sToRmR1dR said:
Top US Commander for Middle East Secretly Visits Syria
http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160522/1040033642/usa-commander-secret-syria-visit.html
The commander of US Central Command, responsible for the Middle East, Northern Africa and Central Asia, made a secret visit to Syria to discuss Raqqa assault.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — US Army Gen. Joseph Votel, who is the commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), responsible for the Middle East, Northern Africa and Central Asia, made a secret visit to Syria, US media reported.
US Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL confirmed the fact that the CENTCOM commander had visited Syria.
Votel arrived in the Middle Eastern nation for a day-long visit to attend the places, where US special operations forces were located and meet the local forces trained by US specialists, CNN reported on Saturday.
According to the broadcaster, Votel is the highest-ranking US military official, who has visited the crisis-torn Syria, since the beginning of the civil war.
Well, that's an interesting development, which can only mean - an escalation in more bloodshed? Guess this is a serious rebuttal to Putin's offer - for the U.S. to join airstrikes on it's "moderate" proxies in their Raqqa stronghold?
Why US Rejected Russian Offer for Joint Airstrikes Against al-Nusra Front
http://sputniknews.com/world/20160522/1040046176/us-russia-nusra-front.html
Russia has offered the US to launch joint airstrikes in Syria against the al-Nusra Front, one of the most dangerous militant groups in the Middle East. The initiative would be a logical part of the war on terrorism, but may face some unexpected obstacles.
Russia, the US and other parties are continuing to coordinate efforts on the Syrian settlement. According to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Moscow offered Washington to launch joint airstrikes against the al-Nusra Front, starting May 25.
"To continue the fight against UN-designated terrorist organizations, we are offering the United States — as co-chair of the International Syria Support Group — to begin joint actions on May 25 between Russian Aerospace Forces and the US-led coalition, on planning and carrying out airstrikes against al-Nusra Front and illegal armed groups that do not adhere to the ceasefire," Shoigu said.
Until May 25, Russia wants to cooperate with the US to establish the ceasefire regime in areas under control of moderate opposition groups.
"We suggest the United States to continue its work with the 'moderate' opposition and those who have sided with them in the cessation of hostilities until May 25 of this year, to give exact definitions of the regions under their control, and to withdraw units observing the conditions of the cessation of hostilities from the territories controlled by al-Nusra Front formations and other international terrorist organizations," the minister said.
Shoigu added that actions by al-Nusra Front continue to fuel tensions in the region.
"We do not collaborate or coordinate our operation with the Russians. As the Secretary [Carter] has said, Russian operations are supporting and enabling the Assad Regime which is like pouring fuel on a fire. We remain focused solely on degrading and defeating ISIL [Daesh]," US Department of Defense spokesman Matthew Allen told Sputnik.
Indeed, al-Nusra Front is one of the key sources of instability in Syria, especially in northern Syria, analyst Vladimir Evseyev from the Institute of CIS Countries said.
"Recently, Russia has proved to the US that this is al-Nusra Front militants who attack civilians. This is why a compromise between Moscow and Washington is possible," Evseyev told Gazeta.Ru.
According to the analyst, the US-led coalition has not conducted actions against the terrorist group due to Turkey’s interests in the region.
"The US doesn’t want to get involved because Washington doesn’t want additional problems with Turkey," he said.
On the other hand, the Turkish government supports radical Islamist groups. This fact should sooner or later anger Washington, Evseyev suggested. Unlike Daesh, al-Nusra Front are adapting to the ceasefire and disguising as more moderate militant groups.
Russia and the US have been in bilateral talks over a plan to end the Syrian war. Moscow’s offer on joint actions against al-Nusra Front was aimed at eliminating one of the main obstacles in the peaceful settlement.
However, Washington seems "determined to reject any Russian plan out of hand, which likely explains why the months of negotiations have just amounted to intermittent US statements of condemnation," an article by Ron Paul Institute read.
