Posted on 02/15/2015 6:22:35 PM PST by presidio9
'I believe the Russians are mobilizing right now for a war that they think is going to happen in five or six years not that they're going to start a war in five or six years, but I think they are anticipating that things are going to happen, and that they will be in a war of some sort, of some scale, with somebody within the next five or six years."
So says Lt. Gen. Frederick "Ben" Hodges, commander of U.S. Army Europe....
"Strong Europe!" reads a sign on one of the walls. Next to it is the U.S. Army Europe insignia, a burning sword set against a blue shield. The two signs represent the strategic framework the three-star general has introducedbuilding on America's decades-long role on the Continentsince taking command last year of the 30,000 or so U.S. soldiers stationed in Europe.
The U.S. military presence in Europe is more vital at this moment than it has been in many years. American engagement is essential if the West is to deter a revanchist Russia that has set out to "redraw the boundaries of Europe," Gen. Hodges says with a native Floridian's drawl....
The Russians have "got some forces in Transnistria," he says of the state that broke away from Moldova in the 1990s. "They've got forces in Georgia. And I think they view China as their existential threat, so they've got a lot of capacity out there." The Russian military is thus already somewhat stretched, and Moscow had to carve out from existing units the battalion task groups currently arrayed near eastern Ukraine. Yet "they are clearly on a path to develop, to increase, their capacity," Gen. Hodges says. Add to this expansion that "they've got very good equipment, extremely good communications equipment, their [electronic-warfare] capability, T-80 tanks." How long will it take for Russia to reach its desired military strength? "I think within another two or three years they will have that capacity," he says.. -SNIP-
Why are you such a douche? Can you ever engage in a conversation without sounding like a world class asshat?
Kinda like what your saying...
Never heard of it, but I generally respect what I read from Peters. I haven't read fiction in years, but I'll keep my eye out for it. Thanks.
So you believe Reagan should have said "Mr. Gorbachev - the wall is exactly in the right place!"
The tarbaby that you are engaged with is ignoring the fact that military hardware has a definite lifespan. In other words, past expenditures are often irrelevant if tanks and planes and ships can not be replaced when they become obsolete or are used in ongoing conflicts. Additionally, cutbacks have led to the forced retirement of many of our most promising officers. A friend of mine (who graduated from West Point) was an artillery commander until last year. He had three tours, and the intention of making a career in the military. He was downsized last year, and is now making about five times as much money on Wall Street. Short of all-out war, he will never return. And there are thousands more just like him.
No doubt the answer will depend on the idiotic premise that FR is just chock-filled with people who have nothing better to do with their time than to hang out on this increasingly irrelevant website and canvass for Vladimir Putin.
Russia’s propaganda does include a social media aspect, they pay people to troll sites pushing Putinism. Not that it happens here, but on some threads it can seem like paid trolling.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/documents-show-how-russias-troll-army-hit-america
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/375899/putins-propaganda-campaign-jillian-kay-melchior
Here's how President Obama's head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and author of "Repulblic.com," Cass Sunstein, describes FreeRepublic.com as "group polarization," where people segregate themselves so effectively online with other like-minded thinkers that they create an echo chamber where the group's worst and most malevolent opinions get reinforced and strengthened. "We might want to consider," Sunstein startlingly told the Times recently, "the possibility of ways of requiring or encouraging sites to link to opposing viewpoints."
http://dir.salon.com/story/politics/feature/2001/06/25/freepers/
The Wiesel if a very smart and capable vehicle. It was designed to be delivered by helicopter, and has a wire guided anti tank missile launcher in addition to GPMG’s. Small, fast, easily hidden in defilade, and deadly.
It’s a little more complicated than that: some are paleos, some are paultards, some are peaceniks/isolationists, some are putinistas, and some see a conspiracy behind everything (the bankers, etc.). That they all toe the Kremlin line simply makes calling them Russians a form of shorthand.
Obama's attack on our armed forces has been devastating. While not on the level of Stalin's 1930's purges of his military, it isn't far behind regarding how crippling it is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge
Russia has been running a propaganda war against Ukraine since before the revolution!
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/375899/putins-propaganda-campaign-jillian-kay-melchior
I have relatives in southern Siberia, near Lake Baikal. I’ll see what I can find out about this.
I appreciate the effort GeronL, but the story that you just posted was from 2001.
The issue is the current balance of power, and America is vastly superior to Russia, and it has an additional 27 nations in the alliance.
LOL, well said.
As I look at your posts I see that you post a lot about me, but don’t ping me, that is pretty sleazy don’t you think?
You have been at FR long enough to know better.
Your posting history indicates a person desperately in need of professional help.
That is not an insult, it is my sincere wish for you.
Until you resolve seek it, my main concern is that interacting with you will only contribute to your obvious personal problems.
LOL, That only reinforced how trolllike you are.
You don’t have anything to say but personal attacks and talking behind freepers backs without pinging them?
You want to post about freepers and carry personal grudges evidently, instead of posting about the thread topic?
Why not try to follow FR policy and ping someone if you are going to post about them, and try not to carry whatever old grudge you seem to have, from thread to thread, and to try and stay on topic, rather than purely making personal attacks?
Of course judging from your posts, you don’t think too much of FR anyway, and consider it irrelevant.
I’m done here. Best of luck to you Ansel.
So post 218 was a perfectly accurate description.
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