Lavrov speaks out against NATO at UN

In an age where people around the world want to avoid war and to focus instead on the climate chaos that threatens future life on earth, NATO is an anachronism. It now accounts for about three-quarters of military spending and weapons dealing around the globe.

Medea Benjamin: Donald Trump Was Right, NATO Should Be Obsolete

Medea Benjamin: Donald Trump Was Right, NATO Should Be Obsolete


December 02nd, 2019 - The three smartest words that Donald Trump uttered during his presidential campaign are “NATO is obsolete.”

NATO’s post-Cold War expansion toward Russia’s borders, despite earlier promises not to move eastward, has led to rising tensions between Western powers and Russia, including multiple close calls between military forces. It has also contributed to a new arms race, including upgrades in nuclear arsenals, and the largest NATO “war games” since the Cold War.
 
'NATO will bleed for US.'

09.01.2020

NATO a tool for justifying US terrorism: Iran

09 January 2020

'A phone conversation between two cowards.'

09.01.2020

2020-01-09
 
'NATO will bleed for US.'


What if ... Trump is using NATO in a ploy and excuse to clear the Middle East of American Troops ........ and then Trump pulls the plug on NATO ... claiming the EU States haven't been paying their "fair share" of 2% GOP? Trump then stops funds towards NATO in the Military budget - forcing the other States/Countries to prop-up NATO or it goes into Chapter 11 (bankruptcy)?

Trump floats expanding NATO to add Middle East
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce proposed rollbacks to the National Environmental Policy Act regulations in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., January 9, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he supported expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to include Middle Eastern nations, as the United States seeks to limit its troop footprint globally.

'A phone conversation between two cowards.'


Netanyahu sure took his grand old time contacting Trump? Trump has to know that Netanyahu set him up to take the fall for what happen with the assassination in Iraq? And ... all the fall out that has followed? But as usual, Netanyahu has both hands wide open- waiting for the check in the mail?

U.S. senators back bill to provide $3.3 billion for Israel
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) talks to reporters following a classified national security briefing of the U.S. Senate on developments with Iran after attacks by Iran on U.S. forces in Iraq, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., January 8, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
Republican and Democratic U.S. senators introduced legislation on Thursday to provide $3.3 billion in annual aid to Israel, seeking to put into law an aid agreement between the two countries reached in 2016 amid concern over rising Middle East tensions.
 
I guess, a war with Iran would provide "job-security"?

Iran may have shot down Ukrainian passenger plane: NATO chief
FILE PHOTO: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg holds a news conference ahead of a European Union foreign ministers emergency meeting to discuss ways to try to save the Iran nuclear deal, in Brussels, Belgium, January 10, 2020. REUTERS/Johanna Geron
Jan. 10, 2020 - Iran's air defense may have shot down the Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed near Teheran on Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board, the head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday.

Pompeo discussed expanded NATO force in Iraq with Canadian formin: statement
FILE PHOTO: Canada's Minister of international trade Francois-Philippe Champagne speaks during an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Danang, Vietnam November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed the possibility of an expanded NATO presence in Iraq in a call with his Canadian counterpart, Foreign Minister François‑Philippe Champagne, the State Department said on Friday.
 
Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasinov said that "military activities are increasing in the Baltic States and Poland, in the Black and Baltic Seas"

NATO drills indicate preparations for large-scale conflict — Russian General Staff
NATO drills indicate preparations for large-scale conflict — Russian General Staff
Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov Mikhail Metzel/TASS

Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov

NATO military exercises in the Baltic States, Poland, and in the Black and Baltic Seas indicate that the Alliance is preparing for a large-scale conflict, Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasinov told foreign military attaches on Tuesday.

"Military activities are increasing in the Baltic States and Poland, in the Black and Baltic Seas. The intensity of the bloc's military exercises is growing. Their scenarios point to NATO's deliberate preparation to using their forces in a large-scale military conflict," Gerasimov was quoted by the Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) newspaper as saying.

At the same time, the Alliance is promoting a thesis about "Russian military threat," interpreting Russia's actions on ensuring security or any other planned transparent activities in the sphere of military construction as "a threat to peace," Gerasimov noted. "In the doctrines of Brussels, Russia has the status of an adversary," he stressed.

