Posted on 09/25/2016 4:32:39 PM PDT by Mariner
Speaking to the US Senate, the Pentagon’s leaders blamed Russia for the Aleppo aid convoy attack, but admitted they “had no facts.” Only US coalition planes should be allowed over Syria, they said, though that would require war against both Syria and Russia.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter and General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, faced the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday to report on the ongoing military operations and “national security challenges” faced by the US. They also asked the senators for more reliable funding, saying the uncertainty was hurting the defense industry.
“Not only our people – our defense industry partners, too, need stability and longer-term plans to be as efficient and cutting-edge as we need them to be,” Carter told the senators.
The lawmakers were far less interested in the war against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) than about the future of the Syrian government, Iran’s “malign influence,” and “aggression” by China and Russia – all ranked far ahead of terrorism on Carter and Dunford’s list of security challenges.
The Pentagon had “no intention” of sharing intelligence with Russia when it came to Syria, Dunford told the lawmakers unequivocally. Secretary Carter explained that the joint implementation councils envisioned by the ceasefire proposal negotiated in Geneva wouldn’t share intelligence, just coordinate efforts – but that they were a moot point anyway, since the ceasefire was effectively dead.
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
Post #6 you nailed it
On a RT thread? If you have to ask . . . .
So true.
I was referring to Obama helping Putin and Russia.
But he certainly has not found a good place to resist them.
Syria is most certainly not the place, and I suggest Ukraine is not either.
The US has no existential interest in either country.
Now, if there was a move on the Baltics we'd be talking about a completely different ballgame.
Now Obama, being stupid and an agent of the international left is spoiling for a fight with Russia anyway, so he'll stand in Syria until relieved.
The US should move all money, men and military assets from Syria to Northern Iraq to surround Mosul and lock in ISIS. Then bulldoze it into the ground.
And get out of Syria.
Obama’s Middle East war crimes continue. Has he asked Congressional permission to do any of the military actions that he has ordered?
He's helped them significantly on missile defense and nukes, via the BS New START (nuke) Treaty, along with the Iran nuke deal that Putin claims to have had a major hand in preparing. At the same time he (Comrade Obama) diminished our own military. If you don't think this was all intentional to help them (Russia) I don't know what else to say to you.
Appeasement: From ObamaCare to recess appointments, honoring the Constitution has not been an administration hallmark. But when it comes to betraying secrets to mollify the Russians, it becomes a document the president hides behind.
It was bad enough that the 2012 defense authorization bill signed by President Obama set America on a downward spiral of military mediocrity.
He also issued a signing statement, something he once opposed, saying that language in the bill aimed at protecting top-secret technical data on the U.S. Standard Missile-3 - linchpin of our missile defense - might impinge on his constitutional foreign-policy authority.
Section 1227 of the defense law prohibits spending any funds that would be used to give Russian officials access to sensitive missile-defense technology as part of a cooperation agreement without first sending Congress a report identifying the specific secrets, how they'd be used and steps to protect the data from compromise.
The president is required to certify that any technology shared will not be passed on to third parties such as China, North Korea or Iran, that the Russians will not use transferred secrets to develop countermeasures and that the Russians are reciprocating in sharing missile-defense technology. ..."
"In his signing statement, Obama said he would treat these legal restrictions as 'non-binding' and that 'my administration will also interpret and implement section 1244 (sic) in a manner that does not interfere with the president's constitutional authority to conduct foreign affairs and avoids the undue disclosure of sensitive diplomatic communications.'
Betraying our secrets is easy for a president who betrayed allies Poland and the Czech Republic to placate Moscow.
Poland was to host ground-based interceptors such as those we've deployed in California and Alaska, with missile-tracking radar deployed in the Czech Republic.
Obama pulled the plug when Moscow objected. Never mind, he said, we have a better approach: a four-phase plan that calls for using three versions of the Navy's Standard SM-3 interceptor missile that forms the backbone of its Aegis missile-defense system.
The fourth phase consists of a missile still on the drawing board scheduled for deployment by 2020, a version of the SM-3 called the Block IIB. It would intercept hostile missiles in the "early intercept" phase before an enemy missile could release its warheads and decoys. The Russians want the SM-3's secrets, and Obama appears to be willing to turn them over.
The president wants to save the New Start Treaty, which the Russians have threatened to abandon if we try to fully implement President Reagan's dream of defeating a nuclear missile attack.
Russia has unilaterally asserted that any qualitative or quantitative improvement in U.S. missile defenses would be grounds for withdrawal from the treaty.
Read More At Investor's Business Daily:
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/010912-597158-obama-gives-russia-missile-defense-secrets.htm#ixzz3jXmMbVwY
Russia has stepped up its military maneuvers to a level unseen since the height of the Cold War, according to a new report released by NATO Thursday.
Jens Stoltenberg, the alliance's secretary general and author of the report, noted that Moscow has conducted at least 18 large-scale exercises over the past three years, "some of which have involved more than 100,000 troops."
Those exercises included several simulated nuclear attacks against NATO allies and partner nations ..."
***********************************************
"...a panel of eastern European leaders lined up to add their own accusations of Russian aggression.
"Every single day, Russian troops, Russian weapons, Russian ammunition penetrate into my country," said Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko.
He addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was not present, saying:
"Mr Putin, this is not a civil war in Ukraine, this is your aggression. This is not a civil war in Crimea, this is your soldiers who occupied my country."
****************************************************************
Sept 7, 2016...
A Russian fighter jet zoomed within just 10 feet of a U.S. Navy spy plane over the Black Sea on Wednesday, the latest in a string of daring maneuvers involving Russian aircraft and the U.S. military, a defense official with knowledge of the incident told Fox News...."
