it's all propaganda for the super gullible Russian people who need to be distracted that Putin is stealing billions from them.
I've seen estimates of 70-200 billion that Putler "earned". Who knows what he really has tho, it's the in the B's for sure, stolen money spread across many different foreign accounts. Probably 40 on the low end and 200 on the high end. Not bad for a former KGB agent. That kind of money of course buys you hitmen and gets rid of problems like most recently Nemtsov. They blamed it on the Chechens, of course. Mhhhmm.
I'm guessing it's similar to the billions that "elected" gangster Vicente Fox walked away with in Mexico. Both have facilitated organized crime in their countries for personal gain. I may be wrong, though, because Putin has had dealings with Arabs that are wealthier than God.
Enough is Enough! http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/16/politics/russian-jet-barrel-rolled-us-aircraft/index.html Next time this shit happens, track the plane with radar and go weapons free. They want to play games? Lets play! If Turkey shot down two, I'm pretty sure we can equal that and supply bullshit excuses just like they do. Lets see who blinks. Since reason doesn't work, time to go back to basics.
This type of continued activity doesn't happen without executive approval, or whatever passes for it in the United Russian Gangster State. Painting radar on a fighter plane is fun, but it's also kind of similar to blazing fly-bys on warships. If a fighter buzzes your ship twice, you fucking shoot that asshole down the third time if you don't want everyone onboard to think you are flying the rainbow flag. You were just provoked as an act of war. No matter what any brainless Miami faggots seem to think.
We all do. Sometimes you're not given a choice.. When Reason and logic fails, what are the options? Just like this election, there's no good options to choose from.
That's common sense. I'd prefer not to be cut off on the highway 5 times on my way to work. Sometimes you can't avoid things that are going to happen regardless. We could have the most diplomatic administration in the history of Earth government and it wouldn't change the fact that Vladimir Putin is an ex-KGB agent who is trying to line his pockets with gangsterbucks and also trying to intimidate anyone who gets in his way. And hey, it doesn't help that our own government is playing the same game in a different way, but guess what? This war has been coming for 100 years. It's going to happen. It's inevitable. I agree that it sucks, though. It'll be 2 super powers fighting each other on foreign soil, at least to start.
What Moscow wants? Why do they feel they can get it now? 2 key questions, especially the latter. I'm sure there is a list of what Putin might want, but why does he feel that now is the time to press. Either has something or knows something. Conspiracy theory, I know.
War with Russia isn't to our advantage at this point. The Russians have many more assets in reach of low-hanging fruit that we'd rather they didn't try to take. The American public is by and large sick of overseas ventures at the moment also. We'd go in grumbling at best, particularly if the flashpoint in the war looked like something that could have been avoided. We wouldn't have a nuclear fight on our hands we'd have a long grind 'em out venture and no guarantees that we could actually do that and bring the conflict to a reasonable conclusion. Most of the 80's planning for WWIII would be useless because the Russians wouldn't be invading Western Europe, they'd be taking small countries that had slipped out of their grasp over the last two decades and then fortifying and making us dig them out, frequently with large partisan minorities allied with them and making our advances into "friendly" territory much more hazardous and risky than they'd have been if Western Europe was the target. They'd be holding mock elections in the countries they took to try to legitimize their rule, all under Russian military aegis that guaranteed the results. They'd be advancing in some places where we had no natural port of entry or neighboring ally to counter them from. It would be an expensive and bloody undertaking on our part with no clear victory in sight. The Russians meanwhile would solidify popular support at home and have the very real prospect of retaking some of the old Soviet Empire in a manner that guaranteed it wouldn't slip away easily again. Not that we couldn't win the war if we made a major effort but is that really where we want to be at this point? What would we do if the Chinese chose to act out in a big way while we were so engaged?