Gerasimov also reminded about the decisions made at the last NATO summit in London. "With the aim of ensuring dominance in space, participants in the summit decided to recognize space as a separate sphere for warfare along with land, airspace, naval and cyber space," he said noting that the United States continue deploying missile defense systems in Europe.

Nevertheless, Gerasimov said that "in our opinion, there are currently no indications that a large-scale war may start." However, the situation in the world remains unstable, and the developments become more unpredictable, he added. The reason behind this lies in the striving of some countries to force their principles on other sovereign states, "including with the use of force," he noted.

"Unprecedented political, economic and informational pressure is being exerted on countries that try to carry out independent policies, including on Russia," Gerasimov said adding that this may potentially lead to crises that could escalate into a larger conflict.

Moreover, changes in the forms of warfare indicate that in the future all spheres will be used for conducting warfare, he continued. "As I already noted, the decisions at the NATO summit in London serve as confirmation of this, since they recognized space as an operational sphere. We should definitely be ready for any possible developments," Gerasimov stressed.

He concluded by noting that Russia's defense potential will be maintained at the level necessary for repelling an aggression against Russia of any scale and from any sphere.

Moscow alarmed by NATO’s activity near Russian, Belarusian borders — Lavrov
Moscow alarmed by NATO’s activity near Russian, Belarusian borders — Lavrov
EPYooasXUAIBw6O.jpg

Russia's top diplomat pointed to the acute crisis of the system of arms control

Russia finds NATO’s growing activity near the borders of Russia and Belarus worrisome, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a message of greeting, read out by the deputy chief of the Foreign Policy Planning Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Alexei Dobrynin, at the opening of a conference commemorating Andrei Gromyko.

"We find worrisome NATO’s growing activity near the borders of Belarus and Russia, as well as the decisions in favor of the further buildup of the member countries’ military budgets made at the alliance’s London summit. These steps lead to Europe’s militarization and are being taken in defiance of the vows not to strengthen one's own security at the expense of the security of others," the message runs.

Lavrov pointed to the acute crisis of the system of arms control. "Tremendous damage to the architecture of strategic stability was caused by the United States, which after its pullout from the anti-ballistic missile treaty ruined the INF Treaty. The future of the New START is in question. We will continue to react adequately to unfriendly actions. At the same time, Russia does not seek confrontation," Lavrov said.

Also, he pointed out that Russia counters "destructive policies being conducted by Washington and its allies" with a positive unification agenda and is keen to prevent the emergence of new separation lines and create a zone of equal and indivisible security and broad cooperation from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
 
Moscow alarmed by NATO’s activity near Russian, Belarusian borders — Lavrov

[...] Lavrov pointed to the acute crisis of the system of arms control. "Tremendous damage to the architecture of strategic stability was caused by the United States, which after its pullout from the anti-ballistic missile treaty ruined the INF Treaty. The future of the New START is in question. We will continue to react adequately to unfriendly actions. At the same time, Russia does not seek confrontation," Lavrov said.

While all eyes and media attention have been focused on China and the Coronavirus epidemic , "the U.S. Navy has reportedly sent an Ohio class ballistic missile submarine on patrol the first time carrying Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missiles armed with the new and controversial low-yield W76-2 nuclear warhead" with its estimated yield of five kilotons in what the U.S. Navy now refers to as "Large Payload Subs".

Without the INF Treaty in force to deter a possible Nuclear War, and minus negotiations to ratify the New START Treaty, as an updated comprehensive replacement - the U.S. Military have, in effect, taken a leap backward into WW11 era mentality, with the controversial W76-2 Nuclear Warheads!

https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fthe-drive-cms-content-staging%2Fmessage-editor%252F1580331452775-effects.jpg

NUKEMAP
A comparison of how Washington, D.C. might be impacted by the detonation of, from left to right, a W88, a W76-1, and a W76-2, as a generic example, according to NUKEMAP's models. The gray outer circle is the maximum extent of light damage, such as broken windows. The yellow circle, clearly visible in the cases of the W88 and W76-1, is the extent of thermal raditation, which can cause third degree burns. The other colored bands cover more extensive damage and the spread of radiation, as well as the immediate fireball, outlined in red.

