives for representative government and non-belligerent relationships with neighbors. Effective containment will reveal fragility of a totalitarian rule needing solidification within a disaffected, cynical population. The West must not squander this opportunity to make cruel subjection of Georgia become Putin’s undoing.
The U.S. should do the same thing.
Yeah.... So we are at #7 now?
“The Russian’s are behaving very strangely. Is their behavior an attempt to save face, or do they actually think Poland and the United States will just roll over? Strange.”
I wonder what Putin’s pre-invasion assessment of probable US reaction would be.
I would think, rhetoric notwithstanding, it has to be obvious to them Poland is lost, but Ukraine, and specifically Crimea, are another matter entirely. All it takes is one election in Ukraine and a pro-russian party could grab power.
Russia has their own political and military line to hold and this is just one more rhetorical way to stand against the West. Good question though. What cooperation has Russia given to NATO countries? I do expect an escalation of military technology to Syria and Iran.
It more like glory days of Peter the Great..
Patton was right, and Eisenhower is going to be exposed by historians for his short-sightedness.
We shall see, but unless NATO steps it up and soon, accidents are likely to happen as a result of pure insane hubris.
Once upon a time when Russian missiles lacked 'intercontinental' range, perhaps. Putting nukes in Cuba now would be handing us an excuse to invade.
Now, I could forsee visits by nuclear-armed ships & possibly aircraft.
What will North Korea do, now that it kicked Sweden in the butt?
What was that old saying about Nato? That it was designed to:
1. Keep the Americans in (Europe),
2. The Russians out, and
3. The Germans down.
I fail to see how the calculation has changed much especially with a resurgent Russia.
[wringing hands] - Golly, whatever shall we do NOW?
Fox Oscar, Russkies. I like our chances.
Colonel, USAFR
Here we go again..
Why was the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) bastardized in the first place? Those countries not in North America do not belong. This is just more of the US not minding our own business.
I presume this also means “no more cooperation with the West in securing LOOSE NUKES”. That sucks big time.
Putin’s gone mad if he thinks Russia can control Iran and various terrorist groups, but apparently he’s gambling that Russia would be spared a major terrorist attack. Perhaps there’s been some secret pact of non-aggression, similar to what Italy did with the PLO long ago...but it won’t work.
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