As over the top rhetoric can be used to convince NATO nations to impoverish their people further in order to enrich defense contractors! Obama worries NATO allies spending less on defense
President Barack Obama says he's concerned that some NATO allies are reducing their spending on defense.Obama says for collective defense to work, everybody has to pitch in. Obama says NATO can't just be a U.S. or British exercise. Obama says the situation in Ukraine, in his words, "reminds us that our freedom isn't free.
Explaining why it is the media is pushing the alleged threat from Russia. Though there doesn't appear to be any real threat."Freedom isn't free"- Statements such as 'freedom isn't free' reinforce the necessity for war- which has nothing to do with freedomUkraine to overhaul military- Ukrainian tanks sit on a train as they prepare to depart from Crimea to Ukraine
350 Ukrainian tanks in Crimea dated back to the 1970s and would be of little use to Russia's armed forces.
Recall this video being passed around as proof of an imminent Russian invasion? It would seem more likely the tanks shown on the train tracks, in the video, are the very same tanks being moved from Crimea, Russia back to Ukraine.Besides the rusting tanks, Ukraine also retained two highly trained special ops units
Igor Sutyagin, a research fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, said in spite of the personnel drain, Ukraine scored a notable coup in retaining its crack Interior Minister troops. "There were at least two highly trained, highly effective special operations units deployed in Crimea, and they are terribly dangerous for anybody," he said.
Wonder if they were dangerous for protestors and police alike at Maidan. Just a thought?NATO plans to send 'military advisers' to Ukraine
NATO’s former Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen did not rule out sending mobile groups of military instructors to Ukraine. However, he excluded the possibility of sending NATO’s armed forces to Ukraine.
If they haven't already? Along with those European military uniforms?Recall? Is NATO prepping to launch guerilla/irregular war attacks into Russia?
Meanwhile... Chuck Hagel: Asia Pivot is still on
After his meetings in Hawaii, which will include soft-power sessions on trade and disaster relief as well as military cooperation, Hagel will head to Japan and China for thornier talks about security problems, including territorial conflict over islands in the East China Sea.Hagel’s trip is a deliberate statement to those who think the crisis in Ukraine means the administration should delay its long-promised pivot to Asia or even pivot back toward Europe again.That won’t happen, Hagel insists. The U.S. will stand by its NATO allies in any confrontation with Russia, he said, but there’s no plan to increase American troop strength in Europe.
The White House has ballyhooed its actions in ordering U.S. military units to bolster Eastern Europe after Russia’s seizure of Crimea. But in fact, they haven’t amounted to much: 18 fighter jets deployed to Poland and Lithuania, an extended Black Sea cruise for a Navy destroyer and about 300,000 prepackaged field rations (but no weapons) for the Ukrainian armed forces.U.S. support for Ukraine “has not pulled any assets away” from Asia or any other region, Hagel noted.
Even if Russia moves troops into eastern Ukraine, Hagel said, the United States is staying out.
Why would the US need to bolster troops? They are plenty of Ukrainian nationals who are more then willing to fight. An ability already amply demonstrated when they overthrew an elected government and other Ukrainians can simply be drafted? Because "freedom isn't free"
Ukraine has declared general mobilization. Secretary of the National Security and Defense of Ukraine, Andrey Paruby, reported that mobilization would be conducted across the whole country. All people liable for military service will receive draft notices and will have to come to local military committees on March 2