Speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey expressed support for providing “lethal aid” to the Ukrainian military for the ongoing civil war.
“It ought to be in the context of NATO allies because Putin’s ultimate objective is to fracture NATO,” Dempsey insisted. The Obama Administration has been “considering” such arms for weeks.
Dempsey’s call for new arms shipments is in spite of a ceasefire that was reached weeks ago in Minsk, but reflects Pentagon desires to insinuate themselves more directly in the Ukrainian Civil War, even if that means restarting it.
The US Army is planning to send 300 troops to western Ukraine on a “training” mission, and appears to intend to keep that many troops there through the end of October.
Gen. Dempsey used to have good judgment when it came to conflicts abroad, but somewhere along the way he lost that judgment.
Sending arms to Ukraine will not help the situation at all. That's already been proven, as whatever arms had been sent to Ukraine wound up in the hands of the Novorossiya forces. Dempsey should know that arming the Kiev forces will violate the Minsk agreements worked out between Russia, France, Ukraine and Germany and only prolong the conflict.
The Ukrainian Army consists mostly of conscripts who don't want to fight against their brethren in the East; so, why turn them into cannon fodder for nothing? Since this conflict began last summer, at least 250,000 military-age men had either left the country or found other means of avoiding the draft. Doesn't that mean anything at all? NATO's a Cold War relic that should have been dissolved the same time the Warsaw Pact was. Once the Cold War ended and the USSR itself dissolved, there was no grounds for NATO remaining. This anachronism must be dissolved, PRONTO; no excuses.
Occasionally this Dempsey character seemed reasonable, but I guess that check from the neocons went through so now he's completely lost it.
Has he "lost it"? The fundamental issue here is whether the General speaks with or without the backing of the White House. If a General states in Congress that the armed forces need more tanks then that is a practical but not a political statement. It is a recommendation from the Pentagon. General Dempsey clearly made a strategic-political statement. If he did not have White House approval he must be fired for insubordination. If Mr. Netanyahu does not make our foreign policy General Dempsey is not authorized to do that either. Hence my conclusion is that he has not "lost it" but has launched a trial balloon on behalf of President Obama, read Susan Rice.
Members of the military have for years made political/foreign policy statements mascaraded as military strategy in their daily media parades that don't have the backing or represent the position of the WH. And no one has ever gotten fired for it.
“I think we should absolutely consider lethal aid and it ought to be in the context of NATO allies because Putin’s ultimate objective is to fracture NATO.”
Sounds to me like he's just expressing a general opinion, an opinion based on a false assumption. As always with statements in the open, one has to wonder whether it's just to please a certain audience or whether he means it.
Dempsey´s ploy would not go by the Russians, who would naturally react-however-to such blatant stoking of an internal conflict. Then again, that is the aim, so that the flagging, laggard governments of Europe shoulder their part of the burden and start spending more in useless hardware. Has anybody in charge considered the Russian stance on the use of strategic nuclear missiles? It is no longer ¨deterrent¨ but included as a last-resort battlefield option. Remember that Russian TV commentator quipping about ¨Russia being the only country which could turn the US into radioactive sand¨?. It true.
War with Russia: it's what the DC "pragmatists" want. Very pragmatic.
And they will have it.
“‘Putin’s ultimate objective is to fracture NATO,’ Dempsey insisted.”
We should commit acts of destruction against Russia because it seeks to defend itself? Such is the logic but forth by an Empire that never allows the root cause of things to enter into a discussion, for if the public is never told the root cause of things, it can never know the solution and if our Empire wants to start a war, who is to know the difference?
Hillary has turned the U S State Dept into a chapter of the Hadassah (fervent women's Zionist sorority) – Powers, Rice, Nuland,, Barf (Harf), etc. And Putin has become new Haman; the mere mention of his name evokes boos and catcalls. It doesn't have to make sense – it is just hatred celebrated for historical reasons.
USA expansion encounters Russian logic — Checkmate
It ‘s like the Korean War where Russia and China kept North Korea supplied with just enough troops and weapons to withstand an invasion, it’s like the defeat of Napoleon when Russian patience allowed the winter freeze to be a weapon unbeatable, for surely Putin is a student of history and thereby no man’s fool.
The economic consequences of this stupid neocon exercise are interesting – Western Ukraine currency is becoming worthless – in a World of negative interest rates, interest rates in Ukraine have gone up to 30% to try to stop the super high inflation. Who will bail Ukraine out? The EU? Germany points to the broken porcelain on the floor and tells America, "I think Ms Nuland was handling this before it broke." Our neocons have other plans for the last nickels America has left – they are meant for enriching Wall Street and for attacking Iran for Israel.
I believe that this is what will happened – Ukraine has vast agricultural resources. Ukraine will get a little money from us – at the cost of their land which will be privatized (i.e. given to Monsanto, et al)
for private profit by introducing GMO crops on a very large scale. In keeping with the feudal system of the new global plantation, the Ukrainians will go back to being serfs; our bankers will be the idle plantation owners; our military will be the cruel overseers. Look Away, Look Away!
chop Dempsey's arms off and send them
lol, it ain't just Putin who wants to divide NATO. A good amount of us true patriot americans want to dissolve this mercenary force of the Oligarchs who run this country. You General Dempsey do not serve to protect our constitution and bill of rights; you protect corrupt coup regimes who serve as slaves to the corrupt oligarchs you serve in DC.