Russia is steadily building positive ties, if not to say strategic alliances, with its Asian neighbors which are discontent with Washington’s policy, an article in Asia Times read.
Russia Builds 'Strategic Alliances' With US Partners in Asia
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160522/1040042367/russia-asean-cooperation.html
"While the West and its strong allies in the region see the move as part of Russia’s 'expansionism', others view it as the Russian way of counterbalancing the US position in the region," the author wrote.
For Asian countries, cooperation with Moscow is a chance to decrease their dependence on the US and its "fragile commitment to their security."
At the same time, Russia has offered a positive alternative with "huge potential" for cooperation at the state and bilateral levels and also at the level of regional organizations.
Some ASEAN nations have already supported this approach, the article read. Cooperation with Russia would help them become more independent from the US. In turn, Russia would be able to decrease its reliance on Western markets.
Russia considers ASEAN an opportunity for economic expansion. ASEAN is one of the most successful international organizations uniting 604 million people who produce over $2 trillion of GDP.
Moscow is actively developing regional economic initiatives. Recently, Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran agreed to establish the North-South Transport Corridor along the Caspian Sea. The new route will speed up deliveries of goods from India to Central Asia and Russia. What is more, the corridor will help India, Iran and Azerbaijan gain access to the market of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), according to Asia Times.
As for strategic cooperation, there are already possibilities for military cooperation between Moscow and some Washington’s allies, particularly Thailand.
"Russian military hardware can be seen in Thailand. Russian Mi-17 helicopters have begun to replace US Blackhawks. Thailand’s aging arsenal of American M-60, M-48, and M-41 tanks may soon be replaced by Russian T-90s," the article read.
"US influence in the region is being increasingly challenged, if not replaced, because of its own interventions in the internal political matters of its allies in the region in the name of establishing 'democracy' or protecting 'human rights'," the author wrote.
Russia’s policy in the region may result in withholding or limiting the US influence, to an extent where the US would be unable to operate through its "traditional methods of domination and diplomatic coercion," the article read.
Cooperation between Russia and ASEAN countries was also boosted by anti-Russian policies of the US and the European Union. Moscow has focused on the Asian region due to tensions with Western countries over Ukraine, according to Reuters.
Washington's two key allies in Asia, Japan and South Korea, have been increasingly worried that the US is not fully committed to providing them security at a time when North Korea appears to be actively pursuing nuclear weapons and tensions in the South China Sea are rising, analyst Michael Crowley asserted.
Washington's Two Key Allies in Asia Doubt US Commitment to Their Security
http://sputniknews.com/asia/20160522/1040054751/us-japan-south-korea.html
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan "increasingly fret that the US, which has protected them for decades under a nuclear umbrella, may become a less reliable ally," he noted in an article for Politico.
Some in Tokyo and Seoul have apparently contemplated opting for a measure of last resort when it comes to security — acquiring nuclear weapons as a means to deter potential North Korean aggression.
This idea, even if marginal, marks a major departure for Japan, a country that has forsworn nuclear weapons following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII. In March, Osaka Governor Ichiro Matsui said that the nation should discuss the issue and decide whether to go nuclear or not.
"With the perfect right to collective self-defense, we should debate whether our troops can completely cover the needs of our own country," Matsui told reporters. "If we possess weapons, the ultimate weapon will become necessary."
In 2011, Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara urged Japanese authorities to develop nuclear weapons.
Should Washington's two key allies in the region decide to explore this option, the move could spark a nuclear arms race in Asia, offering a disturbing vision of what the analyst referred to as a "dangerous atomic future."
It is against this backdrop that US President Barack Obama, who has long advocated denuclearization efforts in the world, will visit Hiroshima on May 27.
Divisions are growing among NATO country members over the need to restore dialogue with Russia, an article in Financial Times read. Concerns are growing that the standoff between Moscow and the West is getting out of control.
