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tit-for-NATO....Russia will have little difficulty reaching its target of 1.5 million active military personnel, despite the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe Christopher Cavoli has predicted. During a US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, the four-star US Army general evaluated Moscow’s ability to enhance its military capabilities. ”I believe the personnel they’ll be able to build as quickly as they want to,”Cavoli stated, referencing the launch of a spring conscription campaign on Tuesday that aims to enroll 160,000 recruits for military training. Unlike Kiev, Moscow does not deploy conscripts to the front lines, relying instead on volunteers. ”With those numbers, they will be able to constitute the force size that they choose fairly quickly,” Cavoli remarked. He noted that Moscow may need “a couple of years” to achieve the 1.5 million target. The general also highlighted a notable increase in Russia’s military-industrial capacity amidst the Ukraine conflict. ”They have expanded their capability to produce some things – artillery shells, cruise missiles – tremendously, and they are producing some things, such as one-way attack drones, in prodigious numbers that they weren't even producing at all before the war,” he warned. Cavoli asserted that Russian stockpiles of heavy armored vehicles, such as tanks, have been considerably depleted by the hostilities. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, a staunch supporter of Kiev who requested the analysis, interpreted Cavoli’s insights as evidence that Russia poses an escalating threat to Ukraine and NATO members in Europe. “I would add to that, senator, that this is not just in the ground domain,” Cavoli responded, referencing Russian air patrols and deployments of naval and road-mobile nuclear forces. Moscow maintains that it has no aggressive intentions toward NATO, asserting that its military serves as a deterrent against hostile forces, including the US-led bloc. The Pentagon regularly conducts maneuvers similar to those described by Cavoli. READ MORE: Zelensky contradicts Trump on NATO membershipRussian President Vladimir Putin has ordered multiple increases in army strength throughout the Ukraine conflict. The directive he issued last September aims to increase the number of armed forces personnel to nearly 2.4 million, including 1.5 million active service members. The Kremlin said “threats existing near our borders” necessitated the decision. https://www.rt.com/news/615239-russian-army-strength-cavoli/
YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.
Gus Leonisky POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.
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forgetful USA...
Americans have short memories. Even worse, many Americans don’t forget, they simply never paid enough attention to know, a national characteristic that often gets the U.S. into trouble.
We may soon be in that quandary again. Americans are at the mercy of Washington’s political class, which is eager to exploit the electorate’s forgetfulness, acting recklessly without fear of accountability and revising the past with new lies as they move from failure to failure.
Who today remembers the Iraq War that began in 2003? Who remembers that the American military intervention was justified on the utterly false grounds that Saddam Hussein’s regime was secretly rebuilding its chemical and nuclear weapons programs?
The price of destroying Iraq while destabilizing the Middle East exceeded $2 trillion. Does anyone remember the bogus justifications for the use of American military power in 2003, the promises that were made to the public and broken, or the costs to American economic strength that had been grossly underestimated?
New conflicts are brewing in the Middle East. Yet as the buildup of American military power in the region signals the coming of a new war with Iran, how many Americans remember the consequences of previous military fiascos in Afghanistan, Korea, and Vietnam?
Opinion polls show fewer than 40 percent of Americans under 35 can accurately describe why we intervened in Iraq or the consequences that followed. As the crisis faded from trending topics, these vital lessons evaporated from public awareness like morning dew. Americans rarely verify today's claims in light of yesterday's facts.
This time, the price of forgetting promises to be exceptionally steep. Iran is Israel’s nemesis, the alleged source of its perpetual struggle with neighbors, the final obstacle to the creation of Greater Israel and Israeli regional supremacy. The U.S. seems ready to attack Iran and help Israel achieve its objectives.
Of course, Iran is not alone. Egypt is also in Israel’s crosshairs, as are Syria and Lebanon.
Then, there is Turkey. Turkish discontent with Israel’s campaign of mass murder, the expulsion of Palestinians, and its determination to absorb southern Syria into Greater Israel is a ticking time bomb ready to explode.
In Moscow’s view, Iran is the bastion that protects the soft underbelly of Russia. Iran is a natural fortress with defensible mountainous terrain, and north of Iran is important geopolitical real estate: the Eurasian steppe. Control of Iran would offer convenient invasion routes into the major industrial centers east of the Ural Mountains. (These same industrial centers were moved there by Stalin to give the Soviet Union the breathing space to manufacture materiel for World War II.)
Equally important, Russia, emboldened by military success in Ukraine, signed what amounts to a mutual defense pact with Tehran. Given Russia’s demonstrated technological superiority in the production of precision-guided missiles like the Oreshnik, it would be a serious mistake to discount the quality and impact of Russian military assistance to Iran in a future conflict with the U.S. and Israel.
Beijing’s support for Iran arises from a strategic imperative. Iran’s oil, gas, and mineral resources are important to China’s industrial expansion. Iran is also a vital component of the greater Eurasian trading network that is critical to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). BRI serves as the contemporary equivalent of the Silk Road, building the modern transportation infrastructure for commerce across the vast Eurasian landmass.
As in the past, when Persian Kings, Turkic Sultans, and Mongolian Khans controlled the Silk Road, Beijing will leave the administration of BRI to the states in Eurasia to manage trade flows. This frees Beijing to focus on industrial production.
Why is China determined to protect the BRI? Because it is a key tool of resistance against U.S. containment. Countries that trade with China and grow wealthy over time will not side with Washington against Beijing. Thus, the BRI is a non-military strategy for economic diplomacy to prevent Washington from isolating and eventually invading China.
In sum, Iran, Russia, and China share interests that support continued geostrategic interaction. It’s why both Beijing and Moscow come to Tehran’s aid if needed. At present, their support takes the form of technology transfers and economic assistance, but if U.S. and Israeli forces escalate the use of force, they will do so as well.
In an American-Israeli war with Iran, Moscow and Beijing will have escalation dominance, which suggests that Washington risks fighting a war that it is predestined to lose, just as the U.S. fought hopeless wars in Vietnam and Iraq and is losing a proxy war in Ukraine. Historical amnesia exacts a heavy price indeed, particularly when Washington ignores the strategic interests of its rivals.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/lets-not-forget/
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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.
Gus Leonisky
POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.