Russia Plays Nuclear ‘War Games’ with Poland
Over at Hot Air, Michael Van Der Galien asks the obvious question:
Could someone please explain to me why Russia would simulate such an attack, if it has no plans whatsoever of attacking Poland? As far as I can tell, the only other possible explanation is that Moscow wants Warsaw to fear it.
But there’s a more important question. Can someone please tell me why Obama would ignore such a simulation if he has no plans to acquiesce in the erection of a new Iron Curtain across Europe? As far as I can tell, the only other possible explanation is that he didn’t even know it happened.
Poland at least has the theoretical protection of the NATO alliance. What may be of more value, however, is the simple fact that Russia’s first priorities lie elsewhere. Cohen points out that Russia is currently engaged in an aggressive propaganda campaign seeking to deny the right of Georgia and Ukraine to exist as independent countries. What’s most terrifying about these developments is that we now know the people of Russia support them. The Moscow Times reports:
Polls appear to illustrate a rise in nationalism in Russia. While only 26 percent of respondents in 1991 said Russia should be for Russians, 54 percent said the same in the recent poll. The two polls also saw a 10 percentage point rise to 47 percent of respondents who said it is natural for Russia to have an empire. Fifty-eight percent of Russians in the new poll agreed that it is a great misfortune that the Soviet Union no longer exists.
The Soviet Union, of course, marched thousands of captured Polish officers into the Katyn forest in the waning days of World War II and shot them in cold blood, one of the greatest crimes in the annals of military history. We once had the comfort of imagining that the people of Russia were as much the victim of their Soviet overlords as we were. We have that comfort no longer.
Nor do we have a president, like Reagan, Nixon, or even Kennedy, who understands the threat we face in Russia. Just as in Soviet times, for instance, failed Kremlin polices are leading droves of Russian scientists to flee the country to greener pastures, and there are already signs that the Kremlin is moving to restrict their freedom to do so. We must not forget that the Iron Curtain was as much to keep Russians in as to keep Westerners out.
Russia is ruled by a KGB spy. It is establishing a one-party state through shamelessly rigged elections. It is manifesting clear imperialist designs on its near abroad, and it is wiping out individual freedom at home. Let’s not forget: Russia is not only targeting Poland for war games, but the United States as well. Books of poems for children about the “great leader” Vladimir Putin are being published. Opposition leaders are being wiped out at a pace that makes the Soviet killers look like slackers. The only differences between today’s Russia and that of three decades ago are accounted for simply by Russian economic weakness, the inability to afford the most expensive totalitarian excesses.
But the price of oil is rising once again and will rise still further if the global economy recovers. With no resistance from the American White House — much less leadership — Putin is free to dream very big dreams indeed.
Dreams the size of Poland.
I urge everyone to read the recently published book FOXBATS OVER DIMONA, by Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez, as well as Viktor Suvorov’s THE CHIEF CULPRIT and SPETZNAS.
Good work Kim.
“Dreams the size of Poland?” Seems more likely a replay of the 1930′s with Putin in the role as the new “Hitler.” Poor put-upon Russian people want the west to pay for their own past failures. They are militarizing and being pacified just as post-WWII Germany was. Putin plays to nationalism even when he can’t deliver the goods at home. But Russians dare not say so, otherwise … Siberia never did go away you know! No, I think Poland is just the opening gambit for Putin and his desires to become the next Tzar of a new and much, much bigger empire.
Leadership from Barry, maybe you can get his lawyerly discourse over a round of golf some day.
Anyone still believe the myth of a democratic Russia? I can’t understand how G.W. Bush, who had Condie as NSA, a supposed Russian expert, was so taken in by Putin. All Putin had to tell Bush was that he was fellow christian(yeah right) and Bush loved him.
“Books of poems for children about the “great leader” Vladimir Putin are being published.”
Putin is trying to catch up to Obama.
“All Putin had to tell Bush was that he was fellow christian(yeah right) and Bush loved him.”
Putin’s KGBishness manifested itself much later than Bush’s comments about Putin. Obama wouldn’t have to roll back Eastern Europe’s ABM shield if Bush had not arranged to have one.
WRT Poland. How soon before our earstwhile NATO allies throw over Poland. Maybe as soon as the next round of Russian blackmail over energy supplies.