Alliance Divided: NATO Members at Odds Over Restoring Dialogue With Russia
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160522/1040050251/nato-russia-dialogue.html
The newspaper made the assumption as a result of two days of talks between NATO foreign ministers and chiefs of general staffs. The meeting took place in Brussels on May 19-20.
During the talks, representatives of France and Germany pushed for rapprochement with Moscow and holding a session of the Russia-NATO Council during the July summit in Warsaw. Other NATO members were skeptical about the idea.
For example, one Eastern European diplomat told the Financial Times that talks with Russia were not to calm Moscow but to "reassure people in Brussels, people who worry too much about angering [Russian President Vladimir] Putin."
He added that Russia is just "playing games with NATO."
The "war of words" between Russia and NATO is getting increasingly "worrisome and bellicose," the article read.
NATO plans a major military buildup at its eastern flank, and Moscow has promised to respond. Earlier this week, British General Richard Shirreff warned that the prospect of a full war with Russia within a year.
This triggered a "bout of soul-searching within NATO" over the need to de-escalate the tensions.
British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond harshly criticized the general for his disturbing conduct and using irresponsible language.
"It’s wildly speculative and inflammatory, and I’m afraid from where I sit it does look as though it is related to maximising publicity," Hammond told Financial Times.
He added that dialogue is the "best way" to de-escalate tensions with Russia.
In Turn, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance is trying to avoid "misunderstandings, misinterpretation and miscalculations" in order to make sure "things are not spiraling out of control."
NATO has repeatedly claimed Russia is a threat, thus justifying their military buildup in Eastern Europe. The alliance plans to deploy four or five battalions in the Baltics and Poland. The decision is due to be made at the summit in Warsaw. Moscow has said that Russia is not interested in confrontation but ready to give an adequate response to the NATO strategy.
Mounting evidence presented by high-ranking US military officials to the United States’ Congress make it clear that the American army, once a powerful might backing Washington’s policies around the world, is now slowly, but surely, unraveling.
These Six Facts Expose the American Military’s Coming Collapse
http://sputniknews.com/us/20160522/1040036832/six-facts-us-army-unraveling.html
According to The National Interest, the gradual decrease in military spending by a whopping 25 percent over the last five years has led to erosion of the American armed forces. The news outlet made a chart of six top revelations by military authorities that point to the horrifying scale of problems the nation’s army is now facing.
Marine Corps’ Aircraft Grounded in Droves The US Marine Corps revealed that two-thirds of the branch’s 276 F/A-18 Hornet strike jets had been grounded because of a lack of financing and equipment weariness. To keep the rest of the aircraft in service the Corps has resorted to "cannibalizing," which is the practice of taking out components of one multibillion-dollar jet to repair another one. This has resulted in a situation in which every serving pilot has only four hours of flight time per week instead of 30 a decade before that.
The Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, faces troubles that the military has long struggled to fix, including issues with onboard oxygen generation/filtration system, which if not fixed properly, could lead to the death of pilots.
Further, one hundred of the 147 Super Stallion helicopters have been grounded due to various technical problems.
Army Brigades Losing Tactical Efficiency and Shrinking in Numbers As of 2015, only two-thirds of the Army brigades were ready for decisive actions due to budget slashes, according to the Army Vice Chief of Staff General Daniel Allyn. At the same time the US military contingent is shrinking in numbers that “increases the threats and danger to the United States,” Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno said.
By mid-2018, the authorities aim to shape an army of 450,000 soldiers that will be 20 percent smaller than the army in 2012.
Air Force Jets Being Refitted With Parts From Museum Planes The Air Force’s B-1 Lancer bombers are being refitted with parts pulled out of museum jets to be kept in-service. The components of the F-16 Fighting Falcons are also actively used in repairing other F-16s that constantly need spare parts.
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James unveiled that less than half of the branch’s forces are prepared for engaging in “a conflict…. where an adversary could shoot us down, interfere with us in some major way in space or cyberspace.”
