Posted on 10/01/2018 1:15:24 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
WARSAW, Poland. Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti says Russia already is a competitor that operates in domains “particularly below the level of war,” but in an aggressive way, noting that the Russians use cyber activity, social media, disinformation campaigns and troop exercises to threaten and bully other countries. Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its actions Eastern Ukraine show their determination to continue to intimidate neighboring countries.
This strategy is called a hybrid war, he said, and NATO is coming to grips with the concept. “One of the things about hybrid war is defining it. What is it?” he added. “It’s a lot of things, and most of it is not in the military realm.”
Short of conflict, Russia sends money to organizations in Europe at both ends of the ideological spectrum...“Really, their view is -- I call it a destabilizatiom campaign."
“They have the idea that ‘I don’t have to put a soldier there or fire a shot, but if I can undermine the government, then I’ve achieved my ends...That is particularly true of the countries that are in the Eastern part of the alliance that are on their border.”
The Soviet Union subjugated those countries after World War II, and Russia sees those countries as areas where it should still have privileged influence, he said. “They want to keep those governments in the position that they could influence them, and this is a tactic for doing that.”
The Russians have maintained a purposeful military modernization program that they have maintained even as their economy strains.
Scaparrotti said he has no doubt that Russia would repeat its actions in Crimea and Ukraine “if they saw the opportunity and they thought the benefits exceeded the costs.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dod.defense.gov ...
Crimea voted to be part of Russia again!!!
SCAPAROTTI!
Hey, let’s get some bloody Americans backk in there!
“noting that the Russians use cyber activity, social media, disinformation campaigns and troop exercises to threaten and bully other countries.”
They use cyber activity, social media, disinformation campaigns and troop exercises?? And a US General complained about this as some kinda nefarious activity....and did not burst into flames of hypocrisy right on the spot?
Next he will complain about their special forces going places in disguise.
Just amazing
How to combat possible Russian hybrid warefare in the future....
Stop antagonizing Russia. Stop using then as a political scapegoat.
Start building some relationships and good will.
Putin has built his ENTIRE two decades in power forging a foreign policy predicated on doing just those things to us!
Our leaders like Dear G. Dubya and Secretary Hillary responded by smiley photo-ops in Moscow and 'resets' of friendship. And then of course, there was President Obama's famous quip to Mitt Romney in 2012's 3rd Presidential Debate:
The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”
Just a few short years after that, Russia invaded East Ukraine and has been there wreaking havoc ever since. 10,000 plus lives lost. Many of them civilians. And deaths continue to mount with news in just today about the death of 3 schoolchildren in an East Ukraine landmine.
It was actually 2008, when then Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin warned:
“After the Russian Army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama's reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia's Putin to invade Ukraine next.” said Palin.
That ‘referendum’ back in 2014 was a total sham — but even still: should Mexico get Southern California back just because enough Mexicans vote to make it so?
The move was no different than Hitler’s anschluss of Austria. Or the Sudetanland.
Russia has had a navy base there since before Ohio was a state. There was zero chance they would ever allow it to become a NATO navy base.
Bonus question, in 1853 Britain and France and the Ottomans invaded Crimea and blockaded Sevastopol.
Do you know who they wanted to drive out of Crimea?
You really need to stop drinking the koolaid.
The Ukraine had a democratically and legally elected (and corrupt) pro Russian government. America supported what amounted to a coup.
Peaceful pro Russian areas of the Ukraine such as the Crimea and eastern provinces saw their votes didn’t matter.
Obama and Clinton vastly underestimated the resolve of those folks. That is what happens with arrogance and huburous.
And you want Anmerica to get into a shooting war over Georgia? You have lost your mind.
He is an American 4-star General...
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