Russia to offer air base to US for Afghan transit

Newsday ^ | 3/14/2012 | Vladimir Isachenkov

[U-238]

A new deal allowing the United States and its NATO allies to use a Russian air base for transit of troops and military cargo to Afghanistan would help ensure Russia's own security, Russia's foreign minister said Wednesday.

Sergey Lavrov said a plan to permit the U.S. and other NATO nations to use the base in the city of Ulyanovsk on the Volga River will soon be considered by the Russian Cabinet. If approved, the deal could help repair Russian ties with the United States, which have become increasingly strained over Washington's missile defense plans in Europe and the Syrian crisis.

Moscow has provided the U.S. and other NATO member states with air corridors and railway routes for carrying supplies to and from Afghanistan. The new agreement would for the first time allow alliance members to set up a logistics facility for troops and cargo on Russian territory.

Lavrov strongly defended such a deal, saying the success of NATO's mission is essential for fending off the spread of terrorism and illegal drugs from Afghanistan into ex-Soviet Central Asian nations and Russia.

"It's in our interests that the coalition achieves a success before withdrawing and makes sure that the Afghans are capable of defending their country and ensuring an acceptable level of security," Lavrov told the lower house of Russia's legislature. Some lawmakers argued that the U.S. military's use of the Ulyanovsk facility could threaten Russia by allowing foreign troops on its soil.

"We want those who are fending off threats directed at Russia to efficiently fulfill their tasks," Lavrov said. "We are helping the coalition to proceed from our own interests."

In Belgium, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said boosting cooperation on the Afghan transit would benefit both the alliance and Russia.

[nathanbedford]

Reasons which reflexively rather than thoughtfully occur why this is a bad deal:

1) we do not need the base, our time in Afghanistan is coming to an end.

2) we will be aligned with the hated Russians and despised all the more by the Afghans thus affirming the Al Qaeda line against us.

3) that which the Russians permit they can forbid and so we will always have a gun at our heads if we need the base in the future.

4) if we need the base as a launching pad strike from the air against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan after we withdraw, our policy will be subject to review by Russian.

5) the Russians are notorious for extracting severe prices for their cooperation and the article itself notes those demands are coming, and, typical of the Obama administration, they are hiding the cost.

6) according to the article, the Russians envision the United States fighting their anti-drug war on their behalf-a mission creep which we probably will have to perform to keep the Russians happy and which has very little direct relation to the war on terror or the security of the United States.

7) having just placed a Russian gun to our temples, we can expect the Obama administration to cave in on missile defense in the former Warsaw Pact countries.

[knarf]

Doesn’t The army from the north attack Israel

[mkjessup]

Well this makes perfect sense: two crypto-Communist regimes, one in Moscow, one in Washington, making common cause.

[elcid1970]

The base we had use of in Uzbekistan made a lot more sense in support of our Afghanistan mission. Then our State Department did a `Jimmah Carter’ on the Uzbek head of state and we were kicked out.

Meanwhile, never trust the Russians.

[KeyLargo]

Newsmax
West to Newsmax: If There’s No Will to Win, Leave Afghanistan Now
Wednesday, March 14, 2012 06:31 PM

By: Martin Gould and Ashley Martella

President Barack Obama must stop apologizing for every misstep in the Afghanistan war — it makes the United States look weak in the eyes of the enemy, Republican Rep. Allen West told Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview.

And if there is no political will to deal with Taliban safe havens in Pakistan, the U.S. might as well remove all troops from the country, he added.

[Ezekiel]

8) Lech Kaczynski