Posted on 08/30/2014 8:50:50 PM PDT by Semper911
As Russian troops and armored columns advance in Eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian government begs for aid from the free world it hoped would receive it and protect it as one of its own. The leaders of the free world, meanwhile, are struggling to find the right terminology to free themselves from the moral responsibility to provide that protection. Putin’s bloody invasion of a sovereign European nation is an incursion, much like Crimea — remember Crimea? — was an “uncontested arrival” instead of Anschluss. A civilian airliner was blown out of the sky just six weeks ago –—remember MH17? — and with more than 100 victims still unidentified the outrage has already dissipated into polite discussions about whether it should be investigated as a crime, a war crime, or neither.
This vocabulary of cowardice emanating from Berlin and Washington today is as disgraceful as the black-is-white propaganda produced by Putin’s regime, and even more dangerous. Moscow’s smokescreens are hardly necessary in the face of so much willful blindness. Putin’s lies are obvious and expected. European leaders and the White House are even more eager than the Kremlin to pretend this conflict is local and so requires nothing more than vague promises from a very safe distance.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
I wish there was a warehouse somewhere. I know a tank museum where there is a few Shermans and M3 Stuarts but that’s about it. B-) B-P There might by a German King Tiger tank too. B-)
If Obama had been President during World War II, we’d all be speaking German today...
Russia is no match for NATO.
“Today, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany alone field more divisions than Russia has in its Western Military District. These countries are backstopped by the rest of NATO, including, of course, the United States.”
“Russia’s occupation of Crimea has created new interest in an issue that was once at the heart of U.S. security policy but has been on hiatus for more than 20 years — the military balance in Europe. The American military presence in Europe has declined precipitously, and its NATO allies universally have slashed the sizes of their defense establishments. This has led to some concerns that the West’s ability to deter Russia is weaker, even far weaker, than it was during the Cold War.
The truth is actually quite the opposite: Despite the smaller number of U.S. troops in Europe, the military balance there is far more favorable to NATO today than it was when nearly 10 times as many American soldiers, sailors and airmen were stationed on the continent. The reason for this is simple and obvious: the disastrous — from Moscow’s point of view — revision of the overall European security environment that began in the early 1990s.
With unrest continuing in Ukraine, the West can take some comfort in its modern day military advantage over Russia in Europe. And though numbers alone may not deter Russia from further adventurism, the shift in the balance of forces has been remarkable over the past two decades.
According to the International Institute of Strategic Studies’ “Military Balance” publication — a widely-used and well-respected unclassified compendium of information about the world’s armed forces — in 1989, just before the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet Union deployed a total of 64 divisions in what was then known as its “Western Theater of Military Operations.” These are the Russian forces that would have been hurled at NATO in an attack on Western Europe. They would have been reinforced by another 700,000 troops from the USSR’s three frontline Warsaw Pact allies, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. In all, more than 100 divisions would have been available for a drive into West Germany and beyond. The six countries committed to defending NATO’s front lines — West Germany, the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands — meanwhile deployed only 21 or so divisions in Germany. While NATO divisions were generally somewhat larger than their Warsaw Pact counterparts and reinforcement would have been forthcoming from the United States, the disparity along the East-West frontier was nonetheless huge.
Consider the situation today. East Germany no longer exists, while Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and every one of Russia’s other erstwhile Warsaw Pact partners are now members of NATO. So are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which in 1989 were parts of the Soviet Union itself. In 1989, the Red Army had almost a half-million troops and 27 maneuver divisions (plus enormous quantities of artillery and other units) on the territory of its three main allies. Today, it has a total of seven divisions in its entire Western Military District, all of which are based on its own territory. Indeed, the entire Russian army today boasts about 25 divisions, fewer than it had forward deployed in its Eastern European allies during the waning days of the Cold War.
Today, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany alone field more divisions than Russia has in its Western Military District. These countries are backstopped by the rest of NATO, including, of course, the United States. And this raw count doesn’t take into account the general deterioration of Russian forces since 1991, a quarter-century that saw little equipment modernization. By the late 1980s, NATO already enjoyed a significant qualitative advantage over the Warsaw Pact, and that edge has only increased since then. “
It took some commitment to serve on that weapon.
Many people don’t realize that we had a number of GIs that were in a position of being doomed, or that were faced with deadly, almost suicidal missions, during the Cold War against Russia.
Don’t despair. Russian bodies are piling up. Initially, those were mercenaries and spec-ops, but that wasn’t enough against Ukraine, so now they’re starting to call up the regular Army forces. I’m setting the target number of 10-15,000 dead Russians before Putin will stop, because the percentage of Russians who do support war against Ukraine is low, at 5%. Don’t rule out a “terrorist attack by Ukrainians” against Russian civilians to trump up that number. Also what Ukraine has going for her is the use of her Air Force. Plains are getting shot down, but the air strikes are still effective. Lastly, there’s low support in the population for DNR and Russian “liberation”
Obama's owners are various foreign tyrannical powers. They are anti American and anti freedom.
About Ukraine...Obama and Putin are on the same side. They been that way the entire time.
i haven’t heard anything lately about Ukraine using it’s Airforce, are they?
They don’t have much of an air force, they have some MiG-29’s that were recently being repaired.
Remember this country has been mercilessly looted by Russians for more than a decade, only earlier this year did they finally throw off that yoke.
Then they were invaded. Not much time to rebuild a military force.
You know they’re using it because the plains are getting shot down. One Su-25 was shot down this past week
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