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Why Wesley Clark Got the Ax at NATO [History repeats in Ukraine]
www.latimes.com ^ | Aug. 6, 1999 | EDWARD N. LUTTWAK

Posted on 04/23/2022 2:24:13 AM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com

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AUTHOR **Edward N. Luttwak is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington
1 posted on 04/23/2022 2:24:13 AM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

“The brave Ukrainian resistance cannot be maintained indefinitely in the absence of food, water and replenishment of ammunition, so the clock is ticking. Meanwhile, a substantial number of Russian forces are being freed up to move north, reinforcing Russian efforts to encircle and annihilate Ukrainian forces holding back the main Russian effort in Donbas.

The implications of the battle of Mariupol for both Russia and Ukraine are operationally significant, and for Ukraine the battle and 100,000 innocent lives hang in the balance.
Russia is sending a message to the West.

Russia is also sending a message to Ukraine and the West: whatever the problems in the north around Kyiv, Russia will use the means necessary, and suffer the losses required, to attain its objectives in Ukraine. A city of 400,000 has been deliberately erased through heavy and indiscriminate use of firepower and total disregard of international law and humanitarian conventions.
“ -usatoday.com


2 posted on 04/23/2022 2:27:18 AM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
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To: All

“The messages to the West should be clear. First, the outcome in Ukraine will be determined largely by “the facts on the ground.” Modulating Western military assistance to suit Putin flirts with strategic failure. Ukraine must be given the armaments necessary not only to resist but actually to defeat the Russian invasion, or there will be more Mariupols.

Second, despite escalating sanctions, time is not always on the side of Ukraine and the West – Putin has shown a STALINESQUE capacity to shrug off defeats and disloyalty, while Ukraine’s fierce spirit of resistance is under daily assault.

Make no mistake: the West is not yet winning against Putin’s attack on NATO and the rules-based international order.

The destruction of Mariupol was not inevitable. With adequate armor and artillery, Ukraine could have attacked and broken the siege; with more airpower, Ukraine could have blown apart and run off the besieging Russian forces; with more detailed and timely U.S.-provided intelligence, Ukraine could have used its relatively meager military resources more effectively.
Russian military vehicles move on a highway in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces near Mariupol, Ukraine, April 18, 2022. Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov, has been besieged by Russian troops and separatist forces in eastern Ukraine for more than six weeks. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov, File)

The overriding lesson is that Western policy, led, by the United States must be more proactive than reactionary, and more grounded in shorter-term military than in longer-term economic measures.

If we seek the surest and most rapid end to this tragic struggle at the negotiating table, now is the time to tell Putin, “You will not win,” and to provide Ukraine the means to relieve the siege of Mariupol and make Putin’s military defeat in Ukraine a reality.” - Retired Gen. Wesley Clark


3 posted on 04/23/2022 2:38:56 AM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

His former Presidential campaign’s press secretary was
Mary Jacoby—Glenn Simpson’s wife. By the way of the Rose
Law firm as an intern—Hillary’s former employer.
I hope Durham performs well next month.


4 posted on 04/23/2022 2:55:16 AM PDT by Scram1
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

“If we seek the surest and most rapid end to this tragic struggle at the negotiating table, now is the time to tell Putin, “You will not win,” and to provide Ukraine the means to relieve the siege of Mariupol and make Putin’s military defeat in Ukraine a reality.” - Retired Gen. Wesley Clark”

_________________

That’s not the goal nor the part Ukraine plays in achieving it (Clark sees that, or he wouldn’t have said if). This will not end rapidly, it must first expand. That’s going to take time and lots of innocent lives (the CIA/State Dept/etc, will ensure there’s enough dead as they did in 2014) for the appearance of justification of NATO going all in.

Globalist villain against globalist villain - nobody is going to win.


5 posted on 04/23/2022 3:05:29 AM PDT by jacknhoo ( Luke 12:51; Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

Ukraine needs the good stuff. They need light armor with the latest thermal sights to win at night. They need the big stuff like MLRS (multiple launch rocket system). Our MLRS is a corps-level asset and is rationed to our own troops but this war is made for it. It will greatly increase Russian losses of men and material. If America is serious about stopping Russia’s criminal aggression, then MLRS vehicles must be put into Ukrainian hands.


6 posted on 04/23/2022 3:12:58 AM PDT by Monterrosa-24 (To the barricades !!!)
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

DoD are not the police. Impaling your forces in “police actions” is criminal.


7 posted on 04/23/2022 3:16:38 AM PDT by Clutch Martin (The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, bust that the lightning ain't distributed right.)
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To: Scram1

HUH???


8 posted on 04/23/2022 3:17:59 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com
Russia is also sending a message to Ukraine and the West: whatever the problems in the north around Kyiv, Russia will use the means necessary, and suffer the losses required, to attain its objectives in Ukraine.

The Russians are trying to send that message, but it's a lie.If it was the truth, they'd have mobilized far more fully than they have. Because right now, they are chewing through their pre-war army and don't have the replacements in the pipeline. If they get to the point where that pre-war army has taken enough combat losses to lose effectiveness, they're done.

9 posted on 04/23/2022 3:54:17 AM PDT by Bruce Campbells Chin
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

This is a 23 year old article that time has proven wrong.

1) Wesley Clark was fired because he was recklessly confronting the Russians and others outside the scope of his orders. He also had a reputation as a jackass, so nobody felt like speaking up for him to the Secretary of Defense.

2) We have, subsequent to this article, shown quite a willingness to accept casualties. Many soldiers I have served with are either in the ground or suffered the wounds to prove that.

