This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Foreign Policy

  • Tension Ratchets Up in the Eastern Ukraine

    It appears that the situation in the eastern Ukraine is getting quite tense.

    The current acting president of the Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, has announced the beginning of what he termed “anti-terrorist” operations at various locations in the eastern Ukraine.  Those targeted by Ukrainian forces in these operations appear to be Ukrainian militias with pro-Russian sympathies that have occupied Ukrainian government facilities.

    The Ukraine government alleges Russia is behind the unrest in the eastern Ukraine.   Dissidents in the eastern Ukraine are indeed demanding closer ties to Russia and flying the Russian flag at “liberated” facilities, so the allegation is plausible.

    However, the eastern Ukraine has historically tended to look north to Moscow vice west to Europe, and has far closer ties to Moscow than does the western Ukraine.  It is also the portion of the Ukraine that most strongly supported the former Russian-leaning Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted by pro-Western demonstrations earlier this year.  There thus may well be a large element of local discontent in the eastern Ukraine with pro-Western policies being dictated by the current Kiev government.

    At least two have died in the eastern Ukrainian unrest so far.  The Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has called the Ukraine “on the brink of civil war”.  Russia has thousands of troops near the eastern borders of the Ukraine.

    The Ukrainian government has asked for the deployment of UN Peacekeeping troops in the eastern Ukraine.  However, with Russia holding veto power over UN Security Council resolutions, the prospect of that happening is almost certainly essentially nil.

    It looks like this could indeed get ugly if someone guesses wrong.  Hopefully we (the US) will have the good sense to stay the hell out of this, militarily.

  • Russian “Fencer” buzzes USS Donald Cook in Black Sea

    Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer Wallpaper 2

    ROS sends us a link to the Associated Press which reports that an Russian Su-24 Fencer, a fighter aircraft, buzzed the US destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, fairly close, too;

    In the first public account of the incident, the officials said the Russian Fencer made 12 passes, and flew within 1,000 yards of the USS Donald Cook, a Navy destroyer, at about 500 feet above sea level.

    The U.S. warship issued several radio queries and warnings using international emergency circuits, but the Russian aircraft did not respond.

    […]

    The fighter appeared to be unarmed and never was in danger of coming in contact with the ship, said the officials. The passes, which occurred in the early evening there, ended without incident. A second Russian fighter jet flew at a higher altitude and was not a concern, said [Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman].

    Of course, the real danger is if the Russians continue this and up the ante by getting closer with an armed aircraft and the crew of the Donald Cook feel threatened. It’s just Vlad reminding us of the Cold War, though.

    The Obama Administration should restart talks with Poland for a missile shield and that would nip this all in the bud.

    030420-N-6141B-009

  • More Troubles in the Ukraine

    While the western portions of the Ukraine – which have historical ties to Poland and other nations to their west – remain quiet, the same isn’t true for the Ukraine’s eastern provinces.  Those parts of the Ukraine have closer historical ties to Russia, and are becoming unruly.

    Pro-Russia protestors in Donetsk, Lugansk, and Kharkiv stormed Ukrainian government offices yesterday, taking them over.  In Lugansk, they freed a number of pro-Russian activists previously arrested by Ukrainian police for allegedly plotting to take over government buildings using “arms and explosives”.   In Kharkiv, police reportedly refused to stop protestors from entering government buildings in strength.

    Pro-Russia protestors in these regions have called for a referendum on rejoining Russia similar to that held in the Crimea when the Ukraine holds snap Presidential elections in late may.  Those regions also were strong supporters of the now-deposed former President of the Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych.

    I’m sure our “nuanced and astute” POTUS and SECSTATE have something uniquely effective planned in the event that the eastern Ukraine tries to break away from the central/western Ukraine and rejoin Russia.  After all, their response to the situation in Crimea last month was as effective King Canute’s orders to the tide.

    Yeah, it looks like this one could get . . . pretty interesting before it calms down.  Might want to stay tuned.

  • Pollard to Be Freed?

    CNN is reporting that’s a possibility.

    I’d best shut the hell up now before I say something I’ll later regret.

  • Koreas exchange artillery

    south-korea-koreas-tensionjpeg-06992_s640x445

    The Associated Press reports that the North and South Koreas have fired back and forth across their sea borders, the South, of course, responding to the hermit kingdom’s opening volleys;

    No shells from either side were fired at any land or military installations, an official with South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. He provided no other details and spoke on condition of anonymity because of office rules.

    Kang Myeong-sung, speaking from a shelter on Yeonpyeong island, which is in sight of North Korean territory, said that anxious islanders were huddled together in shelters. Kang said he didn’t see any fighter jets, but he could hear the boom of artillery fire. In 2010, North Korean artillery killed four South Koreans on Yeonpyeong.

