Article

2015-10-14 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Hugo Spaulding, writing in the Institute for the Study of War [1] notes that Vladimir Putin is challenging president Obama across a very broad strategic front. This is quite a contrast to the media perception that their confrontation is limited largely to Syria. He writes:

Russia's Syrian campaign is part of larger confrontation with the U.S. and NATO. In addition to expanding the scope of its operations to bolster the regime of Bashar al-Assad, Russia issued an open challenge to NATO through repeated violations of Turkish airspace, the shadowing of U.S. Predator drones in Syria, and the launch of cruise missiles into Syria from the Caspian Sea through Iraqi airspace without warning the U.S. beforehand.

Russia accelerated its effÂorts to court U.S. allies including Jordan and Israel ... bolstered its military presence near Afghanistan ... announcing the deployment of attack helicopters to neighboring Tajikistan. In a snap ministerial meeting on October 8, NATO agreed to double the size of its Response Force and announced its preparedness to deploy ground forces to defend Turkey ... Russia's escalated support to Syrian regime operations against rebels and Jabhat al Nusra in Syria show that Russia's main objective in the Middle East is not the anti-ISIS âfight, but rather the formation of a Russian-Iranian alignment that will serve its broader aims.
In the mind of Russians, NATO was at war with Russia since 1998 (the rape of Serbia)

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2015-10-14 11:13|| || Front Page|| [11130 views ] Top

#1 Why stop at 1998? NATO is at war with ~~The Soviet Union~~ Russia. NATO has always been at war with ~~The Soviet Union~~ Russia.

Posted by Nguard 2015-10-14 13:15|| 2015-10-14 13:15|| Front Page Top

#2 Because 1998 convinced Russians that it doesn't mater what regime Russia has---it's still Drang nach Osten. Clinton is, actually, the one who made Putin the Sole Authocrat of all Russias (except, I suspect, Russia is ruled by a KGB heads commitee---with Vlad as the CEO)

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2015-10-14 13:23|| 2015-10-14 13:23|| Front Page Top

#3 Cuban and Iranian troop with Russian air power in Syria attacking our pathetic surrogate forces. Yes Champ, you f*cking idiot, the 1980's have their foreign policy back. What a dangerous clown sits in the Oval Office.

Posted by NoMoreBS 2015-10-14 15:34|| 2015-10-14 15:34|| Front Page Top

#4 our pathetic surrogate forces

All 5 of them?

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2015-10-14 15:38|| 2015-10-14 15:38|| Front Page Top

Posted by Blossom Unains5562 2015-10-14 16:04|| 2015-10-14 16:04|| Front Page Top

#6 I love the touch that the backpack is pink.

Posted by rjschwarz 2015-10-14 18:06|| 2015-10-14 18:06|| Front Page Top

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