spot on article Sal. All the Euros see of the US is from International Herald Tribune which is NYTimes in disguise, and CNN International. The smart Euros want Trump back! But they're hard to find.
CDR Sal, as a career soldier (now retired) who spent years in EUCOM Land (and a few equally illuminating years at the Pentagon and within the US Interagency), I couldn't agree with you more. Most excellent!
It’s funny how the NATO membership is more afraid of losing American cash than a Russian Ukraine. Poland and others in the alliance are building combat power like crazy. The others have pushed social programs at the cost of defunding defense. We live in interesting times.
The people that come out during election years are clinically insane and power hungry. The guy that said the Brits would jump at the chance to backfill the American role. I had to take a breather after that.
The Trump that got NATO to start supporting itself is not going to walk away from it.
Other than looting our weapons stockpiles, without any real effort to restock them, in order to supply the Ukrainians, what has Biden done for national, and international security? A war that would not have happened under Mr.Trump, and that does not pose any substantial threat to our national security, but does allow the Biden Crime Family to secure their money laundering facility.
While ammo production is up, it isn't enough. The Army ammo plants are probably doing OK, but artillery shell production isn't even close enough to be able to replace the stocks without cutting Ukraine off.
The Ukes produce the TNT they sell to us to pay lobbyists in Mesquite, Texas, for their boss to produce arty. projectiles that we give to the Ukes to blow up Poot? I see the beginnings of a circularity here. If not a singularity.
I am a NATO skeptic and think the moral hazard of constantly subsidizing the unwillingness of the EU and NATO to pay its "fair share" creates a doom loop for the West. As long as they are coddled with no penalty for pulling their load, they will continue to defenestrate their obligations to nativist defense.
They need hard medicine. The governments don't have to spend a dime to increase the cost of invasion by any threat if they simply provide unfettered private access to firearms and other weapons across the board.
And unmanned options aren't being driven by government labs but entities like the Drone Racing League worldwide that is leaving government advances in the dust. And robots are the future whether they acknowledge that or not.
Gods help them if they mimic the JCIDS acquisition process in the US to improve their armed forces.
And, no, I don't think a Russian invasion is likely but I do think a Russian consolidation of the eastern third of Ukraine is the most likely outcome (and has been since the beginning of the SMO).
If we left the NATO Treaty tomorrow, I would have no regrets.
Nor would any self respecting, patriotic citizen of sovereign countries (of which there are now none in the shantytown know as the EU) regret it. Europe must be weaned of this fraudulent "teat", enjoy the ensuing swift decline of Neo-marxist Tyranny odmf Brussels, and get to work on earning a renewal of Chistendom rebuild on sovereign and self respecting nations. I agree 100%
I my last job (since 2015) was as an analyst for a military think tank. I have studied history since 1985. I was a Young Republican volunteer in 1962. With rare exceptions (such as my state's senator Lisa Murkowski) I don't think there are many Republicans who remember the concepts we were taught back then. Including NEVER run a candidate with ethical and/or legal problems. The minority party needs to win votes from the other major party and from independents to win. The George Romney campaign did that, setting a record for ballot-splitting to elect him governor in the very year LBJ won election by a landslide. I remain in the political center, although not a member of the party which TWICE tried not to support Murkowski's re-election. Reagan once said "I didn't leave the Democrats, they left me" - I can say the same for Republicans.
I'm not sure refusing to support a politician only nominally a member of ones own party is a disqualification. Especially one who uses underhanded methods to stay in office and regularly colludes with the opposition.
Colludes suggests you are NOT truly in favor of the nation.
The best legislature in the nation is probably in Alaska. The Senate is run by a tri-partisan majority - 17-3. Enough to override a veto even with the highest standard in the world (3/4 vote is needed). When a policy in the political center is adopted, it does not matter who wins the next election? We don't have unstable, every changing policy. The other major party is not - or at least should not be - somehow the enemy. Cooperation should not be collusion with the enemy comparable to warfare.