All of this would not require Russian warplains playing cat and mouse with our ships. If Putin decided it was time to occupy something, he'd just do it. This has a smell of one of 2 things. 1. Russians got their paws on some radically new military technology, akin to A-bomb back in 40s. 2. They have some very seriously damaging intel. This to me has a feel of "remember that shit we talked about last week? Well, put up or else"
The new technology could just be new tactics instead. How do you fight a war in a world in which borders have loosened as much as they have over the last two decades? What is the Western answer to a flow of men in plain clothes infiltrating countries formerly held by the Soviet Union and in which large cooperating allied minorities are assisting them? That's what happened before the Crimea annexation. It threatened to happen to other parts of Eastern Ukraine after the annexation. The days of "papers please" are kind of over in that part of the world, at least for the moment.
That's very insightful, in a theoretical kind of way, but doesn't explain the need to fly over US warship. If Putin wanted to start infiltrating countries, he'd just do it.
The need to provoke before you start a war is ingrained when you're not sure what the conclusion will be. If Putin just starts WWIII and loses it the results will be catastrophic for his vision of the world moving forward. If he starts it without a legitimate casus belli and things grind to a standstill he will be at a disadvantage as the aggressor who started the war. Russia hasn't been able to respond well to NATO's political march to the East because none of the NATO acquisitions have represented a clear breach of international law. Putin might well be looking for a clear event on which to base his declaration of hostilities. If Russia rolls into former Soviet Republics they undoubtedly will do so claiming to be acting in the interests of Russians living in those countries. Having a clear incident to tie the beginning of hostilities too, in which Russia can at least claim not to have precipitated the event, is probably of sufficient political advantage to go fishing for. It's no accident that the recent provocations are all in the vicinity of countries in which the US has recently deployed minor forces as a show of Western resolve. If an accident happens Putin could claim that it is the result of the West putting forces in play in places that they were not previously deployed on a regular basis. He could argue that Russia was just countering passive aggression from NATO. The point is that over the last decade or so NATO has put a lot of pressure on Russia's western and southern borders, mainly by co-opting former Soviet Republics and having them join the alliance or begin cooperating with it. Now NATO is pressuring the northern Russian sphere of influence in the Baltic and that's a very dangerous place to be doing that. The Baltic has the possibility of turning into a Russian air advantage zone in an hurry given what is perceived as a US instigated war there. There's no guarantee at all that Finland, Sweden and Norway will let US planes base on their soil if they think the costs of doing so will be high. There's no guarantee that Western Europe will fully support a US/NATO war effort that is not perceived to be dangerous to their sovereignty in the event that they choose not to participate. The Russians on the other hand will have many airbases in range of the Baltic and they will also have many ways of applying leverage and pressure on other parties not to participate.
Read this in another article. And on July 4, 2015, two Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers approached within 40 miles of the California coast and radioed a “happy birthday” message to intercepting U.S. pilots. The July 4 provocation occurred the same day President Obama held a telephone call with Putin. Sent from my BLU LIFE ONE X using Tapatalk
There have been other incidents in the Pacific also. The recent incidents have both been in the Baltic and they closely follow deployments to Denmark and Finland of small groups of planes as a show of resolve in the Baltic. The symbolism in the deployment to Finland is clear. It's right on the Russian border and the northern Baltic coast and it is a nation that used to be thoroughly cowed by the Soviets after collaborating with the Germans in WWII. It's possible that Putin is just expressing Russia's displeasure with further US/NATO encroachment on Russia's western sphere of influence. However it's risky to assume that's the only motive in play. I don't believe Russia could win a war with the West at this point but I also don't think the costs would be acceptable for anybody in the West if he tried. I think a war that started out looking like an inevitable result of US pressure on Russia might quickly devolve into a war that we couldn't win either, due mainly to our alliances coming undone as the costs of maintaining them became clear for the other parties involved.
So.. Went to see what other side is saying. Pravda (that would be Russia's party line) repeats their DOD's: all flights were within established laws, don't know why Americans are making so much fuss. Then proceeds to mildly mock US navy: good seamen, but not enough balls (I'm paraphrasing, naturally). Official sites and vetted blogs support the same view, adding a rather large dose of mockery. I quickly glanced at one non-party site, they seem to think it might be somehow related to Poland, so Brad might have a point. I'll try to dig a little deeper tomorrow. Russian web sites are controlled for the most part, even "independent", but Ukrainian are more free, especially in western Ukraine.
