Crossposted from The American Freedomist

Russia Threatens WAR Over Missile Shield, Moves Forces Into Med.

September 1, 2008 8:40 AM- Russia’s Putin says today that if Europe imposes any sanctions they will re-route all gas and oil from Europe over to the Far`East in a blatant violation of many previous promises that they would never use energy as a weapon.

Meanwhile, there are reports that Russian forces are leaving most of Georgia excluding Poti, Abkazia, and Ossetia.

William R Collier Jr. The American Freedomist

The BIG headline of the day should not be about Obama or the normal droll that passes as “news” these days, the blaring headline should be that Russia, Syria, and Iran are all headed towards a military confrontation with Israel and the Urkraine and that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said Russia will have to respond militarily to the deployment of elements of a U.S. missile shield in Central Europe, according to RIA Novosti.

“These missiles are close to our borders and constitute a threat to us,” Medvedev said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television on Tuesday. “This will create additional tension and we will have to respond to it in some way, naturally using military means.”

The assumption has been that Russia would attack Poland itself, but this assumption ignores where Russian forces, especially naval and air, are concentrated: in the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean although Russia has considerable resources in Kaliningrad.

The Russians have been steadily increasing their military capabilities in Kallinigrad, an enclave of land claimed by Germany (Konigsbirg), Poland, and Lithuania which Russia had promised would be weapons free in the early 90’s but which has been beefed up as a dagger pointing at Polan and Lithuania.

Kaliningrad Oblast is the site of tens of thousands of Russian ground and air forces equipped with 1100 main battle tanks, 1300 armored combat vehicles, dozens of Scud and SS-21 surface-to-surface missiles, and 35 advanced Su-27 fighter aircraft, among other modern weapons. Some of these weapons still carry nuclear payloads. There are well over 100,000 troops crammed into this tiny enclave which is 200 miles or so from Russia, separated by Lithuanian and Polish territory.

Kaliningrad Oblast is the headquarters of the Russian Navy’s Baltic Fleet and the site of one of its two main naval bases in the region, Baltiisk. The Baltic Fleet does not include any strategic missile submarines, but it does include 32 major surface combatants (3 cruisers, 3 destroyers, and 26 frigates), more than 230 other surface vessels, roughly 200 naval aircraft, 9 tactical submarines, and a brigade of naval infantry.

Moscow is beefing up its military presence in the Mediteranean, particularly the Eastern Med., by sending their only aircraft carrier “Admiral Kuznetsov” from its home base in Murmansk, to the Mediterranean and the Syrian port of Tartus and into Georgia’s territorial waters, including the port of Poti. President Bashar Assad of Syria recently agreed to a deal to place Russian surface to surface missiles in Syria while Russia has also announced their intentions to place these same missiles in Kalliningrad, a potential Hot Spot with ties to Germany and neighbors, Poland and Lithuania, which is divided from Russia but which has a vital port that is utilized by the Russian Navy.

The United States has responded somewhat timidly, sending in its own flotilla of three warships, one being the Coast Guard cutter Dallas, to provide humanitarian aide to Georgia. America’s decision to redirect its Georgia aid warship from Russian-controlled Poti port to Georgian-controlled Batumi Wednesday, August 27 – on direct orders from the Pentagon - did not cool the escalating tension between the two powers. As soon as the US Coast Guard cutter Dallas docked with 34 tons of humanitarian aid, three Russian missile boats, led by the Moskva missile cruiser, anchored at the Black Sea port of Sukhumi, capital of breakaway Abkhazia, to the north for what the Russians called “peacekeeping operations.”

In Moscow, Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn said NATO had exhausted the number of forces it can deploy in the Black Sea under international agreements. He warned Western nations against sending more ships. “NATO – which is not a state located in the Black Sea” cannot continuously increase its forces and systems there, he said. Russia has also announced that any vessels that enter the Georgian Port of Poti will be searched.

Russian Navy chief, Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky announced Sunday, Aug. 24, that its warships in the Mediterranean region have been placed under the command of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

By linking up the warships in the Black sea, now we know why the Russians sent the flotilla (the Moskva was part of that flotilla), the Russians have essentially placed their entire naval operations in the region on a war footing. Israeli and American military commanders in the region are concerned that this may lead to hostilities, even unintentional, with all these warships jostling about in a relatively small space.

Another major concern is the Crimea which some fear will soon be targeted, despite a recent, and dramatic, announcement by the Brutish Foreign Office and other by both NATO and the G7 that they would not tolerate any violation of Ukrainian territorial sovereignty. The general message was that Russia would be making a mistake if they learned “the wrong lesson” from Georgia: a clear sign that in the minds of some Russia fait accompli in Georgia is becoming an irreversible fact.

