Ex-NATO commander: West needs to provide military aid to Ukraine

the-japan-news.com ^ | May 20, 2014 | Keiko Iizuka

[Tailgunner Joe]

BOSTON—Following are excerpts of the interview on the situation in Ukraine with Admiral James Stavridis, who led the NATO Alliance in global operations from 2009 to 2013 as Supreme Allied Commander. Currently, he is Dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Q: How do you see the current situation in Ukraine?

A: We all need to recognize that what Russia has done is unacceptable behavior. We can’t change borders by use of military force.

NATO and the U.S. should help Ukraine economically and we also need to help them militarily. I do not advocate NATO troops going to Ukraine, nor do I advocate aircraft involvement or ship involvement in active combat. However, I believe that we should provide intelligence, information, cyber capability, logistic support—food, uniforms, fuel, ammunition, small arms, light radar, night vision devices, and advisers and trainers. The reason is that it will have a deterrent effect on deterring a further invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

We’re going to be in violent disagreement with Russia about their annexation of Crimea for a long time. We need to recognize the agenda between Russia and the U.S. and NATO is bigger than Ukraine. We’re going to need a new way to interact diplomatically.

My guess at this point is that Russia will not invade Ukraine more, because they recognize the high cost associated with it—diplomatically, economically, politically. Sanctions were applied. There are more sanctions yet in reserve, there are still many tools available to Western decision makers to punish Russia if they continue on this reckless course of action.

Q: The Russian military forces close to the border are a means of an objectivist course?

A: They’re trying to put pressure on Ukraine by threatening to invade. They are trying to cause the government in Kiev to back away from a relationship with the West. I don’t think they will succeed, but clearly the intent of keeping 40,000 troops massed on the border can only be to put additional pressure on the Ukrainian government.

Q: How capable is NATO of demonstrating deterrence?

A: NATO is the richest and strongest alliance in the history of the world. The question is how much of that capability we are willing to invest in this situation. I will tell you without a shred of doubt that if any of NATO nations were attacked or invaded, the response would be overwhelming against an invader. Ukraine, unfortunately for Ukrainians, is outside of the NATO alliance. There is no treaty obligation to defend it, but we should try to help.

Q: The Crimean port is important for the Russian fleet.

A: I think Crimea is somewhat valuable but in my view, it’s not as important as some observers feel. Sevastopol is an important port, but it is not an irreplaceable port.

Q: It’s the first time since the end of the Cold War that NATO has been seriously tested on a collective security issue.

A: That’s right. This is the first time we have seen a sense that the collective alliance is threatened by an action in the international world. I think NATO is at a crossroads.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Bammy wants World War III to distract us?

[ClearCase_guy]

Kind of reminds me of the college drop-out who phoned in a bomb threat to prevent her parents from finding out she wasn't graduating.

"Benghazi is looking bad?? I know!! I'll start WWIII! That way no one will get angry with me!"

[Tailgunner Joe]

His weakness and compliant flexibility make war much more likely.

[ConorMacNessa]

I respectfully dissent from the Admiral's assessment. Where was NATO when Putin rolled over Georgia? What did NATO do when things erupted in Crimea?

Does NATO exist in any real sense of the word? Was NATO ever anything other than Europe growing fat under the auspices of Pax Americana?

Under this administration, America has abdicated its responsibilities as a world power. The consequences will not be pretty.

I expect nothing but a lot of talk from NATO. Maybe they'll draw a "red line." But no action.

America demands Justice for the Fallen of Benghazi!

O stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here, obedient to their command.

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[Tailgunner Joe]

Do you really think that the conflict between Ukraine and Russia happened only because Obama orchestrated it?

Because in reality, it has nothing to do with Obama at all.

[Mariner]

"The reason is that it will have a deterrent effect on deterring a further invasion of Ukraine by Russia. "

That's downright silly.

It's already a done deal.

We ought to be wondering about the Baltics and Poland now.