What goes on in Alaska, does not have anywhere close to a 1:1 correlation to what goes on in DC. Murkowski is part of the leftist GOPe RINO corps that has come down hard on the side of the left. Is telling the truth is "NOT being truly in favor of the nation," then by that warped standard, I am guilty as charged.
If you don't realize that the Democrat Party is truly an enemy of the country, you need some serious training in enemy recognition.
Murkowski is a RINO leftist, and is not respected by the grass roots because she has betrayed the party repeatedly, as many other GOPe leftists have done.
Good point! In early 1968 he visited Long Beach Naval Shipyard for some event on a carrier. My ship was in drydock, so I was detached to "permanent shore patrol" duty (meaning more than just one night). The Secret Service detected an assassination threat (never officially acknowledged) and the ENTIRE Presidential Protection Detail LEFT to scout a route to get him to safety. He was put in a building in the center of a gigantic parking lot - one side a city road - two sides water/moles for ships to tie up to - the other side a road entirely on the base. My squad was with LBJ in an office on the second floor, ordered to literally fight to the death if anyone reached us. I have NEVER witnessed such behaviors. Vulgar and profane, he spend most of his time talking by phone to his brother, who ran apparently 26 companies out of the West Wing, exploiting inside information (which, I later learned, was his SOP). No female was safe from being touched. He did not care who heard or saw him - because he was not on camera and were were mere "furniture" - too unimportant to matter.
It's a simple matter of 0 accountability. When the New York Times or Bezos Post tells me a whopper of a lie, I am careful to read the byline on the story so I know who not to take seriously. Even if they move to a different news outlet, eg Fusion Natasha Betrand. If I see an inveterate liar like Jake Tapper come on the screen I turn it off. You dont get that with intelligence products, at least the ones published for public consumption. I never see the name of the analyst, and usually they are stingy with the source of the raw information. Thus there is literally no way to hold any of these people accountable if they provide retarded analysis or just brazenly lie. Their operations are even worse--they send people to the sandbox who treat it like the wild west without any adult supervision and briefcases full of millions in cash. Oh, and only 5% of them speak a foreign language fluently and the security clearance process does a good job of eliminating anyone who has actually lived abroad for a significant period of time. Plus the CIA recruited heavily from the wartime OSS. Which was riddled with communist spies and fellow travelers. The path to American restoration cannot begin until the CIA is abolished, and the earth at Langley salted. Might want to "nuke it from orbit, just to be sure."
George W. Bush lied this nation into a war that is spawned numerous other wars, many of which are still ongoing, that to date have killed, maimed, or displaced millions of people and squandered trillions of dollars. When was the GOP taught the concept of "NEVER run a candidate with ethical and/or legal problems? Demonstrably it was not before the 2004 election.
Detail the lies Dubya told. You can forget about teh WMD canard. They found WMD, and more than enough evidence to show there had been an active nuke program. The reactor the Israelis destroyed in eastern Syria in 2007 had come from Iraq, and on order of 122 metric tons of yellow cake was found in Iraq as well.
From the Associated Press article in 2008 regarding the 550 metric tons of yellowcak3 removed from Iraq: "Tuwaitha and an adjacent research facility were well known for decades as the centerpiece of Saddam's nuclear efforts.
Israeli warplanes bombed a reactor project at the site in 1981. Later, U.N. inspectors documented and safeguarded the yellowcake, which had been stored in aging drums and containers since before the 1991 Gulf War. There was no evidence of any yellowcake dating from after 1991, the official said."
Oh, there is one more lie. The claims that Iraqi intelligence had some involvement with Al Qaeda before 9/11 and that the Saudi government had nothing to do with the attacks. Those were pretty important. Got me to enlist. Like a moron.
Yes, wanna Trump-proof the alliance, then meet your effing commitments. Another gem, CDR.
In another article you had a link to Cato's "Uncle Sucker" piece; I suggest anyone interested in just how thoroughly we're be played read that (lengthy) article.