Navy Missile Sub Has Begun Its First Patrol Armed With Controversial Low Yield Nukes January 29, 2020
Navy Missile Sub Has Begun Its First Patrol Armed With Controversial Low Yield Nukes

This news comes nearly a year after the United States announced it had produced the first of these warheads. Proponents say the warheads are necessary to give the U.S. government added flexibility to respond to certain crises, including limited nuclear strikes, but critics contend that they raise the likelihood of the United States employing nuclear weapons, to begin with.

The Federation of American Scientists first reported the deployment on Jan. 20, 2020. The Ohio class ballistic missile submarine USS Tennessee left its homeport at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia in late December 2019 for a deterrent patrol armed with an unknown number of Trident IIs carrying W76-2s. (Note ... Is it just a coincidence that a new strain of Coronavirus appeared in China at approximately the same time?)

"We estimate that one or two of the 20 [Trident II] missiles on the USS Tennessee and subsequent subs will be armed with the W76-2, either singly or carrying multiple warheads. Each W76-2 is estimated to have an explosive yield of about five kilotons," according to the Federation of American Scientists. "The remaining 18 missiles on each submarine like the Tennessee carry either the 90-kiloton W76-1 or the 455-kiloton W88. Each missile can carry up to eight warheads under current loading configurations."

So, the W76-2, with its estimated yield of five kilotons, has a yield 18 times smaller than the existing W76-1 and is more than 90 times smaller than the W88. NUKEMAP, a map tool that nuclear weapons historian Alex Wellerstein, presently a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, first put online in 2012, estimates that a W76-2 that detonates on the ground would create a fireball just over 490 feet wide, wherein anything would be incinerated, and cause varying levels of damage to anything within a circle around ground zero just under one and a half miles in diameter. By comparison, the W88's fireball would be just under 2,330 feet wide and there would be degrees of damage across an area around 18 miles in diameter. The spread of deadly radiation and fallout would also be factors within these areas, as well as beyond, depending on prevailing weather patterns.

President Donald Trump's Administration codified plans to develop a low-yield warhead for the Trident II missile in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the division of the Department of Energy directly responsible for overseeing America's nuclear stockpile, announced it had built the first W76-2 at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas in February 2019. At that time it said that it planned to deliver the first of these warheads to the Navy by the end of the fiscal year, which wrapped up on Sept. 30, 2019.

The exact configuration of the W76-2 is classified, but it is known to be a derivative of the W76-1, which was itself a product of a life-extension program for the original W76 warheads that NNSA also completed last year. The W76 and W76-1 are understood to be two-stage thermonuclear weapons and previous reports have posited that the new W76-2 may simply eliminate the second stage to produce a significantly lower yield. This would also help explain the speed at which NNSA could develop and field the warhead.

"We estimate approximately 50 W76-2 warheads were produced, a low-cost add-on to improved W76 Mod 1 strategic Trident warheads which had just finished their own production run," the Federation of American Scientists said in their report. At present, the Navy plans to eventually deploy Trident II missiles armed with the new warheads on its future Columbia class ballistic missile submarines, which are scheduled to begin sailing deterrent patrols in 2031.

The Trump Administration and other proponents of the low-yield warhead have argued that there is a need for a more "flexible" deterrent option to respond to more limited nuclear strikes, including those involving an opponent employing tactical nuclear weapons in a battlefield context. The concern is that the U.S. government could be too worried about employing larger yield nuclear weapons to respond in kind to these strikes, creating a deterrence "gap" that opponents might be able to exploit.

This development was driven in no small part by Russia's purported "escalate-to-deescalate" doctrine. Experts continue to disagree over whether or not this policy actually exists.

Concerns about advanced and novel Russian strategic weapons developments, as well as those in China, have prompted steady increases in U.S. government spending on modernizing deterrent capabilities in recent years, in general. On Jan. 28, 2020, Senator Jim Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma and the present the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that the Trump Administration plans to seek another $20 billion for such efforts in the 2021 Fiscal Year, a 20 percent increase over the previous fiscal year's budget, according to Defense News. Existing modernization plans related to America's nuclear arsenal are already slated to cost at least $1.2 trillion over the next 30 years, spending that The War Zone has previously pointed out is very likely unsustainable over that period.

On the other side, critics of the lower-yield W76-2 warn that it is inherently more "usable" and risks lowering the threshold for deciding to employ nuclear weapons. They also point out that the U.S. military already has various nuclear weapons with so-called "dial-a-yield" capabilities that allow for lower yields and the force does not need a new warhead to meet these requirements.