Poland should look at “Royalty for a grown up nation” by Conrad Black, and follow in the footsteps of Marshall Pilsudski in creating a constellation which stands up to the deformed souls in the Kremlin and the Sons of Allah. It could use the model of a deputy foreign minister council to accomplish a common foreign policy. Talk with Kyiv & Tbilsi, then Prague, the Balkan countries, the baltics, and those who want to stand up to the Kremlin & the Sons of Allah.
Western Europe can kiss my ass. They are worthless scum who can’t be trusted to do anything. We need to do right by Eastern Europe for once, and screw anybody who demands we do otherwise. As for Putin, I’m inclined to believe that he is Gog of Magog.
Let’s get realistic, war games are war games. The US has contingency plans for every possible scenario, including invading Russia. That is what the military does. Even test launching missiles is a form of banter. Likewise, if indeed it is true that the Russian government is eliminating opposition leaders, it is still not even close to the murderous pace of “the Soviet killers”. However, these events do demand close watching and proper response by our Commander-in-Chief. Not that that is going to happen.
Yes Mr. Lincoln wants Marshall Pilsudski, with his notorious Promethean strategy for breaking up Russia along ethnic lines that inspired the Nazi nationalities boss Alfred Rosenberg from 1941-43 and stabbing the anti-Communist Whites in the back for the 21st century. Wonderful.
And Ziggy, what was up with your denunciation of George Soros? Isn’t he the sugardaddy of the Colored Revolutions and slick anti-Russian coups in the former USSR? Are your bosses at the Jamestown Foundation unhappy with him now that he cannot buy whole countries (i.e. getting outbid by the Chinese for Moldova, tisk tisk) and has decided to switch to a new tack?
Or maybe he just figured out that Yushenko and Saakashvili with their single digit popularity ratings were losing horses and it was time to dump them? Any think tank that employs a silly propagandist like Vladimir Socor knows how to deny reality far beyond all limits of sanity.
If the right wing “fight Russia to the last Ukrainian/Georgian” militarist faction of the anti-Russia lobby (Jamestown, Center for Security Policy, and Heritage to a lesser extent) is unhappy with the “left wing” Open Societies Sorosian/financial manipulation gang, well that’s great. Congrats to Russia for splitting them wide open.
I hope Russia’s continued outreach to Israel, buying their avionics/nanotech will shrewdly split Washington’s pro-Israel lobby off from the anti-Russia lobby. Israel’s not going to stop buying Russian oil and gas just to please idiots inside the Beltway who want to enrich Iran in vain hopes that this will “moderate” the mullahs, or simply because they hate Russia so much they would rather send billions to Shia clerics than to Moscow, heedless to the consequences. Even with all the Soros bucks and unaccounted for taxpayer dollars from the U.S. and EU Georgia can’t buy as many Israeli weapons or offer as much as Russia.
All I’m saying is WAKE UP PEOPLE. Most of the so-called conservatives here at PJM are little more than sheeple, swallowing whatever Bush people told them for the last eight years and suddenly getting furious about the bailouts and Afghanistan after Obama took office.
What was the point of building a missile defense system in PL and CZ Republic if not to direct it against Russia (especially when the Bush people pointedly rejected use of the Russian radar in Azerbaijan), especially when the agreement was signed right after the Georgia War? Who were we kidding saying that it was about the Iranian threat, while the other hand was working furiously to support Nabucco to enrich Iran?
You all know here that if the Russians were putting missile defense radars in Cuba and interceptors in Venezuela, or even sending large numbers of advisors to those countries again, perhaps teaming up with China, Glenn Beck and Rush would be going crazy, and even the New Republic would be making threats, and there would probably be protests outside their embassy in D.C.
Instead you act as if the eastward expansion of NATO up to Russia’s borders and dragging the Ukrainians in at the behest of 10% of their population by hook or crook is somehow making America safer or is advancing democracy. Please. What about that huge EU loan to Belarus, is that about democracy? Or Cheney sucking up to the prez for life of Kazahkstan and then condemning Russia for its alleged undemocratic ways?
We need all the friends we can get right now with our dollar going down the drain. The collapse is being hastened by stubbornly insisting that we can still afford the same foreign policies we’ve pursued since the collapse of the USSR. We can’t. Obama didn’t drop the missile defense system because he’s another Carter bent on appeasement. He did it because Russia is one of the USA’s top ten creditors and we’re broke. Follow the money, even if unlike the Heritage Foundation you end up admitting that maintaining military bases in 120 countries and Obamacare all come out of the same budget and massive pile of debt in the end.