You are missing a loop here: "because it is not in our self-interest to allow that" (withdrawal from NATO). Trump has no concept of history or national interest and he surrounds himself with like-minded cretins. So your (our) self-interest is of no concern to Trump. You also fail to mention Trump's pandering to Putin. If Trump wins, NATO will be in big trouble so we all had better hope that Trump loses.
Eisenhower February 1951: “If in 10 years, all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States, then this whole project [NATO] will have failed.”
Edit: See my post up thread about how we are seen in Germany by many locals who complained. They didn't bemoan the loss of defense. They complained about the hit on their economy. Move troops to Poland, the Baltics or other countries that meet their 2% commitment.
The irony is that it's almost all of Russia's former Warsaw Pact allies who are happy to meet their 2% GDP commitments while the now failing and mostly socialist western european members slowly turn into the Balkans.
Back in the day it was garrisoned at a level sufficient to make an attempt to slow down things until the now non-existent and non-capable Reforger thingy got stuff on dock. Which makes a compelling argument for the derelict western european elites to up their game.
The last significant REFORGER was in 1988...More than a generation (of warfighters) ago.
Do we have the airlift? Do we have the sealift? Do we have the ability to defend the sealift or airlift? Hell, do we have the troops, and will their POMCUS equipment be ready to go?
It took the US (and a couple of serious allies, as well as six dozen 'coalition' members) six months to spin up to defeat a monkey army in Iraq... And all of that was permissive environment. Today, do we have 155mm cannon shells? 20mm shells? Tomahawk missiles? ATACMS? Or have we spent them all in Ukraine?
How about AIM 9? AIM-120? Or have we spent million dollar missiles destroying hundred dollar drones in Yemen?
I read this week that the Navy is strapping SM-6 missiles ($4.3 Million each, or more) to F18's as a new super-dooper AIM. Lets burn some of those on those drones too!
After what, 40 years (plus) the M1 tank is now vulnerable to cheap weapons like Javs, or even hand grenades dropped from drones. Whats the replacement?
But we still haven't figured out how to resupply a force in Europe, or the western Pacific...
The problem with basing in Poland is that it relies on fragile logistics chains that pass through/near unreliable "allies" who have a history of refusing passage for US military because they don't like what it's going to be used for (does "Operation El Dorado Canyon" sound familiar? Or more recently Turkey with Iraq?
In general I'm inclined to support Poland, but as has been discussed elsewhere on this blog sketchy logistics is an issue.
The "Trump's pandering to Putin" is yet another catchy phrase without facts to support it. Remember it was Trump who warned the Germans not to enter into extensive energy agreements with Russian companies for oil and NG. Merkel and her cabal openly laughed at him. NATO is already in trouble. They are largely an unwilling, ineffective, empty shell of an alliance propped up by American cash, arms, troops, and equipment for their own defense. Precisely as JETCAL1 recommends, 2% or you get nothing from the United States.
True, but he hasn't been universally on the "let's get rich in Ukraine" camp with the likes of Biden, Clinton, Romney, and everybody else with business interests there.
Biden, Clinton, and Romney are corruptocrats and have no real business interests there. They've all tried to get on the same gravy train as Hunter Biden did when he was on the Burisma Board.
I was considering Hunter and Romney's kid as proxies. I thought I read a bunch of money got laundered into some Clinton Foundation thing through there too, but could be wrong on that
The withdrawal from Kabul which occurred on Biden’s watch was the most humiliating defeat in our history. Worse than Saigon. How is the pier in Gaza doing?
Who is "we?" What benefit do the American people gain from "fighting another war to keep another regional hegemony from arising in Europe?" The last time the USA did that a revolutionary communist superpower took over most of the Eurasian landmass and killed tens of millions of people.
Didn't the same press that so breathlessly screamed about Trump withdrawing troops from Germany also neglect to mention the plan was to move them to Poland?