Russia’s ally, Iran, has also been busy, integrating its missile command with that of Syria and placing an Iranian early warning system in Lebanon. What is wore, Western military and intelligence were shocked to learn that Iran has plans and the right technology for making a nuclear warhead that could fit onto its Shehab-3 missiles. The discovery was released by the former UN weapons inspector, David Albright.

While US news adores Barack Obama or focuses on news about abduction, missing children, or Hollywood starlets the world outside seems to be moving steadily towards some form of confrontation.

Marines in Afghanistan Weigh In On A Life at War on NPR News
by Ivan Watson

Photo by David Gilkey/NPR

Lance Cpl. Michael Ertle, right, a Marine in Garmsir district, says "The hardest thing for us is to go home and not be supported for what we're doing over here, whether they agree with the war or they don't agree with the war, we're still here fighting for their rights."

This is a must watch video here.

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All Things Considered, June 25, 2008 · When compared to Iraq, the conflict in Afghanistan is often described as the forgotten war.

The U.S. military has 33,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan, and has lost 448 service members there since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001.

Last month, 1,500 Marines were sent to attack a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan's southern Garmsir district. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit captured Garmsir from the Taliban after 30 days of constant fighting.

Now, their mission is to stabilize the region. Meanwhile, they're dealing with strenuous living conditions and wondering what's happening back home.

Fighting the Heat and Dirt

In the Dari language, Garmsir means hot weather.

The Marines in Garmsir spend a lot of time talking about the heat. A thermometer flat-lined one particular day, when temperatures reached 135 degrees Fahrenheit in the sun.

"It's even too hot at night for the mosquitoes," says one Marine.

They live in crude mud-wall compounds. There are no sewage system, no telephones, no electricity — these young men have been sleeping in the dirt for weeks.

But the Marines have come up with a trick to beat the Afghan heat.

Lance Cpl. Brian Archer sticks water bottles in a wet cotton sock.

"Piece of cloth, wrap up a hot drink in it, well water over it, let the wind hit it. Be like an hour or two. And it feels like you just pulled it out of the fridge. It's great," he explains.

Changing the Meaning of Politics

In this hostile environment, Archer says he feels worlds away from the debates over Iraq and Afghanistan in the U.S. presidential campaign.

"It really is almost irrelevant, too," he says. "When we get here, you know, you know that war, all it is is old men talking and young men dying. That's all we see. So, it calms down politics a lot of when you're out here."

Like many of the Marines in Garmsir, Cpl. Cody Bazanech was in eighth grade when the Sept. 11 terror attacks took place.

Six years later, Bazanech is patrolling on foot through fields of waist-high, opium poppies.

"I do what I have to do," he says. "Signed the contract. … I'm fighting for these people's rights. And I can do that because these people deserve the same rights that we have in our country."

But many of the Marines worry that Americans back home don't know what they're doing in Afghanistan.

"People should know kinda what we're doing over here probably a little more than they are," says Mason Bennet, a Navy medic. "It seems like they're focusing a lot more on Iraq right now than they are on Afghanistan. People call this the forgotten war. They need to know what's going on here, I guess."

Afghanistan and Iraq

About a third of the Marines in this company have done previous tours of duty in Iraq.

Cpl. Dennis James says the living conditions there are more comfortable, but the enemy in Iraq is more dangerous.

"The people in Iraq are sneaky," he says. "They hide amongst the crowd. These guys, you know who's gonna shoot at you, you know who's not. But in Iraq you're right there, next thing you're getting shot. Anything can happen in Iraq."

Lance Cpl. Michael Ertle, from Fleet, Ohio, has been to Iraq, too.

"Having been both places, I don't want this place to become another Iraq," he says. "I don't want us to become an occupational force. And we're leaning toward that big time in Iraq."

Sgt. Christopher Nipper says he expects to be sent to Iraq next year, after he finishes up this tour in Afghanistan.

"I'd like to see more action from the politicians versus talking," he says, "because they've been talking now for seven to eight years with very little resolve. The conflict in Iraq's been going on for five years now; the Afghanistan thing's been going on with the U.S. and other countries now since 2001."

But for now, the Marines have come up with a temporary solution to the homesickness and boredom in Garmsir.

On one particular day, the group bought several sheep from a passing Afghan shepherd and cobbled together a barbecue. They took a 50-gallon drum, cut it in half and made a grill.

The Marines ate lamb chops and — for a few hours — forgot about the heat.

I originally posted this in Sept 2007. I just updated the date

so we could see and appreciate this truth again.

 This boy knows who will not kill him

and who will save him

Look at the US Soldier standing upright and

alert while everyone else runs!

Picture2 iraq boy

A picture of the scene after a bombing in

Picture1 Iraq boy

5 comments

This is a lecture by Rick Santorum