Beyond that, there is no indication that America's potential opponents would be able to discriminate between the launch of a Trident II missile armed with W76-2 warheads and one with larger yield W76-1s or W88s. With just minutes to decide how to react, those adversaries could feel forced to respond as if they were under imminent threat of a full-scale nuclear strike from the United States, rather than a limited one, for fear of losing the ability to retaliate.

A recent push by some members of Congress to cancel or curtail the W76-2 program as part of negotiations over the annual defense policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act, for the 2021 Fiscal Year, ultimately collapsed. Opposition to the low-yield warhead remains and there may be additional legislative efforts aimed at removing it from America's nuclear arsenal in the future.

In the meantime, however, the Navy's Ohio class ballistic missile submarines look set to sail their routine deterrent patrols carrying Trident II missiles carrying the new, lower-yield warheads.


Just modernizing the nuclear arsenal we have today was slated to cost roughly $1.5T with inflation over the next 30 years and that is without the new initiatives laid out by the Strategic Posture Review. These include the introduction of low-yield warheads for the D5 Trident submarine-launched ballistic missile, the reintroduction of a nuclear-tipped naval cruise missile, and the development of nuclear-armed hypersonic weapons that will become a whole new medium of delivery in the coming decades.

Pentagon's New Nuclear Strategy Is Unsustainable And A Handout To Defense Industry Back-dated February 21, 2018
Pentagon's New Nuclear Strategy Is Unsustainable And A Handout To Defense Industry


Also - another unsustainable measure to afford the Pentagon Millions of dollars (probably set aside for "Black" projects)?

U.S. To Spend Hundreds Of Millions To Replace A $5 Part In Revamped Nuclear Weapons September 26, 2019
U.S. To Spend Hundreds Of Millions To Replace A $5 Part In Revamped Nuclear Weapons
 
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia's defense spending was less that $50 billion in 2018.

Lavrov says NATO's defense spending stood at around $1 trillion last year

The Pentagon is seeking $705 billion for its 2021 budget, including a 3% raise for troops
The Pentagon is seeking $705 billion for its 2021 budget, including a 3% raise for troops

Mon, Feb 10 2020 - The Defense Department is asking for $705.4 billion in its fiscal 2021 budget.

The White House on Monday officially released the broad details of President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2021 budget request, which seeks a colossal $740.5 billion for national defense.

The $705.4 billion Pentagon portion is composed of a base budget of $636.4 billion and $69 billion for overseas contingency operations funding, aka the war budget.

Fiscal Year 2021 DOD Budget Request Seeks 3% Pay Raise for Service Mem

The president released his fiscal 2021 budget request today. For those in uniform, the department has asked for a 3% pay raise across the board, along with increases to the allowances for housing and subsistence.

DOD also is seeking $8 billion for a range of programs to support military families, including professional development and education opportunities for service members and spouses, child care for more than 160,000 children, youth programs for more than a million family members and support to the schools that educate more than 77,000 students from military families.

Top priorities for defense in the budget request include nuclear modernization, missile defeat and defense, space and cyberspace.

For fiscal 2021, DOD is asking for $28.9 billion to fund modernization of the nuclear defense program, covering all three legs of the nuclear triad: land, sea and air.

Around $7 billion is targeted at nuclear command, control and communications. Another $2.8 billion is earmarked for the B-21 Raider long-range strike bomber. The Air Force eventually expects to get some 100 of the aircraft, which will carry the B61-12 and B83 nuclear gravity bombs, as well as the long-range standoff cruise missile.


The request for nuclear modernization also funds procurement of the Columbia-class ballistic submarine at $4.4 billion, and the ground-based strategic deterrent at $1.5 billion. The GBSD is expected to replace about 400 existing Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles.

DOD's request also includes $15.4 billion for the newly created U.S. Space Force, $337 million for the Space Development Agency, and $249 million for U.S. Space Command.

Defense officials said the research, development, testing and evaluation budget request is the largest in history, at $106.6 billion. Funding requests for hypersonics at $3.2 billion, microelectronics at $1.5 billion and artificial intelligence at $800 million highlight DOD priorities with regard to the great-power competition, Pentagon officials said. The request for hypersonics would be an increase of 23% over last year, while artificial intelligence would get a 7.8% bump.

