Secretary of Defense Ash Carter is parroting a number of top Pentagon officials on the issue of Russia today, affirming that he too believes Russia is an “existential threat” to the United States simply by virtue of being a very large country with a lot of nuclear weapons.
Speaking at the Pentagon, Carter insisted Russia’s status as a threat is nothing new, but that Putin is suddenly acting “as an antagonist” to the US on certain issues, and said the US is changing their playbook with NATO to “harden” areas along the Russian frontier.
So far this “hardening” has consisted of the US “pre-positioning” massive amounts of combat vehicles in Eastern Europe, to save themselves the trouble of having to ship them during an actual war. It has also involved massive military drills directly on the Russian border, which several groups have warned risk provoking a conflict neither side really wants.
Several Pentagon officials have talked up Russia’s threat during the recent budget battles, with Army Chief Gen. Ray Odierno calling them America’s “most dangerous threat” only last week, and officials warning that defeating Russia in a “sustained” ground war wouldn’t be a “sure bet” without more military spending.
Though Pentagon officials have been on about Russia since last year’s Ukraine regime change, and the subsequent eastern civil war, with assorted generals predicting an imminent Russian invasion of Europe that never came about, the recent round seems more cynically directed at Congressional testimony, with an eye on securing money for more high-priced projects that don’t make a lot of sense for America’s current wars, nominally to maintain a “qualitative” advantage over Russia.
The US spends roughly 10 times as much on its military as Russia does, but Pentagon officials say that the sheer number of other wars America is constantly fighting and their vision of the war happening almost entirely in Russian territory makes the difference much less dramatic.
The talk of Russia as a “primary” threat has come amid calls from Congress to put the assorted threats in order, with Pentagon officials all putting ISIS far below where Congress expected them to go, and favoring military planning against conventional nation-states, putting Russia and China up at the top.
Poor little America. Just like poor little israel, constantly on the brink of extinction. Better launch a pre-emptive strike against Russia, China, Lichtenstein, the Vatican, etc. The perpetrator as victim, one of the oldest tricks around.
coming from the mouths of the most ruthless murdering regime on the planet calling Russia a threat? unbelievable but what do you expect when these rats talk in an echo chamber.
"…calls from Congress to put the assorted threats in order"
1. ACRAP dictating USG foreign policy
2. Illegal apartheid regime occupying Palestine
3. USG War profiteers – bilking USG Taxpayers
4. Hack USG politicians on ACRAP's payroll
5. USG Congress…
* Order subject to change at any given moment.
A modest proposal– defund the Pentagon and offer all individuals willing to acknowledge they are existential enemies of America annual pensions of $15,000. Think of the money we could save!
“Existential threat” — Blowback threat
If we were to invade Russia and plunder, take for free, all the natural resources in Russia, surely the world would do nothing but cheer us on, for we are Empire USA and in the height of our glory. Problem is, Russia threatens a blowback that could come crashing down such that all our great cities we would find leveled flat to the ground.
Comes now Kissinger on this fine day, he being the mastermind behind Nixon’s foreign policy and he to give fair warning, “Treat Russia like a great nation.”
The point of all this is no doubt to try to give NATO back its credibility in European and Israeli eyes. By failing, as of yet, to deal firmly with Putin, Obama has discredited NATO as an instrument for Europe's defence. For Israel, Europe is America's forward base for the defence of that country and NATO is the legal pretext for keeping US forces and military equipment near to Israel. Thus, discrediting NATO is a far bigger problem for Israel than it is for Europe. And, of course, all US policy, both domestic and foreign, is Israel-driven. Thus, as the mainstream Israel Lobby slowly gets the upper hand over the neocons, it is unsurprising to find the focus being put on Putin, all the more so as his clowning and blundering have made him an easy target.
"…Pentagon officials all putting ISIS far below where Congress expected them to go…"
First, Congress hasn't had an original thought in decades, so…
Second, a reason the Pentagon keeps putting ISIS/ISIL much lower on the priority list is likely because the Pentagon knows but won't admit they don't know how to defeat ISIS/ISIL. And we won't even go into the possibility that the Pentagon DOESN'T want to defeat them, for one or several reasons they don't want to discuss in public.
Another reason which I'll admit might be just as viable is that the Pentagon is just trying to generate a larger budget with less and less oversight.
Hitler once thought he could defeat Russia as have other lunatics from the dust bins of history.America has now joined the lunatic fringe.All this is is just another ploy to sell yet more fear porn to the masses to make us shell out yet more billions into the mighty American war machine.This nation of mine has great promise but we need to reign in these fools who are controlling our foreign policies and have access to our weapons.Rome fell the same way.The never ending expansionism and never ending funds to defeat yet another foe.This was never part of the plan laid out by the founding fathers.Those of you who think otherwise need to read the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.When is this insanity going to stop ?
The really big serious money only comes from large weapons programs which ISIS cannot justify.