.
The “Peace Dividend!”
.
Drudge headlining “WAR DRUMS OVER SYRIA”
The US *IS* trying to start a war...the CIA is very unhappy: no Syria victory, Jeb’s gone, Hitlery is about to die, the People are awake, and Trump is weeks away from President Trump.
Impressive testimony. Now GTFO of Syria.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beautiful. Exactly.
in 1944, The Constitution and Congress existed and the government wasn’t run by the MB, the CIA (OSS) Director and President weren’t Muslims, etc, etc.
Also, why on earth do we feel that we are the only ones allowed to fly in a no fly zone in Syria and say that Russia can not.
All of these anti Trumpers who freak out and say Trump is going to take us into war are idiots. It is Obama who has used our troops continuously in battles. He just never went to congress to declare or gain authorization for continuous use of our troops in various battles so less attention is brought to the sheeple. He never seeks approval and is beholden to no one or our laws. He is the one behaving as a dictator. He has turned out world upside down. I believe in the US first and foremost. But, Obama has no right to dictate that Russia can not fly while directing our military to do so.
Ahole. YOu don’t have to “go to war” with Syria or Russia re a “No Fly Zone”. Just shoot down the first five planes that violate it and ask the Russians (screw the Syrian butchers), “You just lost 5 trained pilots and about 100 Million Dollars or more worth of planes. Do you want to lose many more or will you back off?”.
Also, take out any Russian checkpoint that stops humanitarian supplies from getting into Aleppo and other cities under siege.
Call it payback for the slaughter of unarmed medical personnel and their helpers in the convoys that either the Syrians or Russian wiped out last week, as well as for the hospitals and medical supply warehouses they bombed.
If Putin isn’t insane, he will respect our will and our position to enforce a “No Fly zone”. If he is insane, then we should send Stinger missiles to the Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic States and trusted Syrian resistance forces.
The Stinger was the weapon that defeated the Russian in Afghanistan, shooting down an unconfirmed 60 Soviet aircraft from helicopters to transports to fighter-bombers, killing dozens of experience Soviet pilots and crewmen, and costing them billions in air losses.
Ask the Spetnaz what happened to them once they lost their air cover. It wasn’t pretty.
I wish it were as simple as what you stated. The fact is, there are so many factions all with differing objectives in Syria it’s hard to know up from down. If we had a strong leader who had come up with a coherent plan years ago, this would have been resolved long before Russia got involved late last year. Putin saw our feckless leader and the continuing weakness of his position and saw an opportunity.
Years ago (like 2013) when Obama drew his line in the sand and Assaad crossed it, I would have supported a strong leader with concrete objectives and a plan put in place to resolve the crisis. Alas, we did not have that then and we do not have that now. So because we don’t and I see no good by us becoming more embroiled, I can’t support further involvement in Syria under the current conditions. It breaks my heart to say it because I know that this situation unresolved will cause further problems down the road for us in the Middle East, but we will have to deal with those issues then. Hopefully, we’ll have a real leader to deal with the future crisis.
“Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio,
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.”
Sure, just start shooting down Russkie warplanes. That’ll show ‘em! What could possibly go wrong?
Stingers to Poland? Stingers? What year do you think this is? What millennium for that matter? Poland is getting the most advanced air defense system in the world, from an outfit called Raytheon. Maybe you heard of ‘em.
“Trusted Syrian resistance forces”? Just WHO might that be? Like those in Al Rai, who humiliated and chased out US special forces? Do “trusted Syrian resistance forces” come from the same place of hopeful imagination which spawned “Moderate Muslims”?
The whole damn thing in Syria is a farce and part of the longstanding overall objective of destabilization which has already hammered Iraq, Libya and Egypt. Iran was to be next after Syria. Blind neocon arrogance was apparently unable to anticipate the Russians throwing a monkey wrench into the works when Russian interests were threatened in Syria. Did the neocons think the Russians would just let Syria be consumed by ISIS and al nusra and other jihadist proxies when it became obvious the US military establishment and the American people had a gut-full of this adventurism?
The US military has been dishonored by those at the top, who sent it into harm’s way to make Afghanistan safe for the heroin base trade, and to remove Iraq as a rival to the Saudi crapbags who Bush made kissy-face with, and Obama bowed to.
I won’t feel better about this situation until we get to the stage of building gallows. Very large gallows, for efficiency...
So true but this isn’t 1944 and the weapons of today are much different as is this US government
“So because we don’t and I see no good by us becoming more embroiled, I can’t support further involvement in Syria under the current conditions.”
Well written position. I must slightly disagree with the premise that we need a”better plan”. In my view we need no plan, at all, ever. Syria is not out business either as a matter of international law or national interest. Isis is our business. If we are invited by the sovereign nation of Syria to kill those bastards , we should do so with great dispatch. The same in Iraq but lets don’t just invade sovereign nations if we want to or we are going to wake up some morning with little Chinese army guys telling us to get out of our homes using the same principle. Our presents in Syria is uninvited!! We are legally invited to help Iraq. Let’s don’t just invade when we want to or ,as I said, we may wake up some morning with a little Chinese army dude pointing a full auto AK at us and telling us to leave our homes citing the same lawless principle that we employed here. Oh and one more little thing— Before we deploy troops in foreign lands for WAR with ANYBODY be sure Congress has approved as required by the CONSTITUTION!!
Well I consider your support of isis much more telling.
Let’s see if we can blunder into a major war in a place that we didn’t know was vital, over an issue so murky that none of us can figure out who we are backing, or why we are involved there in the first place.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.