Perhaps moving US assets to bases in countries that meet their 2% commitments is the way to go. Better to be in a country were you're a partner in defense and not just a program for local landlords and jobs like Germany.
However, there is a reason NATO is referred to as Not At The Office or Not After Two O'clock.
My impression was that the Europeans see themselves as the Greek city states following the Roman conquest.
The Romans absorbed Greek culture and protected the Greeks from Persia and from each other.
No more Gallipoli, Verdun, the Somme, Passchendaele, etc.
Unfortunately, the European view of America comes from the Economist which used to be a fine magazine but is now little better than the NYT or WP.
While a President Trump could not withdraw from NATO, he need not do anything - like bombing Serbia. murdering Colonel Khadafy, sending young Ukranian men into machine gun fire and minefields, etc.
Personally, I think NATO should have been disbanded following the collapse of the Warsaw Pact.
I think the American security blanket is preventing the European nations from acting like adults.
Perhaps Neil Farage will one day replace the already doomed Sir Keir Starmer as PM (after having replaced the hapless Rishi Sunak) and put the Great back into Britain. A uniparty is a bad idea on both sides of the Pond.
spot on article Sal. All the Euros see of the US is from International Herald Tribune which is NYTimes in disguise, and CNN International. The smart Euros want Trump back! But they're hard to find.
CDR Sal, as a career soldier (now retired) who spent years in EUCOM Land (and a few equally illuminating years at the Pentagon and within the US Interagency), I couldn't agree with you more. Most excellent!
Since the hearings on Tr
The next war, can we treat members of AP as the enemy combatants they are?
and the UN
I just unsubscribed from a different substack account for these very same reasons.
It’s funny how the NATO membership is more afraid of losing American cash than a Russian Ukraine. Poland and others in the alliance are building combat power like crazy. The others have pushed social programs at the cost of defunding defense. We live in interesting times.
They figured that they could by votes by spending money on social welfare, and sending us the defense bill. This has long been my belief.
All too accurate.
The people that come out during election years are clinically insane and power hungry. The guy that said the Brits would jump at the chance to backfill the American role. I had to take a breather after that.
Laughing that hard can cause a stroke.
"nut-pick" ... "intellectually onanistic terrariums"
Absolute pleasure to read, I may steal these phrases. Thank you!
I learned a new word today! Onanistic. Huh. Noted.
The Trump that got NATO to start supporting itself is not going to walk away from it.
Other than looting our weapons stockpiles, without any real effort to restock them, in order to supply the Ukrainians, what has Biden done for national, and international security? A war that would not have happened under Mr.Trump, and that does not pose any substantial threat to our national security, but does allow the Biden Crime Family to secure their money laundering facility.
While ammo production is up, it isn't enough. The Army ammo plants are probably doing OK, but artillery shell production isn't even close enough to be able to replace the stocks without cutting Ukraine off.
Turns out NATO has been lying about its production numbers of artillery shells.
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-weapons-shells-european-union-eu-war-russia-investigation/33025300.html
Local news reports that a Mesquite, Texas, factory - using Turkish machinery - is a newcomer to our production of 155 projectiles.
Gonna need them.
Yes. And there is at least one more plant in some stage of construction.
The problem starts to shift to explosives. Which are not made in the US because EPA.
https://clu-in.org/characterization/technologies/exp.cfm
"Currently, all TNT used by the DoD is purchased from foreign sources."
https://www.army-technology.com/news/global-ordnance-secures-tnt-supply-contract-for-us-army/
Global Ordnance secures TNT supply contract for US Army
US-based ammunition and firearms provider Global Ordnance has secured a contract to supply trinitrotoluene (TNT) to the US Army.
December 14, 2020
"US-based ammunition and firearms provider Global Ordnance has secured a contract to supply trinitrotoluene (TNT) to the US Army.
The indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract requires the company to supply the new production Type 1 TNT to the US Army.
