After a serious of increasingly hysterical estimates of the number of Russian troops involved in training operations along the border with Ukraine, US defense officials are finally weighing in on the matter.
Yesterday, Rep. Michael Turner (R – OH) claimed 80,000 and Ukraine claimed 100,000 troops. The US military doesn’t have exact figures but says its less than half that, somewhere between 35,000 and 40,000.
European officials offered estimates that were roughly in line with the official US one, saying they believe there are more than 30,000 Russian troops there.
US officials are trying to portray the deployment as an aggressive move, and Ukraine is keen to spin it as a sign of imminent invasion, in the hopes of getting major foreign aid offers rushed through.
Solution's obvious. Withdraw all US military personnel to at least 200 miles inland on the continental US, away from borders with Canada and Mexico, and withdraw from the more recent conquests of e.g. Hawaii (and stop menacing Japan). In that way, the rest of the world may once again give a damn what someone else's military is doing within it's country's borders.
And, I'm guessing that 30,000 troops is about normal for what Russia would have along the border, since the OSCE inspectors also said there was 'nothing unusual'.
What is that, 3 divisions or so in western terms. For what, a border that might be a 1000 miles long. Oh yeah, I can really tell they are massing their forces.
Total length of the border is 842 miles according to Wikipedia. 30,000 troops along such a border is a density of 35 soldiers per mile. Wow, such a concentration.
The claims are not that they are "spreading their forces uniformly along the border." The claims are that they are "massing their forces near the border" (specifically near Churovichi). There's a difference.
I have no idea whether or not the claims are true, or if so what that might portend, but it's silly to pretend that the claimed numbers of troops are not dangerous because if they were spread out uniformly along the border they wouldn't be very massed or concentrated.
And in this modern era, that's obvious on satellite photos. Where are the photos? Easy to provide proof if there is any. Plus, there's an old cold war treaty group called OSCE that means countries have the right to fly over the other countries and check it out. So, Russia has been letting European inspectors fly over any areas in the region that they want, and those OSCE inspectors have been saying they don't see anything.
So, where are these massed armies? Where are the hundreds of thousands of men massed for attack? Where are the tanks, the APCs, the trucks, the artillery, the missile launchers, etc?
Oh, I know, right next to Iraq's WMD's. That's where they'll find them.
According to wikipedia, the US has almost 20,000 'border patrol officers' along the Mexican border which is a bit over twice as long. Not quite this Russian concentration, but does seem to point to 10,000 to 20,000 might be just the expected numbers for border control.
And …. Russia had a treaty letting it keep up to 25,000 troops and sailors in the Crimea.
So … border patrol plus the troops that have always been permitted in the Crimea would seem to add up to the amounts that the US military is saying is really along the border right now.
What Russia does WITHIN ITS OWN BORDERS is its own damn business.
When was the last time anyone heard Russians complaining about "troop buildup" along the Mexican/US border?
Here's the Russian statement, found on RT.
" Responding to those accusations, Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement, in which it recalled four probes in March by foreign missions in Russia of regions bordering Ukraine.
The ministry said that “even Ukrainian inspectors” agreed that “there were no major military activities being carried out.”
The four international missions included representatives of Latvia, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Estonia, Belgium, France and Ukraine. None of the missions “found ‘aggressive preparations’ and have not recorded any military activities, aside from the previously declared,” the statement said.
“Opportunities to conduct such activities were provided to all those who wished to get acquainted with the real situation in the border with Ukraine regions,” the ministry said.
The statement emphasized that “even Ukrainian inspectors” agreed that “there were no major military activities being carried out.”
“The result of this was the official reports submitted to all OSCE member states. The objective information contained in those reports, in our view, should have become a subject of an impartial analysis and basis for further conclusions,” the statement said. "
This should pretty much be the end of the discussion, but you can be certain we'll keep hearing of the troop buildup ad nauseum no matter how often it's debunked.
Listening to NPR yesterday their reporter near the border could find no sign of a troop build up. Well there was on anonymous man who claimed to have seen a train transporting armored vehicles.