U.s. Tanks Roll Into Germany To Protect Against Potential Russian Invasion

= Better to be seen to be actively than covertly maneuvering (which I'm sure is also going on)
Although with the eyes of the world watching, there is more chance of a cautious approach
The Great game is equally about what one doesn't do, as that which one does do

 

No, its not a bluff. In the entire history of warfare there has never been a weapon deployed that was not used. For example, neutron bombs are illegal by international law, yet, the US has them anyway along with nerve gas and other illegal weapons. However, we merely keep them in stock and don't deploy them among the troops.

Those missiles were placed in Cuba on the premise that, if the need or opportunity arose, they would most certainly use them. Its the same mentality as a gangster or a cop carrying a gun around with them even though a cop may never fire their weapon over the entire length of their career. That weapon is there to be used and nobody assumes a cop or a gangster carries a gun around merely attempting to bluff people. Sure, part of its purpose is intimidation, but on the assumption that without that intimation a fight is certain and bluffing about such things just doesn't cut it in the long run. Neither side wants to use nuclear weapons which is why the US has deployed tanks to Germany and Poland because their use is much more acceptable just as cop may not hesitate to use a taser.

 

A soldier guarding a gate may never use his gun, but guns are used everywhere by soldiers and his carrying one is not a bluff. That weapon is deployed among the troop to be used if necessary or their superiors see an opportunity. Nuclear weapons have been used and the idea that the US would never use them after developing them and deploying them is a sad misunderstanding of the nature of warfare. Those who forget history are destined to repeat it.

Jimmy Carter is one of my favorite presidents and he was a nuclear submarine captain as well as proving to be a great humanitarian. In office, he was the first to test all the men manning the missile silos. He gave the order for them to launch and then reassigned half of them when they refused the order. Recently, one man had to shoot his partner who attempted to launch his missile without authorization. These are not toys nor are they deployed over the long run as merely a bluff.

Kennedy attempted to bluff Cuba during the missile crisis and the Soviets merely took a few missiles out to appease him and then returned them as soon as possible. Those tanks in Poland are there to stay. They are part of Obama's promise to pay back the Russians.

 

And an assessment of Kennedy's "attempted bluff" with Cuba I feel indicates an opinion of somebody who does not recall what the feeling was at the time - this was seriously close to that which no sane person wants to see.
Those tanks will be there for now and then removed (no doubt as a gesture of goodwill between two new best buddies Vladimir and Donny) as the muscle flexing and great game .... continues

 

"Carter studied engineering at Georgia Southwestern Junior College before joining the Naval ROTC program to continue his engineering studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He then applied to the highly competitive Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, which accepted him to begin studies in the summer of 1943. With his reflective, introverted personality and small stature (Carter stood only five feet, nine inches tall), he did not fit in well among his fellow midshipmen. Nevertheless, Carter continued to excel at academics, graduating in the top ten percent of his class in 1946. While on leave in the summers, Carter had reconnected with a girl named Rosalynn Smith whom he had known since childhood. They married in June 1946.
The Navy assigned Jimmy Carter to work on submarines, and in the early years of their marriage, the Carters – like many a military family – moved frequently. After a training program in Norfolk, Virginia, they moved out to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where Carter was an electronics officer on the USS Pomfret. After subsequent postings to Groton, Connecticut; San Diego, California and Washington, D.C., in 1952 Carter was assigned to work with Admiral Hyman Rickover developing a nuclear submarine program in Schenectady, New York. The brilliant and notoriously demanding admiral made a profound impression on Carter. "I think, second to my own father, Rickover had more effect on my life than any other man," he later said."

You might be right, perhaps he wasn't a captain, but he worked in the nuclear submarine program with Rickover who is a legend in the Navy and the nuclear submarine fleet. As president he gave the order for the men in the missile silos to launch the nuclear missiles and then countermanded it at the last moment. Half of them refused to launch their missiles and were replaced. Today, they are routinely tested in this manner. The USS Pomfret was a nuclear submarine he was on.

 

Kennedy was an idealist which why he was so hotheaded and came close to starting WWIII.

Poland has been in NATO for 18 years now and has eagerly awaited the day NATO forces would be stationed there. They hate the Russians about as much as its possible to hate them and know which side of their bread is buttered. Of course, the Russians have been complaining about the US expanding NATO into eastern Europe and the US has taken it slow, but occupying Poland permanently with tanks would be exactly the kind of show of force the US might attempt as a way to punish Putin. Again, its no different than Russia putting missiles in Cuba and would be the most provocative move they can make to pressure Putin who has already been criticized for his annexation of Crimea in the Ukraine. The US is putting the pressure on Putin to either behave himself or face the consequences of the US increasingly helping to inspire rebellion among even central Russian states.

He's a petty dictator with delusions of grandeur, along the same lines as Saddam Hussein, and his threatening nuclear war is not going to deter the US from spanking him and certainly isn't going to deter the US from containing his ass. The number of nuclear weapons in the world is still increasing and there's just no way the US can allow any nuclear power to walk all over them like Putin did attempting to mess with our elections, at least, according to the government.