The five-year Bulk Explosives Program IDIQ contract carries a ceiling value of $188m.
Global Ordnance will initially deliver 1Mlb of TNT next year. Subsequent orders will be delivered with two other companies.
With two locations in Florida, Global Ordnance procures TNT from Ukrainian research and production enterprise Zarya.
The company will continue to import TNT from Zarya for deliveries to the US Army.."
The Ukes produce the TNT they sell to us to pay lobbyists in Mesquite, Texas, for their boss to produce arty. projectiles that we give to the Ukes to blow up Poot? I see the beginnings of a circularity here. If not a singularity.
For some strange reason, that does not surprise me.
I dunno about lying. Could be something as simple as "shrinkage". Happens in San Francisco all the time. Could happen in NATO too.
I am a NATO skeptic and think the moral hazard of constantly subsidizing the unwillingness of the EU and NATO to pay its "fair share" creates a doom loop for the West. As long as they are coddled with no penalty for pulling their load, they will continue to defenestrate their obligations to nativist defense.
They need hard medicine. The governments don't have to spend a dime to increase the cost of invasion by any threat if they simply provide unfettered private access to firearms and other weapons across the board.
And unmanned options aren't being driven by government labs but entities like the Drone Racing League worldwide that is leaving government advances in the dust. And robots are the future whether they acknowledge that or not.
Gods help them if they mimic the JCIDS acquisition process in the US to improve their armed forces.
And, no, I don't think a Russian invasion is likely but I do think a Russian consolidation of the eastern third of Ukraine is the most likely outcome (and has been since the beginning of the SMO).
If we left the NATO Treaty tomorrow, I would have no regrets.
Nor I!
The ONLY thing NATO has ever produced of any value are "NATO Standards" common criteria for all.
Solid thoughts, well stated, sir.
Nor would any self respecting, patriotic citizen of sovereign countries (of which there are now none in the shantytown know as the EU) regret it. Europe must be weaned of this fraudulent "teat", enjoy the ensuing swift decline of Neo-marxist Tyranny odmf Brussels, and get to work on earning a renewal of Chistendom rebuild on sovereign and self respecting nations. I agree 100%
I my last job (since 2015) was as an analyst for a military think tank. I have studied history since 1985. I was a Young Republican volunteer in 1962. With rare exceptions (such as my state's senator Lisa Murkowski) I don't think there are many Republicans who remember the concepts we were taught back then. Including NEVER run a candidate with ethical and/or legal problems. The minority party needs to win votes from the other major party and from independents to win. The George Romney campaign did that, setting a record for ballot-splitting to elect him governor in the very year LBJ won election by a landslide. I remain in the political center, although not a member of the party which TWICE tried not to support Murkowski's re-election. Reagan once said "I didn't leave the Democrats, they left me" - I can say the same for Republicans.
I'm not sure refusing to support a politician only nominally a member of ones own party is a disqualification. Especially one who uses underhanded methods to stay in office and regularly colludes with the opposition.
That's Murkowski.
Colludes suggests you are NOT truly in favor of the nation.
The best legislature in the nation is probably in Alaska. The Senate is run by a tri-partisan majority - 17-3. Enough to override a veto even with the highest standard in the world (3/4 vote is needed). When a policy in the political center is adopted, it does not matter who wins the next election? We don't have unstable, every changing policy. The other major party is not - or at least should not be - somehow the enemy. Cooperation should not be collusion with the enemy comparable to warfare.
My friends don't believe in things like lockdowns or trans kids. Yes, the Democrats are my enemy; indeed they are the enemy of all mankind.
The Democrats just want to create a perfect world. The problem is all those imperfect people.
Whom can be readily eliminated, as demonstrated by Stalin and Mao.
Week you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs.
What goes on in Alaska, does not have anywhere close to a 1:1 correlation to what goes on in DC. Murkowski is part of the leftist GOPe RINO corps that has come down hard on the side of the left. Is telling the truth is "NOT being truly in favor of the nation," then by that warped standard, I am guilty as charged.