Much of the budget request goes toward modernization. In the air, the budget request seeks $3 billion for 15 KC-46 Pegasus tankers to replace aging Eisenhower-era KC-135 Stratotankers and KC-10 Extenders. The request also provides $11.4 billion for 79 F-35 Lightning II variants.

On the sea, the budget request would fund a new Virginia-class submarine at $4.7 billion and two DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers at $3.5 billion.

On the land, the Army and Marine Corps would receive 4,247 joint light tactical vehicles at $1.4 billion, as well as $1.5 billion for modifications and upgrades to 89 M-1 Abrams tanks.

Related News Release: DOD Releases Fiscal Year 2021 Budget Proposal

NATO's public image in the United States and France worsened sharply last year, according to a Pew Research Center study, after U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron questioned the value of the Western alliance.

NATO's image worsens sharply in France, United States, study shows
February 10, 2020 - Positive views of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which relies on the commitment of its allies to collective defense, fell to 52% in the United States last year, from 64% in 2018, the study released on Monday said.

In France, where Macron said last year the alliance was experiencing “brain death” because of a perceived failure to help resolve world conflicts, support fell to 49%, from 60% in 2017 and 71% in 2009. A figure for 2018 was not available.

NATO diplomats have long feared that Trump’s portrayal of NATO as an alliance in crisis might erode U.S. public support.

In Britain, however, where NATO is taking on greater symbolic importance following the country’s decision to leave the European Union, favorable views of NATO improved to 65% of Britons last year from 62% in 2017.

Overall, the study said 53% of people in 16 NATO members had a positive opinion of NATO, with less than a third expressing a negative view. The alliance is seen most favorably in Poland and least liked in Turkey.
 

NATO willing to expand Iraqi training mission to meet Trump demand
FILE PHOTO: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gestures as he holds a news conference ahead of a NATO defence ministers meeting at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium February 11, 2020. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
NATO is considering an increase to its training mission in Iraq to relieve the burden on the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, senior officials and diplomats said on Tuesday.

NATO defense ministers including U.S. Secretary of State Mark Esper will discuss options for non-combat operations in the Middle East at a two-day meeting in Brussels starting on Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

“We are discussing what more NATO can do,” he told reporters, adding that the alliance would first seek to restart the training with the Iraqi government’s blessing.
 
NATO willing to expand Iraqi training mission to meet Trump demand
FILE PHOTO: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gestures as he holds a news conference ahead of a NATO defence ministers meeting at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium February 11, 2020. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
NATO is considering an increase to its training mission in Iraq to relieve the burden on the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, senior officials and diplomats said on Tuesday.

NATO defense ministers including U.S. Secretary of State Mark Esper will discuss options for non-combat operations in the Middle East at a two-day meeting in Brussels starting on Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

“We are discussing what more NATO can do,” he told reporters, adding that the alliance would first seek to restart the training with the Iraqi government’s blessing.

'They (US and NATO) are preparing 'legal ground' (Iraq) to invade Iran, while Turkey playing its 'NATO role' in Syria.'

2020-02-11
 
NATO welcomed on Friday the announcement of an agreement between Washington and the Taliban, which opens the way for a “lasting peace,” Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stated.

US and Taliban to sign peace deal
US and Taliban to sign peace deal

Washington and the Taliban said they would sign the agreement on 29 February provided a partial truce is maintained for a week.

The agreement would mark a major turn in the conflict, setting the conditions for an agreement that could eventually allow Washington to withdraw US troops after more than 18 years.

“This is a critical test of the Taliban’s willingness and ability to reduce violence, and contribute to peace in good faith. This could pave the way for negotiations among Afghans, sustainable peace, and ensuring the country is never again a safe haven for terrorists,” he added.

NATO has a mission of 16,000 men to Afghanistan to train, support and advise local forces.
The Brussels Times (Reuter's won't print that last statement.)

Taliban, Afghan forces clash on first day of violence reduction period
Taliban fighters and Afghan security forces clashed in parts of Afghanistan on Saturday, a day after a week-long "reduction in violence" was announced, but the incidents did not spark immediate alarm on either side.

Peace?
 
BREAKING:


'Who wants to be 'victorious?'

03 March 2020
 
Back
Top Bottom