Posted on 04/26/2014 7:49:38 AM PDT by lodi90
(Reuters) - The United States deployed 150 paratroopers to Lithuania on Saturday, part of efforts by Washington to reassure its eastern European allies, worried by events in Ukraine, that NATO would offer protection if they face Russian aggression.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
FRiend, thanks for your service. Since you spent so much time over there you will know that the Germans have always been wobbly. Nothing new here. Putting a few American troops on the line to stiffen them up has always been required.
150 paratroopers. Wow! I hope they don’t end up being 150 “sacrificed” paratroopers.
So, what will the liberals say if a gay soldier is killed because of his sexual preference? And by the way, if it’s a “preference” when do they say they’re born gay. They can’t have it both ways. Unless they’re bi.
As with the ‘Rabs I still say give every bleeping adult in those countries a rifle and a box of ammo and let them defend themselves and/or fight it out among themselves for once. Pootin won’t invade a country with a rifle behind every tree. That whole disarmament thing just creates opportunities for thugish behavior both there and here.
150 paratroopers. Wow! I hope they don’t end up being 150 “sacrificed” paratroopers.
One airborne company a month for the next 7 months. They are a quick reaction force. The rest of the brigade can deploy from Germany & Italy on short notice. This is a fighting force and not a show the flag op. The 173rd is more than enough kick ass to handle Putin’s no insignia fag army if they decide to show up in the Baltics. I’ll buy you a clue: Putin wants no part of the US Army. Bad for business.
You seem to forget that Obama told the Russian prime minister that he would have “more flexibility” after the No. 2012 elections.
Why do you think he said that?
As for Eastern Ukraine, let’s see how that plays out. All I see are Russian flags in the demonstrations. Kiev sends troops and armor, and they defect.
Most of the easterners remember being a part of Russia before 1994. They don’t identify with “Ukraine”.
Bottom line is that Vlad can pretty much do what he wants. The US is not going to interfere, and neither is the EU.
What we have now is all posturing. We are NOT going to get into a war with Russia over the Ukraine.
The American people have had enough of war for the last 13 years. Let the EU fight this one.
We’re broke, too.
As far as the sanctions go, Russia has all the gas and oil that the EU needs. that’s their bargaining chip and it is a huge one. The EU knows it, too.
The US Cavalry is not coming to the rescue this time.
In the other related thread Ukrainians said they can only pay their troops $45 a month. And they want them on duty for at least 12 hours daily. No soap and underware included.
You can make as muc flipping burgers with less hours at work just across a Russian border, daily.
That is one single reason why Russia’s popularity would only grow in E.Ukraine.
Who said it would be 150 guys? Probably half will be female.
There is a blog on the Foreign Policy website and one of its posts from last month had this heading: Putin’s Playing Risk, While Obama’s Playing Candy Land. Kind of sums up who has the upper hand in this current geopolitical struggle.
What knee slapping belly laught joke. How many are “gay” and how many are girls?
When I was stationed in Germany, circa 76-79, there was an airfield operations dispatcher that I worked with who was Polish and taken from his parents during WWII by the Nazi's as part of the "Lebensborn" program. There was a nearby caserne that housed and tried to main stream Lebensborn kids that were then adults. Sad...
I would disagree on that. Ukraine gave away world's third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons some ~20 years ago. Here is the gist of the assurances given to Ukraine for that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Security_Assurances#Content
According to the memorandum, Russia, the U.S., and the UK confirmed, in recognition of Ukraine becoming party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and in effect abandoning its nuclear arsenal to Russia, that they would:
It is well known that treaties with Russia are not worth the paper they are printed on, but there were also USA and UK as parties. Now that Ukraine gave away their nuclear weapons and 20 years later Russia invaded and took parts from their country it will be certainly harder to convince other countries to keep away from having these weapons.
a) Whether it's good policy;
b) Whether it's legally authorized.
Regarding (a) I've already indicated I think it's foolhardy to send so few troops to an exposed position.
Regarding (b) I think any President has extremely wide latitude regarding the deployment and use of US forces-- the only real Constitutional check on the use of force abroad is the purse: if you don't want the President to exercise such powers don't pay for a large military.
You can't have it both ways: it seems to me the position you're arguing confuses Congress' power to declare war with the exercise of command authority. And in this case, there is no offensive operation, only defensive.
People forget that an actual declaration of war has many legal effects -within- the United States, such as the power to seize enemy aliens, their property and that of the foreign power, the classification of certain acts as treason and sedition, etc.
As a side note, the Authorization to Use Military Force passed after 9/11 has already been adjudicated by SCOTUS as a declaration of war, and since it specifies "by any means necessary" with no time limit it is probably the most sweeping grant of wartime authority to the executive ever made.
Ha. Lot more than 150. Germany has not had a strong army since 1940s. Since, they didn’t impress me the ones I was around over those years in Germany.
The Lithuanian partizans (including the Forest Brothers) kept fighting the Soviets until the mid-1950s. The last one was caught (and executed) in the early 1960s.
Lithuania has the lowest percentage of Russians in all the Baltics. As Lithuanians were deported to Siberia or sent to the Gulag, the Soviets relocated their own Russians. The Lithuanians kept killing the Russians, so eventually they stopped coming.
My father was among those deported. He returned in 1957. My grandfather was among those sent to the Gulag. He did not return.
Anyone remember a time when we fought wars to protect our Country? This is getting so old...
Those are my thoughts as well.
“trouble via alcohol and hookers.”
I think Putin has already planned an infiltration via Russian hookers and vodka; predictably our troops aren’t schooled in the differences between Eastern European accents and I believe it’s only a matter of time until the troops end up giving out info or end up dead in the alleys of Lithuania.
150 I’d still bet they could kill 10 to 1!
You can Dis the Admin, and Pentagon all you want but do not Dis the Boots on the Ground with a Weapon in their hands!
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