The Navy’s Dying for More Ships The US Navy is consistently seeing shortage of ships in their fleet. The budget shortfalls “forced the Navy to accept significant risk in key mission areas,” Admiral Jon Greenert admitted. Currently, the branch needs 350 battle vessels, but it only has 273.
Marine Corps’ Copters Keep Crashing The average number of Marine Corps’ aircraft crashes has increased twice in a decade, resulting in a string of fatal accidents earlier this year. Over a hundred helicopters were grounded for additional technical checks afterwards.
Ageing B-52s Called Back in Service Amid Lack of Alternatives The Air Force has to throw into the fray B-52 bombers, which are more than half-a-century-old, to carry out anti-Daesh operations in the Middle East as the more modern, stealth-capable B-1 Lancers performed poorly in the same campaigns.
Serious tensions are simmering between "interventionists" and "America Firsters" in the US Army, American author Justin Raimondo warns.
Why US Officers Believe Pentagon Officials Take Them for a Fool
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160518/1039841937/us-army-dissent-pentagon.html
While the Pentagon and NATO officials are playing the game called "Chicken-Little, sky-is-falling," in claiming that Russia is harboring plans to invade Europe, other US military officers urge their counterparts "to stop waving the bloody red shirt," American journalist and the editorial director of Antiwar.com Justin Raimondo writes in his article.
Predictably, the whole "Russians-are-coming" fuss is all about the money, he stresses.
"In early April, a battalion of senior military officials appeared before a Senate panel and testified that the US Army is 'outranged and outgunned,' particularly in any future conflict with Russia. Arguing for a much bigger budget for the Army, they claimed that, absent a substantial increase in funding, the Russians would overtake us and, even scarier, 'the army of the future will be too small to secure the nation'," Raimondo narrates, referring to Lieutenant General Herbert R. McMaster, Jr.'s testimony at the US Senate Committee on Armed Service.
In a similar vein the US influential think tank RAND Corporation claimed in February 2016 that Russian military forces could overrun NATO's Baltic footholds in 60 hours.
Then, in late March, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter warned American lawmakers against sequestering the US defense budget.
"Ash justified all the needless spending by telling the Senators that there are five 'security challenges' confronting the United States — terrorism, North Korea, China, Russia and Iran — before lapsing into Pentagon-speak about why more money is always better than less money," noted Philip Giraldi, a former CIA Case Officer and Army Intelligence Officer, in his April Op-Ed for the Unz Review.
It is worth mentioning that the US defense budget has skyrocketed by almost $315 billion since 2001.
And of course the [US] hawks are eager to seize on any excuse to expand an already bloated US military budget — one that exceeds Russian military expenditures by seven-fold," Raimondo remarks.
It would be a mistake to think that all US military officers are planning to dig up the hatchet.
The American author refers to an article by Mark Perry for Politico.com which is entitled "The US Army's War Over Russia." Perry cites senior US military figures, throwing "a rhetorical hand grenade" into the camp of American interventionists.
"This is the 'Chicken-Little, sky-is-falling' set in the Army. These guys want us to believe the Russians are 10 feet tall. There's a simpler explanation: The Army is looking for a purpose, and a bigger chunk of the budget. And the best way to get that is to paint the Russians as being able to land in our rear and on both of our flanks at the same time. What a crock," a senior Pentagon official told Perry.
"A growing group of dissenters both in and out of uniform think that McMaster's grim warnings about Army capabilities dodges the real issue — of whether the Army is willing to change the way it fights wars," Perry stressed.
The journalists call attention to the fact that American interventionism is steadily bankrupting the United States.
"You know, which would you rather have — a high-speed rail system, or another brigade in Poland? Because that's what this is really all about," a Pentagon officer said, as cited by Perry.
Raimondo warns that "a civil war within the US military is raging."
"The anti-Russian propaganda campaign has been ongoing for years: the military-industrial complex and their neoconservative allies (and beneficiaries) need a new enemy now that the 'war on terrorism' is wearing a little threadbare," he underscores.
The question of who will prevail, US interventionists or "America Firsters," remains open.
