NATO continues to revel in collective delusion and pretend that it can change the outcome in Ukraine. That was demonstrated today by the fanfare surrounding the news that Turkey will no longer block Sweden and Finland from joining the crew of the Titanic. On Monday (June 27), NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced NATO would boost its troops on the western border near Russia:
We will increase the number of high readiness forces to well over 300,000,” he said at a news conference in Brussels.
This includes “more pre-positioned equipment and stockpiles of military supplies; more forward-deployed capabilities, like air defense; strengthened command and control, and upgraded defense plans with forces pre-assigned to defend specific allies . . .
Dementia Joe Biden chimed in today:
The United States will be making specific announcements tomorrow on land, sea and air on additional force posture commitments over the long term beyond the duration of this crisis, for however long it goes on,” Sullivan said aboard Air Force One as Biden was flying to Madrid. “Those will help increases the United States’ and NATO’s maritime presence.”
“By the end of the summit what you will see is a more robust, more effective, more combat credible, more capable and more determined force posture to take account of a more acute and aggravated Russian threat,” he added.
If you are not familiar with military terms let me help you out. What is a brigade? The United States Army, which has not fought a peer-level ground war since Korea, is now using “Brigade Combat Teams”:
brigade combat team (BCT) in which each brigade contains combat elements and their support units. After the 2013 reform, BCT personnel strength typically ranges from 4,400 personnel for infantry BCTs, to 4,500 personnel for Stryker BCTs, to 4,700 personnel for armored BCTs.
The 300,000 man NATO force is not going to be deployed in a single formation in one location. The force will be dispersed along Ukraine’s border, which stretches from Romania to Poland. In addition, NATO will probably put some troops in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. But that dispersion of forces means all you have are trip wires or speed bumps in the event Russia decided to launch a ground invasion of one or more of the NATO countries nearest to Russia. Russia is not going to do that, even if those NATO forces initiate military operations that threaten Russian troops in Ukraine or Moldova.
Russia has demonstrated forcefully during the last four months that it can and will use hyper-sonic missiles to hit targets where troops and munitions are located. NATO is simply trying to poking a caged Bear with a stick and hoping it does not strike back. This is beyond foolish. It is dangerous.
NATO has no effective anti-missile defense system. Russia made that point emphatically when it hit Yavoriv, the defacto NATO base in western Ukraine, on March 13 and has continued to pummel the base at will. During the past two weeks, Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukrainian military targets where NATO supplied weapons are being assembled and deployed.
NATO’s military posturing is taking place against the backdrop of major economic disruptions in Europe. Rising inflation, more unemployment and domestic political unrest are creating significant headwinds that will limit, if not halt, Europe’s NATO members from continuing to try to up the ante in Ukraine.
It is one thing to have troops on the ground, but it they are not supplied with weapons they are nothing more than defenseless targets. NATO and the United States have stripped their armories in their frantic attempt to supply Ukraine. Most NATO countries do not have warehouses brimming with new missiles, artillery and tanks to replace those they have sent east. Making matters worse, the Russians are destroying and capturing NATO’s largess.
Ultimately, a country’s ability to wage war is based on its industrial and manufacturing prowess. News flash–the United States no longer is the industrial powerhouse that produced aircraft carriers, fighter planes, tanks and trucks that defeated Japan and helped Russia whip the Nazis. Ironically, Russia is the only country in this conflict that has that capability. That is a fact that the west refuses to accept or acknowledge.
The United States and NATO are treating Russia like Forrest Gump trying to find a seat on the bus on his first day of school. “You can’t sit here.” What the west fails to understand is that Putin is now in a position to build his own bus, hire his own driver and get to school without the help of the United States or NATO.
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