If you don't realize that the Democrat Party is truly an enemy of the country, you need some serious training in enemy recognition.
Murkowski is a RINO leftist, and is not respected by the grass roots because she has betrayed the party repeatedly, as many other GOPe leftists have done.
Better to betray a party.
How much more unethical can you get than LBJ? Gulf of Tonkin
Good point! In early 1968 he visited Long Beach Naval Shipyard for some event on a carrier. My ship was in drydock, so I was detached to "permanent shore patrol" duty (meaning more than just one night). The Secret Service detected an assassination threat (never officially acknowledged) and the ENTIRE Presidential Protection Detail LEFT to scout a route to get him to safety. He was put in a building in the center of a gigantic parking lot - one side a city road - two sides water/moles for ships to tie up to - the other side a road entirely on the base. My squad was with LBJ in an office on the second floor, ordered to literally fight to the death if anyone reached us. I have NEVER witnessed such behaviors. Vulgar and profane, he spend most of his time talking by phone to his brother, who ran apparently 26 companies out of the West Wing, exploiting inside information (which, I later learned, was his SOP). No female was safe from being touched. He did not care who heard or saw him - because he was not on camera and were were mere "furniture" - too unimportant to matter.
Yellow cake and "Al Qaeda met with Iraqi intelligence officers in Germany" was probably worse.
Are our intel agencies so inept or do they just produce products to please their bosses and/or maintain their own status?
Maybe that's why Comey sandbagged General Flynn to prevent him from cleaning house.
It's a simple matter of 0 accountability. When the New York Times or Bezos Post tells me a whopper of a lie, I am careful to read the byline on the story so I know who not to take seriously. Even if they move to a different news outlet, eg Fusion Natasha Betrand. If I see an inveterate liar like Jake Tapper come on the screen I turn it off. You dont get that with intelligence products, at least the ones published for public consumption. I never see the name of the analyst, and usually they are stingy with the source of the raw information. Thus there is literally no way to hold any of these people accountable if they provide retarded analysis or just brazenly lie. Their operations are even worse--they send people to the sandbox who treat it like the wild west without any adult supervision and briefcases full of millions in cash. Oh, and only 5% of them speak a foreign language fluently and the security clearance process does a good job of eliminating anyone who has actually lived abroad for a significant period of time. Plus the CIA recruited heavily from the wartime OSS. Which was riddled with communist spies and fellow travelers. The path to American restoration cannot begin until the CIA is abolished, and the earth at Langley salted. Might want to "nuke it from orbit, just to be sure."
I would like to see an audit by independent CPAs of the DOD, CIA, the Fed and Fort Knox.
These CPAs should come from accounting agencies that do no consulting work for the government or anyone who does business with the government.
Anyone who would have the resources and competent CPA's to do that audit would almost certainly have numerous government contracts.
George W. Bush lied this nation into a war that is spawned numerous other wars, many of which are still ongoing, that to date have killed, maimed, or displaced millions of people and squandered trillions of dollars. When was the GOP taught the concept of "NEVER run a candidate with ethical and/or legal problems? Demonstrably it was not before the 2004 election.
Detail the lies Dubya told. You can forget about teh WMD canard. They found WMD, and more than enough evidence to show there had been an active nuke program. The reactor the Israelis destroyed in eastern Syria in 2007 had come from Iraq, and on order of 122 metric tons of yellow cake was found in Iraq as well.
Any others?
From the Associated Press article in 2008 regarding the 550 metric tons of yellowcak3 removed from Iraq: "Tuwaitha and an adjacent research facility were well known for decades as the centerpiece of Saddam's nuclear efforts.
Israeli warplanes bombed a reactor project at the site in 1981. Later, U.N. inspectors documented and safeguarded the yellowcake, which had been stored in aging drums and containers since before the 1991 Gulf War. There was no evidence of any yellowcake dating from after 1991, the official said."