I don’t get it’s relavance to Ukraine.


10 posted on 04/23/2022 4:01:14 AM PDT by drop 50 and fire for effect ("Work relentlessly, accomplish much, remain in the background, and be more than you seem.")
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To: Bruce Campbells Chin
If they get to the point where that pre-war army has taken enough combat losses to lose effectiveness, they're done

I wonder if they will consider using nucs then?

11 posted on 04/23/2022 4:02:30 AM PDT by Mark17 (Retired USAF air traffic controller. Father of USAF pilot. USAF aviation runs in the family )
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To: Mark17

No.


12 posted on 04/23/2022 4:07:33 AM PDT by Bruce Campbells Chin
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To: Ann Archy

The Terror War Needs Liberal Democrats, Too

The latest Democrat in the race is Gen. Wesley Clark, Rhodes scholar, former supreme allied commander of NATO, and ubiquitous TV presence before and during the Iraq war. General Clark recommends himself to his party as the man who can take down President Bush.

...

General Clark was being asked his opinion of a military action that began this spring, and that he kibitzed 24/7. Shouldn’t he know his own mind?

The prospect seems to flummox him. “Mary, help!” he called to Mary Jacoby, his press secretary, who came back from her seat at the front of the jet to untangle his thoughts. It is good to know that Ms. Jacoby is nearby. One hopes she will stay close to the general should he ever make it to the Oval Office, to help him whenever he has to put himself in a position.

https://observer.com/2003/09/the-terror-war-needs-liberal-democrats-too/

https://www.conservapedia.com/Mary_Jacoby

Mary Jacoby is the wife of Glenn Simpson, founder of FusionGPS.[1]

Mary Jacoby is the daughter of Jon Jacoby, who introduced Walter Smiley to the Stephens family of Arkansas.[2] Smiley is the founder of Systematics which the Stephens family purchased an 80% stake.[3] Hillary Rodham Clinton was the intellectual property lawyer for Systematics.

https://www.conservapedia.com/Mary_Jacoby


13 posted on 04/23/2022 4:20:16 AM PDT by FarCenter
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

Wes Clark is a Clintonian creation. He is deep state Neocon Hydra.

Let’s be clear. The Clintons used him as the chief component in their Wag the Dog distraction during the Monica affair.


14 posted on 04/23/2022 5:25:54 AM PDT by blackberry1
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

“I’m not going to start Third World War for you,” Jackson told Clark
Mon 2 Aug 1999 10.11 EDT

Nato supreme commander General Wesley Clark is not being allowed to fade away quietly. Days after the Clinton administration relieved him of his command two months early, Newsweek is reporting that the victor of Kosovo was blocked from sending paratroopers to Pristina airport to pre-empt an unexpected Russian advance.

Lieutenant-general Sir Michael Jackson overruled General Clark because the British commander did not want to spark a clash with the Russians.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/aug/02/balkans3

Thank you Sir Michael Jackson


15 posted on 04/23/2022 5:27:04 AM PDT by McGruff (Not our circus, not our moneys)
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To: FarCenter

That was a pretty good article you posted from The Observer.

Boy, times have changed.


16 posted on 04/23/2022 5:36:47 AM PDT by jacknhoo ( Luke 12:51; Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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To: blackberry1

I’m sure the Clintons used him like they use everyone! At least they didn’t physically murder him! Just his reputation. So cruel.


17 posted on 04/23/2022 6:12:04 AM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
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To: Monterrosa-24

Totally agree. REmember, just because Biden says he sending Ukraine something doesn’t mean he is! He does not only slow-walk but probably money-launders thru his REAL best friend Putin!


18 posted on 04/23/2022 6:15:36 AM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
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To: McGruff

Perspective:

“After the Clinton administration relieved Clark of his command two months early, the victor of Kosovo was blocked from sending paratroopers to Pristina airport to pre-empt an unexpected Russian advance.

Lieutenant-general Sir Michael Jackson overruled General Clark: “I’m not going to start Third World War for you,” General Jackson told the US commander, according to Newsweek. In the hours that followed General Clark’s order, both men sought political backing for their position, but only General Jackson received it.

News of the clash between the British and US commanders comes just days after the US snubbed General Clark by ordering him to step down next year, two months early, to make way for Air Force General Joseph Ralston, vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

The move is widely seen as a rebuke for the man who led Nato to victory, but who clashed repeatedly with his superiors.
Trouble flared between the two men as soon as General Jackson was appointed commander on the ground in Kosovo.

Talks on Russia’s role had broken down and the American general was so anxious to stop Moscow from stealing a march on the allies, he ordered British and French troops to take the airport.

General Clark then asked fellow American commander Admiral James Ellis, in charge of Nato’s Southern Command, to land helicopters on the runways to prevent giant Russian Ilyushin transport coming in. However, Admiral Ellis also refused, saying General Jackson would not like it.

The Russian planes were only prevented from landing after US officials persuaded Hungary to deny them permission to overfly the country. Both generals turned to their political masters for support, but while the British government backed General Jackson’s judgment, General Clark received no support, effectively meaning his orders were overruled.”


19 posted on 04/23/2022 6:35:17 AM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

Do tell us more about this “rules based order”.

And Clark was fired because he wanted direct combat with Russia and tried to get Brits to move against them. The Brit general refused saying “I will not start WWIII for you”.

Clark is still a Democrat, Hillary loving Ivy League tool.


20 posted on 04/23/2022 7:46:25 AM PDT by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up..)
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