Speaking today at a Pentagon briefing, Army Chief Gen. Ray Odierno, who is retiring later this month, declared Russia to be America’s “most dangerous threat,” insisting that they are “constantly assessing” potential NATO reactions in the Baltics and could start a war through miscalculation.
Odierno is the latest in a series of US military chiefs who are claiming that Russia is a major threat, and who are trying to downplay the seriousness of groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda by contrast. In his comments today, Odierno said Russia was a “more mature” threat than other “potential adversaries.”
Though US officials are constantly presenting all of this as “Russian aggression,” both sides have been engaged in tit-for-tat training exercises across Eastern Europe for months, with a new report cautioning both NATO and Russia are “actively preparing for war.”
The report, from the European Leadership Network, concluded that either side ought to show restraint by limiting the size and scope of their military exercises in the area. So far there is no sign of that happening, with both sides trying to trump the other with the biggest preparatory operations since the Cold War along the frontier.
What is the deal with these generals. At some point in their careers they'll say something completely correct and the next day they say any stupid idiocy.
The Israel lobby dictating USG foreign policy is a bigger (threat).
And the only way to protect ourselves from the Evil Rooskies is to buy $billions of weapons from the general's new employers.
Three things come to mind:
1. If any mature and strong country is a threat, then the only way to be secure is to conquer world.
2. US public is used to neocon global imperial domination, that such idiocy goes unnoticed by most.
3. Who does he work for, and what goods or services he peddles will make us secure from the world
The US is the US's biggest threat.
Once Putin threw the Helsinki Final Act out the window, there was little alternative but to prepare for war. War is certainly not inevitable, but can only be avoided if Putin backs off. The deal has always been on the table. An "arrangement" of some kind can be cooked up to let him occupy Crimea (cheap gas for Ukraine, for example), but he has to give up Sausagestan and there must be no further attempts to grab territory. Putin's problem is that any climbdown discredits him in the eyes of his elderly domestic supporters, who want the Soviet Union, the whole Soviet Union and nothing but the Soviet Union. His only choice is, therefore, which foot he's going to shoot himself in. That's what makes him dangerous.
Putin never had to throw the Helsinki Final Act out the window, because:
1) The Helsinki Final Act was not a treaty that bound any nation to any action or non-action; and even if it had been,
2) Russia was not signatory to the Helsinki Final Act;
3) Ukraine was not signatory to the Helsinki Final Act.
In other words, the Helsinki Final Act had absolutely, positively, nothing whatsoever to do with anything. As I've explained before, and will continue to explain every time I notice you trying to cite it to the contrary.
Do not 'P' on my leg and tell me it is raining! February 20, 2015 America Has Been At War 93% of the Time – 222 Out of 239 Years – Since 1776
The U.S. Has Only Been At Peace For 21 Years Total Since Its Birth
In 2011, Danios wrote: Below, I have reproduced a year-by-year timeline of America’s wars, which reveals something quite interesting: since the United States was founded in 1776, she has been at war during 214 out of her 235 calendar years of existence. In other words, there were only 21 calendar years in which the U.S. did not wage any wars.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d7c_1424878482
Russia is more important for the generals and the MIC because it is far more profitable. You don't need much to fight ISIS, but Russia requires lots of expensive equipment and increased budgets for generals.
Ray "Gives Good Skull" Odierno. As I recall, this was one of the tools leading the charge against Iran for supplying weapons to Iraqi "insurgents" during Operation Clean Break in Iraq last decade. You remember. They'd always announce a press conference during which they'd show the actual Iranian-supplied munitions. The press conferences that were always cancelled. Credible guy, Ray. I wonder where he's "retiring" to? Lockheed? Booz Allen? A commission with the IDF?
The most dangerous threat to the United States are people like Gen. Ray Odierno!