Is it me or have others noticed that articles on serious issues of foreign policy are ignored by most PJM readers.
Mr. X, Of course the missile “defense” for Poland was more about Russia than Iran. “Defense” is in quotes, because in a Nuclear age a defense is just as much an offensive weapon as it is a defensive weapon. It is a destabilizing factor. Yes, it was dishonest of Bush and all to claim that it was only to ward of the threat of Iran. We must understand Russia’s concerns over such a system.
Mr. X, I am not necessarily for the expansion of NATO into Ukraine, but 10% seems pretty low.
Look Mr. X, Pilsudski saw the viciousness of Lenin, Trotsky, and the rest of the deformed souls who flocked to the hammer & sickle. Take a look at “The Keys of this blood” by Malachi Martin, in particular the only reference to Marshal Pilsudski in the index, and look at that page.
As long as Solidarity needs outside help to deal with the deformed souls calling the shots from the Kremlin, a show of strength is needed to stand up
to the Kremlin. For, in order to catch their attention, they need to be bashed so many times with an iron bar, or 2×4 until they are bleeding. This
is a Russian characteristic.
The US is a spent force because it fell into the same trap as Lenin & crew, it thought it could successfully defy the laws of natural to remake. Well,
get used to a smaller role in the geopolitical realm.
Like it or not, your nebulous charged words are not a plan to deal with the future.
As for the Poland & the Czech Republic, the missiles can also come from Iran, which if you looked at a map at the countries around Russia, you will
see Iran.
Furthermore, Mr. X, why not google “Check the numbers” “McKitrick” “McCullough” to see what the US inflicted on the rest of the world.
If you think that would slide, and the US not be held accountable, for its sloppy research, then you
have much to learn about human nature.
Well Tom at least you pointed out that the USA (and other militaries) have simulated nuclear attacks on Russia (and vice versa) for decades, it’s not anything new.
“Is it me or have others noticed that articles on serious issues of foreign policy are ignored by most PJM readers.”
Absolutely, and too often at PJM — even at the quality Belmont Club forum — discussions devolve into either war porn fantasies or Cold War nostalgia describing all Russians as “Sovs” “KGB” etc. And paid anti-Russia hacks like Zigfeld don’t help. More discussion of who profits and why Soros has taken certain tacks on Eastern Europe would be helpful, rather than just swallowing spoonfuls of rhetoric from each side. Certainly, Russia was not immune from the economic crisis in America, both because of the collapse in oil prices after the artificial speculative run up and because Russia’s central bank ironically ended up buying too many dollar-denominated assets rather than too few. But don’t hold your breath for the Wall Street Journal to ever criticize a foreign government for buying too much U.S. debt. And that shows me how objective these outlets that claim to be fair and pro-democratic around the world truly are.
“Pilsudski saw the viciousness of Lenin, Trotsky, and the rest of the deformed souls who flocked to the hammer & sickle.” And David does seem to have a Pole’s point of view, which is all well and good, except I don’t want old man Bzrezinski making U.S. policy, anymore than I would want Netanyahu or Barak telling Obama what to do either. And at least one Polish marshall did stab the White armies in the back to grab a bigger chunk of Ukraine in 1919-1920, and that along with PL participation in the carve up of Czechoslovakia are all relevant points if there is to be historic reconciliation based on truth, as Solzhenitysn urged in an open letter to Poles.
I am not saying that Russians should fear a repeat of the Time of Troubles aggression or that Poles should fear Russian tanks in Warsaw. Both are silly. But Russians are not paranoid to point out that the oligarchs during the Nineties Time of Troubles had many foreign accomplices, and that there are think tanks and groups like Jamestown that are basically set up to operate anti-Russia and have scarcely changed at all since the 1980s.
There’s also the danger of pointless tit for tat between the U.S. and Russia.
Have American siloviks, ex-CIA men like Paul Goble or James Woolsey talking about separatism in Russia? Here comes Igor Panarin, and instead of being simply laughed at by the Wall Street Journal like last year this year he’s being feted by Tea Partyers in Houston. I haven’t seen any Russian agents with suitcases full of cash outside the Republic of Texas HQ in Pecos County, but my Russian friends have blamed NGOs and otherwise benign looking types for giving cash to convicted terrorists in the Caucases.