[Tailgunner Joe]

It sounds to me like you think that NATO should do something and hasn’t done enough. I agree.

[ClearCase_guy]

No, no. Not at all.

Ukraine and Russia are a smoldering fire which has now spouted flames. It's been building for a long time, and now it looks like something really bad could happen. Obama really has had no role in this.

But Obama is the guy standing off to the side, holding a can of gasoline and thinking, "Should I toss this on top?"

He's not the start.
He doesn't even need to have any role at all.
But he just might make it a whole lot worse.

[Tailgunner Joe]

The only way to deter KGB Putin’s revanchist neo-Soviet imperialism is to send NATO peacekeepers to Ukraine. Putin is a stupid coward so he will back down if we stand up to him. Obama’s prostrate dithering will only invite further aggression.

[Bobalu]

Obama is useless.
NATO is useless.

Because Obama wants to meddle in Ukraine’s affairs I’m certain that we should stay totally out of them... Obama is always on the wrong side.

If you want to do what’s right then just do the opposite of whatever Obama does.

[Tailgunner Joe]

That is intellectually lazy knee-jerk thinking. I already know what I believe in so I don't have to check to see what Obama says about each issue so I can be on the other side. I already know what side I am on. America's side. I am against Obama because he is against what I already believe in. I want Obama to fail because I want America to win. If you are against America because you are against Obama, then he has already beaten you.

[MrEdd]

That would be the only possible result of any military move by the west, since the Russians can’t back down here.

[ConorMacNessa]

The Brits have pitched in in Iraq and Afghan - the Aussies, the Italians, and even the French - under their own flags. Where is NATO? Are they not under attack from militant Islam as much as we?

NATO is a dead letter, IMHO.

And after the mal-mis-non-feasance of the current administration, what nation would want to stand with us?

Seriously, does the US look like a viable player on the geopolitical stage at this juncture?

A century ago, on the eve of WWI, the Ottoman Empire was correctly described as "The Sick Old Man of Europe." The Obama Regime, IMHO, has snatched defeat from the jaws of Victory, a victory won by generations of American Patriots, and is rapidly casting our Beloved Nation into the dustbin of History. In a few short years, we will be no more a force than the Ottoman Empire was a century ago, unless we stand up now and put an end to this betrayal of our Nation and its founding principles!

America demands Justice for the Fallen of Benghazi!

O stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here, obedient to their command.

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[MrEdd]

But it does have everything to do with European Socialists finally running out of other people’s money.

No other causal factor even reaches a double digit percentile.

[Hugin]

Wow, almost everything in that sentence is incorrect. The American public is too smart to want to get involved in the Ukraine. There is zero public support for it, and rightly so. Funny how Ukraine is getting all this attention, meanwhile an actual openly anti-American communist dictatorship is brutally suppressing it’s people less than 2,000 miles from our shore and nobody even talks about it.

[tcrlaf]

“Obama is the guy standing off to the side, holding a can of gasoline and thinking, “Should I toss this on top?””

The gasoline was thrown on the fire by Victoria and USAID, when out of all the groups in Ukraine, they chose the most radical, and the most violent, to support and finance.

[tcrlaf]

“meanwhile an actual openly anti-American communist dictatorship is brutally suppressing it’s people less than 2,000 miles from our shore and nobody even talks about it.”

The American Left, and the Gaystream media, were convinced to support Chavez, because it was sold to them as part of “The Great War Against The Usurper Bush!”. Remember how much media influence the Radical Academic Socialists (now Obamunists) had over the media at that time?

To acknowledge what is now happening in Venezuela means exposing all the things these very same Media wonks/celebrities said during the rise of Hugo Chavez, now proven to wrong and hypocritical.

And that simply isn’t going to happen in the New Amerikka.

[tcrlaf]

“send NATO peacekeepers to Ukraine”

Yeah, let’s just light the flame for WW3....

[Tailgunner Joe]

The American public did not want World War I or II either. When war comes, it won’t matter what anybody wants. We won’t have any choice.