    So, there’s not enough going on in the world, now there’s this. I guess it’s what happens when we focus entirely on domestic issues and just leave John Kerry jetting around reacting to foreign policy policy. Maybe we should send Jimmy Carter to North Korea with bags of money to pay off NDtBF.

  • You Get What You Pay For

    The effects of Defense wide cuts is far reaching. As this US News Article discusses.

    “We’re an 11-carrier Navy in a 15-carrier world.” Army General Martin Dempsey said.

    According to Marine General John Kelly, his command is, “unable to get after 74 percent of suspected maritime drug smuggling.”

    Our budgets are being cut so tight that we are unable to accomplish the ever increasing global missions that we are being tasked to accomplish. This is an ultimate consequence of the success of our military and the generations that came before. They have established a sense of security within our borders that fosters the idea that we no longer need the military. That is a nice idea, and 9/11 should have been a reminder of that, but as a nation we have a short term memory.

    There will come a point when we as a nation are again reminded that the world is not a friendly place and we can’t solve problems by throwing money at them. Well, throwing money at other people, while failing to invest in ourselves, our infrastructure and our ability to defend it. The issues in Crimea are highlighting the failure of that thought process, and I hope that we won’t have to solve that problem with physical intervention. Stalin, however, does seem to be trying the west/America’s patience, just to see what he can get away with.

    At the rate we are going, however, with more budget cuts, we won’t have much left to fight with. Our military will be poorly equipped, understaffed and under trained. Hopefully, our enemies will just be happy that we keep developing new iPhones and still make great movies, and just leave us to our own devices.

     

  • Our European allies

    russia-ukraine

    The Obama Administration has decided that they’re going to lean forward on the Crimea situation and position more US forces closer to the area according to the Associated Press;

    President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, said NATO was aiming to provide “a continuous presence to reassure our allies.” While he would not detail specific countries where the additional resources would be sent, he noted that the U.S. was particularly focused on efforts to bolster Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.

    Rhodes briefed reporters as Obama traveled to Rome from Brussels, where he met with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, as well as European Union leaders. In a speech from the heart of Europe, Obama declared the crisis in Ukraine a global “moment of testing.”

    An admirable goal, but according to the Washington Post, our European allies, you know, the folks who live in the neighborhood and have more skin in the game, aren’t interested in bolstering security in the region according to the Washington Post;

    But even with officials acknowledging the danger, they are reluctant to respond by reversing planned cuts in military spending that were enacted when Europe was more stable.

    “The hope is still there that political and diplomatic means will succeed. And budgets are still tight,” said Michael Clarke, director general of the London-based Royal United Services Institute. “There’s also a sense in Europe that we lived in the Soviet shadow for 50 years, and we learned not to overreact.”

    Indeed, there’s strong sentiment in Europe against any kind of response to Russia that would set off a new Cold War. With most Europeans regarding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as failures, voters would rather see their governments focus on domestic spending than risk getting entangled in another foreign conflict.

    So they’re perfectly happy to live under the old Cold War defensive umbrella that the US provided without reinforcing their own measures. And the reason that Afghanistan and Iraq failed, to some degree, was because of the socialists in Europe and their failure to recognize the importance of the mission. Maybe instead of leaning forward, the US should continue our withdrawal from Europe and let the Euro-wienies fend for themselves on the world stage.

    The life of one American is not worth the whole continent of Europe.

  • That “regional power” Russia

    obama-romney

    Pinto Nag sends us a link to NBC News in which they quote the President at a news conference in The Hague today when he was asked if he had reconsidered the now-famous Mitt Romney quote about the Russians being our “number one geopolitical foe”. The President responded;

    “Russia’s actions are a problem,” he said at a joint press conference at the Hague with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. “They don’t pose the number one national security threat to the United States. I continue to be much more concerned when it comes to our security with the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan.”

    You can see that in the video;

    You know what I’ve noticed over the last few decades? I noticed that most of the terrorists have unfettered access to Russian AK-47 rifles. I noticed that Saddam Hussein’s armies had Soviet tanks and personnel carriers. We uncovered mountains of Soviet NBC equipment in Iraq. I remember that the Euro-terrorist groups in Europe and Japan had Soviet support, with weapons and explosives. I remember that the old Soviet Union funded the terrorist training camps in Libya and Palestine. All of that with the goal of destabilizing the West, courtesy of the KGB (Putin’s former employer).

    Currently, the Russians protect the Syrian government and the Iran government in the United Nations while providing less-visible support.

    If a nuclear weapon were detonated in New York City, where is it most likely to have originated? And who would benefit most from it? The President is hinting that terrorism is our greatest threat, but what terrorists? Not al Qaeda – before the 2012 presidential elections, he told us they had been decimated, but he still considers them our greatest threat, now?

    He added that Russia’s move to annex Crimea is not a “done deal,” noting its rejection by most of the international community.

    Yeah, well, at least I remember the Cold War and how well the “international community” kept the Soviet Union in line.