So…the danger of escalation is real, and the idea that Russia wants revenge for the collapse of the USSR and therefore the U.S. has the right to pursue policies to destabilize Russia can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Want to hasten the odds of Chavez getting advisors? Then send even more troops and weapons to an equally unstable/fake democrat in Saakashvili. Simply because the latter went to Columbia and speaks smooth English doesn’t make him better than the former.
As one who does not discount the damage done by “Moscow is the third Rome, and there will not be a 4th”, plus the inhumanity dished out to Ukraine, especially during the holodomor, I want the descendants of the Decembrists to have the upper hand.
Now, I am not defending hollus bollus the record of Pilsudski, but at least
he knew full well what Lenin, Iron Feliks, Trotsky and the rest of the early
deformed souls who accepted the hammer & sickle as am emblem, he knew full well what they were capable of.
The choice is this: Putyin, Medvedyev, and those in the successor to the KGB
who had dealings with Zawahiri before Putin became Prime Minister the first
time, they and the entire apparatus have to be removed from their positions
of influence. There are two options: One is to redraw the borders of Russia
so that the Kremlin can no longer use natural resources under its control as
a weapon. The other is to ultimately turn power over to Solidarity.
As for Saakashvili, does he have the blood of journalists on his hands? Plus, why did he make Yushchenko an ally, instead of an enemy. For Viktor
had a massive dose of dioxin that was off the charts, and if not for the professionalism of those who treated him, he would not have survived.
Giving in to the successor to Czar Nicholas 1, seems a strange way to vindicate theDecembrists,
they did lose by the way. Calling Woolsey who has been a leading advocate against global jihad, American silovik, seems to be something
the SVR would say.
What I am saying narciso is that Yelena Bonner, Vladimir Bukovsky, Gary Kasparov, Boris Nemtsov, and those who back them, they have to be the one’s calling the shots from the Kremlin. Otherwise, the borders of Russia have to be redrawn so that natural resources cannot be used as a weapon against those who do not do the Kremlin’s bidding.
Poles: “Far-away people of whom we know nothing.”
A deal letting Putin have Poland: “Peace in our time.”
Doesn’t everyone see the logic of this? After all, we can’t go to war over Poland, especially not while trying to reform health care, do cap and trade, and scale down the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Poles simply chose the wrong neighbors, and now they’ll have to live with the consequences. If you’re realistic about it, the Russians are much bigger and powerful, and they can conquer Poland whenever they like. Why fight it?
DavidN
Russians: “Far-away people of whom we know nothing
A deal letting China have Russia: “Peace in our time.”
Doesn’t everyone see the logic of this?
DAvidN, Isn’t Russia dying? If a half of the population is HIV positive there is a chance that there won’t be enough people in Russia in the near future to invade Poland. So DavidN, let’s look at that ‘powerful imperial’ Russia again, indeed the biggest country in the world [with 65% of useless permafrost], 80% of Russia’s population live in pure 18 century – try to travel, if you find a road, that is, and you will see real Russians living in Siberia without water,for God’s sake those poor Russians are trying to lease the city of Vladivostok to Chinese for 75 years – how more humiliating can it get? I actually think that Mr. Putin is God sent for the West – he is trying to restore the 18th century Russian ‘empire’ – by brutal force, while China is relentlesly modernizing its economy and expanding politically and economically. Truly priceless to see Russia desintegrating. View from Poland
Poland was already vindicated for Russia’s political murder of Polish President and the rest of Polish elite. GO AND VISIT MOSCOW – TRULY CENTRAL ASIAN CITY – 8 OUT OF 10 ARE KYGYZ, UZBEKS, TADJIKS – RUSSIA IS DOOMED. LOOK AT THEIR ARMY, A LAUGHING STOCK OF THE WHOLE WORD. SOME OF THOSE DRUNK RUSSIANS AND HIGH ON AFGHAN HEROIN STILL THINK TATH ‘KURSK’ IS ON SPECIAL MISSION UNDERWATER….. BEFORE RUSSIA’S DISINTEGRATION RUSSIANS WILL DO A LOT OF DAMAMGES TO THE NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES. POOR, HUNGRY RUSSIANS SHOULD LEARN MANDARIN CHINESE ASAP.
пидоры вы все