Was there some other nuclear program I missed.
Any other lies you want to tell me, liar?
Oh, there is one more lie. The claims that Iraqi intelligence had some involvement with Al Qaeda before 9/11 and that the Saudi government had nothing to do with the attacks. Those were pretty important. Got me to enlist. Like a moron.
Active nuke program? Post Desert Storm? Really?
Inconvenient though it may be to certain paid liars, yes.
I don’t think so.
"Think" is your downfall. The evidence said something far different.
Lisa Murkowski is the absolute pits.
Yes, wanna Trump-proof the alliance, then meet your effing commitments. Another gem, CDR.
In another article you had a link to Cato's "Uncle Sucker" piece; I suggest anyone interested in just how thoroughly we're be played read that (lengthy) article.
Cmdr S,
You are missing a loop here: "because it is not in our self-interest to allow that" (withdrawal from NATO). Trump has no concept of history or national interest and he surrounds himself with like-minded cretins. So your (our) self-interest is of no concern to Trump. You also fail to mention Trump's pandering to Putin. If Trump wins, NATO will be in big trouble so we all had better hope that Trump loses.
Yea because a Biden administration instills confidence in our Allies and fear in our enemy….
Eisenhower February 1951: “If in 10 years, all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States, then this whole project [NATO] will have failed.”
Edit: See my post up thread about how we are seen in Germany by many locals who complained. They didn't bemoan the loss of defense. They complained about the hit on their economy. Move troops to Poland, the Baltics or other countries that meet their 2% commitment.
Poland is too close to the likely starting FEBA. Otherwise I would heartily second the motion.
The irony is that it's almost all of Russia's former Warsaw Pact allies who are happy to meet their 2% GDP commitments while the now failing and mostly socialist western european members slowly turn into the Balkans.
You expect Kaliningrad to be the FEBA? Lithuania may object, Ukraine as well. Belarus? Well, who cares?
And once the battle commences, being in garrison is likely a very, very bad idea.
I think it will be part of it. The Silwaki gap would be the scene of some horrible fighting.
Now that Finland and Sweden are in NATO, the Gap may not have the significance it once did.
We'll have to wait and see. How Putin and his minions see things may be quite different. They may abandon Koenigsberg, but that is not the way to bet.
How stupid can you get. No problems with Russia so they join an alliance that can do nothing for them.
Back in the day it was garrisoned at a level sufficient to make an attempt to slow down things until the now non-existent and non-capable Reforger thingy got stuff on dock. Which makes a compelling argument for the derelict western european elites to up their game.
The last significant REFORGER was in 1988...More than a generation (of warfighters) ago.
Do we have the airlift? Do we have the sealift? Do we have the ability to defend the sealift or airlift? Hell, do we have the troops, and will their POMCUS equipment be ready to go?
It took the US (and a couple of serious allies, as well as six dozen 'coalition' members) six months to spin up to defeat a monkey army in Iraq... And all of that was permissive environment. Today, do we have 155mm cannon shells? 20mm shells? Tomahawk missiles? ATACMS? Or have we spent them all in Ukraine?
How about AIM 9? AIM-120? Or have we spent million dollar missiles destroying hundred dollar drones in Yemen?
I read this week that the Navy is strapping SM-6 missiles ($4.3 Million each, or more) to F18's as a new super-dooper AIM. Lets burn some of those on those drones too!
After what, 40 years (plus) the M1 tank is now vulnerable to cheap weapons like Javs, or even hand grenades dropped from drones. Whats the replacement?
But we still haven't figured out how to resupply a force in Europe, or the western Pacific...
The problem with basing in Poland is that it relies on fragile logistics chains that pass through/near unreliable "allies" who have a history of refusing passage for US military because they don't like what it's going to be used for (does "Operation El Dorado Canyon" sound familiar? Or more recently Turkey with Iraq?
In general I'm inclined to support Poland, but as has been discussed elsewhere on this blog sketchy logistics is an issue.