 

Oh well well well.This is absolutely ridiculous.Posturing global leaders playing with our precious planet.The things that I love.Said leaders are paranoid.They will play a war of words and show military strength over the slightest little issue and discord.It is absolutely unnecessary.I'm talking about America,Russia and Europe here.The Palestine/Israeli conflict is a real big issue,The India/Pakistan issue is also real.China is a concern.As obviously us the middle East crisis.

But basically America,Europe and Russia should have no problem.Although different in culture to some degree the peoples share so much in common.Yes folks listen to the Rolling Stones in Russia.Yes students study the Russian writer in American universities etc.Where is the bloody argument coming from.The people don't want a war.It's all about the arms trade,needing an enemy to play off so as to maintain nationalist fervour.This in turn enables established political elites to remain in power and perpetuate their system.We need a system of sorts but this current thinking is no good.

America is trying to hold onto World hegemony.They currently have military operations in seventy percent of countries around the World.The fact is that the idea of real third World war,be it conventional or thermonuclear is completely unacceptable to civilised society.I wouldn't demonstrate about much but I would march shout and scream if this conflict,so called escalates.

I am not a Trump nut but thankfully he will thaw relations with Russia.Hillary in contrast wanted to establish no fly zones in Syria and make the proxy war between Russia and US open and declared.She is the hawkish warmonger who pushed for the overthrow of Gadaffi in Lybia,partly because he was vowing to come off the dollar and trade in gold.And now look at the fiasco there.I have many misgivings about Trump but he has said he doesn't want to impose the American way of life on other nation states.Whereas the so called left were perusing a policy of trying to impose American style democracy on nation's for which it is not suitable,and amounts to cultural imperialism.

Russia has had to put up with NATO expansionism into Eastern Europe when U.S. controlled NATO said it wouldn't.

Trump seems a little frosty with China and that is a concern,but as Russia is relatively on good terms China this hopefully could triangulate okay.I could go on.Who am I? World leader pretend.Just kidding I don't know shit.

 

Sorry, don't have a link for that, but there were no missiles launched. The guys in the silos were told to launch and went through the entire rigmarole of turning the keys and everything only to be ordered to stand down at the last moment. It was the first time anyone had thought to test them that way and they discovered half of them were unwilling to launch their missiles (duh!). Its a common problem in the military with, sometimes, as few as five or ten percent of the soldiers on a battlefield actually shooting to kill anyone. They'll aim high or whatever and maybe shoot someone coming at them, but most people are just naturally reluctant to kill another person and nuclear weapons are as big a gun as its possible to shoot. I know I couldn't kill millions of people with the push of a button.

If I'm not mistaken, they've also added the ability now to disconnect the switches in a silo so they can watch them actually push the button on a regular basis without launching and they never tell them whether its just a drill or not. I've known a few spooks and some of my best friends are navy seals. Its just not something anybody off the street can do and, these days, even cops are frequently trained to empty their gun into someone if they are forced to use it rather than just shooting them once or twice. My seal friends tell me they never want to try to become a cop because they've just been trained to kill at the first sign of trouble and would probably end up in jail themselves. It makes for some interesting marriages sleeping next to a trained killer who has nightmares. Thankfully, these days they are getting better with dealing with such thing using drugs, but some of these guys you don't even want to share a room with for any length of time. Like wolf, they can never be tamed and you just never know when they'll fly off the handle.

 

You're aware these NATO forces rotate and so the US forces are not there permanently (if I recall right for 9 months max.)? Also, is occupying really the most fitting word here?

 

The one thing Russia can't stand the thought of is the US building a military base in Poland. NATO forces occupying Poland is a step in that direction. A few years of this becoming routine and that's exactly what the US will, no doubt, quietly suggest to the Polish government. Any government building a military base on foreign soil is "occupying" that country, whether by mutual agreement or them having no real say in the matter.

 

Agree to disagree I guess.

 

Russians only have two responses, either they invade or retreat, wrestle or back-off, which is why the US has limited options for dealing with them and building up their military right along the Russian border is one of the few means of intimidation they understand.

 

NATO's unnecessary meddling in Ukraine trying to incorporate it into NATO was what created a major rift between ukraine and russia leading to the present issues.

NATO should have been dismantled after the cold war, when the russians were embracing democracy eagerly. But the western politicians did not want that to happen, as they needed the russian bogey to ensure funding for their military purposes and objectives, and thus russia has become an adversary again.

If the situation develops into a nuclear war, the western politicians should be blamed for bringing destruction upon their own lands in the name of NATO.

 

Its another NATOs member's turn in 9 months. The US is not 'building up their military' there for a longterm 'occupation'.

 

When it comes to troop movements, there are no coincidences if they can help it and the timing of this one after 18 years is not a coincidence. They've waited and taken their time, but its a clear message that the more Russia fucks with the US the faster we will move in on their borders. When it comes to real estate, governments tend to take the long term view just as anyone might when thinking about who their neighbors might become.

 

Instigated by an out-going President - to be repealed by the incoming Presi-trump = No coincidence, - just a observation of historical re-occurrence