The "Trump's pandering to Putin" is yet another catchy phrase without facts to support it. Remember it was Trump who warned the Germans not to enter into extensive energy agreements with Russian companies for oil and NG. Merkel and her cabal openly laughed at him. NATO is already in trouble. They are largely an unwilling, ineffective, empty shell of an alliance propped up by American cash, arms, troops, and equipment for their own defense. Precisely as JETCAL1 recommends, 2% or you get nothing from the United States.
Their economic and green strategy was based on cheap energy from Russia.
When it has come to Russia and Ukraine, Trump has been all over the map. It's frustrating.
True, but he hasn't been universally on the "let's get rich in Ukraine" camp with the likes of Biden, Clinton, Romney, and everybody else with business interests there.
Biden, Clinton, and Romney are corruptocrats and have no real business interests there. They've all tried to get on the same gravy train as Hunter Biden did when he was on the Burisma Board.
I was considering Hunter and Romney's kid as proxies. I thought I read a bunch of money got laundered into some Clinton Foundation thing through there too, but could be wrong on that
That is possible, and I'm fairly sure that Hunter was giving daddy a cut. I doubt that in the case of Romney's spawn.
You may thank Hillary Clinton and Robert Mueller for that one.
The withdrawal from Kabul which occurred on Biden’s watch was the most humiliating defeat in our history. Worse than Saigon. How is the pier in Gaza doing?
What American National interest is served by NATO again?
None.
Making sure we don't have to fight another war to keep another regional hegemon from arising in Europe.
Who is "we?" What benefit do the American people gain from "fighting another war to keep another regional hegemony from arising in Europe?" The last time the USA did that a revolutionary communist superpower took over most of the Eurasian landmass and killed tens of millions of people.
What alternate timeline are you typing from?
What American National interest is served by NATO?
Didn't the same press that so breathlessly screamed about Trump withdrawing troops from Germany also neglect to mention the plan was to move them to Poland?
Perhaps moving US assets to bases in countries that meet their 2% commitments is the way to go. Better to be in a country were you're a partner in defense and not just a program for local landlords and jobs like Germany.
A very serious AMEN to that, brother.
I enjoyed my tours in Naples and Garmisch.
I admit leaning all the flags was tough going.
However, there is a reason NATO is referred to as Not At The Office or Not After Two O'clock.
My impression was that the Europeans see themselves as the Greek city states following the Roman conquest.
The Romans absorbed Greek culture and protected the Greeks from Persia and from each other.
No more Gallipoli, Verdun, the Somme, Passchendaele, etc.
Unfortunately, the European view of America comes from the Economist which used to be a fine magazine but is now little better than the NYT or WP.
While a President Trump could not withdraw from NATO, he need not do anything - like bombing Serbia. murdering Colonel Khadafy, sending young Ukranian men into machine gun fire and minefields, etc.
Personally, I think NATO should have been disbanded following the collapse of the Warsaw Pact.
I think the American security blanket is preventing the European nations from acting like adults.
Perhaps Neil Farage will one day replace the already doomed Sir Keir Starmer as PM (after having replaced the hapless Rishi Sunak) and put the Great back into Britain. A uniparty is a bad idea on both sides of the Pond.
Don't forget "Needs America To Operate". Agree with dissolving NATO after the fall of the Warsaw Pact.
And yet POTATUS' crew was in the South Atlantic a month or two ago discussing the potential membership of Brazil? Argentina?
Consider the source...
France is no longer a cohesive civilized nation, germany wants to fight RU with American blood.
No more Over there's, no more D-Days.
France is now more communist than Russia.
And less democratic than Venezuela
"now" :)
Yes, the French always seem to have their moments ala Bastille.
The future may yet to be written.
About to be infinitely more so. The Putin Administration has no communists I'm the Cabinet. Macron won't be able to form a government without them.
I read it with a smile and a periodic chuckle. Nicely done.