Well it seems to be linked with what has happend in Georgia but I have just watched a report on the BBC that after 18 months of stalled talks Poland is today going to agree to the US siting its missile defence system on Polish soil, they all ready have agreement with the republic to site Radar instalations there. How do you guy's think the Russians will react to this news ?
They will not be happy. I am not happy to tell you the truth. We have enough problems already both at home and in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Let someone else worry about Georgia and Poland right now.
If I'm not mistaken the U.S. wasn't too thrilled when the Russians tried to set up in Cuba. I know it's been a while but I would expect them NOT to be overly pleased. As far as that goes how will the Chinese react?
Now may be a good time to ask NATO to cover a large portion of our costs defending them, I know we use Germany for potential mideast engagement so we may reach an individual agreement with them and if NATO does not want to pick up the costs then we should either consider moved our bases to such lands like Poland and into eastern germany or pull out of europe all together and make bases in Kurd land and let the Europeans spend their mighty euro dollar on defending themselves. See how quick there standard of living crashes then.
Say what you want about Poland, but having been there myself, I would much rather do whatever for people that love America instead of hating it. I travelled to Warsaw about two weeks after 9/11, and can tell you, walking up to the US embassy there, we were amazed by all the waxed up sidewalks from all the candles that had been burned after 9/11. It seems like everybody in Poland has some relative or another in America, they love the Americans. They certainly do not act like Frenchmen, and snub Americans after we pulled their fat out of the fire in two World Wars.
Are you aware that the US military has been doing just that, reducing bases in Germany etc. and increasing deployments into Poland, Hungary etc.? Maybe the American public doesn't seem to know who likes us, but the military at least does.
Not sure if it's true to this day but the city with the most Polish people in it other than Warsaw is/was Chicago. Yes, lots of relatives over here.
I think that is great and I am not talking about cutting ties or weapons support with supportive nations. But I think we are already over-extended at home and in the world. We are doing enough right now. There are countries like the UK, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, and some of the small Gulf States that are the exception since we have little choice at this time but I much prefer that the rest of the world do without us for a while. They will be fine.
I have to say that I think some of the other NATO members could quite easily take up the slack after all the EU is calling for a unified army LOL I dont think that we in the UK could participate in a effective manner as we are allready over stretched but then you have all the other member states who could contribute a great deal. Um Isa you talk about NATO taking up the cost of defending europe, you are aware are you not that NATO was set up by the USA and they are the big player in it? perhaps you mean the EU You also seem to have some biterness towards europe why would you want the economy of a group of allies to crash?
The UK is not in much different situation as far as being extended as the US. And, I would never relax any of support for the UK. As far as I am concerned, they get anything they need or want as far as the military and support goes. The rest of NATO, all I think we need is access to some airfields and some pre-positioning and support entities. Our relationship with Germany can continue to provide that while continuing the draw down of actual forces there. While I am not talking about dissolving NATO - it serves a diplomatic/political purpose with its original membership. However, I think it is largely a paper tiger militarily and I don't want to see us adding any more countries to it in Russia's backyard. It is too volatile an area and there is no stomach for a fight in these kind of situations that are bound to pop up in places like Georgia. With the exception of East Germany after the fall, I think this expansion has been a folly.
I for one think that if the USA or Canada were attacked by say Russia, that France and Germany would say, well that wasn't part of the agreement and go their own way. France has always been rather iffy with NATO, and was out of the NATO command structure for quite a few years. Not to say that current American foreign policy has helped, by polarising the situation all the more too. Quotes from the current Administration - like "The Old Europe" and "New Europe" didn't help matters. In the next decade or so I foresee that the EU will strengthen it's military linking, and that NATO will be fading more into of a focus of the USA, and E. European(ex Warsaw Pact) states. That could all change if Russia ups the pressure on other states though.
Ah, the hated, despised Americans are looked to for answers/action again when there is conflict in the world!! What do we do? If we do nothing we'll be criticized, if we get involved we'll be criticized. If we organize a coalition then the participating countries will be called our lap dogs.
Bush 41 organised a coalition against Iraq in 1990-1 that included 35 nations, including countries like Syria. Nobody could call Syria an American lap dog.
However, it hamstringed us and we had to enforce no fly zones for a dozen years in order to contain the threat before finishing the job with a smaller coalition. At least that is the way I see it. NATO is pretty much not relevant in its cold war form. Our military is no long a pre-positioned force and we don't need to keep tanks and people in place. We are expeditionary now throughout the forces and much smaller. What the Navy is to the Marines, the Air Force is to the Army. We soften the battlefield, we get them in, we provide support, and treat them when they get wounded. Mostly what we need is a country to provide airfields and staging areas (in and out) and what country that is changes depending upon the conflict. Think Kyrgyzstan. NATO is really a relic of the cold war military. The reality is that we do not have those kinds of forces or numbers any more. We fluctuated from 2.1 to over 3 million during the cold war. We have less than 1.5 million now.
Well Kyrgyzstan is the risk of dealing with floppy post Soviet governments, actually a lot of those ex Soviet Central Asian states have governments still in place from the USSR era. I think in 20 years or so when some of them have changed governments there will be some agitation for federation with Russia again. Frankly some of those countries, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan have not done too well politically. Turkmenistan had some guy until a couple of years ago that was busy putting up gold plated statues of himself all over the place and naming months after his relatives. Sadly some of these places were better off under Soviet communism. NATO is a bloated organisation that has outlasted it's usefulness. The Warsaw Pact dissolved in 1989-91, and the threat is not E. Europe, but really only Russia and their toties, Belarus. The EU has it's own military alliance now, and for many of the European members of NATO it has pretty much superseded NATO. Look how effective NATO was at handling the Bosnia-Herzogovina mess. They all went along of course, with lip service etc. but let the USA send the bulk of the troops there. Personal for me, my little brother was shot by a god damned Serbian sniper outside of Tuzla back in 1999. I really think that the USA needs to determine who our friends are, the Brits, the Canadians, the Poles, etc. and doff off the rest and let them look for themselves.
But it really doesn't matter. All we use them for is a staging spot to land our cargo planes, bed down the troops for 24-72 in tents and push them out in commercial planes back to the States. And the reverse. And the same with the cargo. And 10-20 years from now, they will be irrelevant to whatever we are doing then and we will have to find a new setup somewhere else for some other conflict or operation. I feel the same way. We are much more free now to choose our allies rather than have to have them as far as the military goes as long as we drop the cold war mentality. We don't need to be spread over an entire continent with half a million troops and tanks. We just need a few dependable strategic partners for the long term and whatever is available when the short term arises. I think NATO is obsolete for our actual military needs.
Must be a pretty complicated overflight arrangement, crossing through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, or Tajikistan to get there. I know for a fact that Uzbekistan is not the most friendly country with the US now, in fact the base that was there was closed. This really should have started happening in the early 1990's. I believe with the rise of the EU as a military alliance, the USA and it's stronger allies will find themselves as another alliance. Frankly as far as military cooperation, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania have been much more cooperative with joint exercises etc. Our true allies are there. They have been screwed by the commie *******s in the former USSR and don't bendover for the socialist garbage that still pervades in W. Europe, especially France and Italy.
Dont forget Detroit. A small island in NE Detroit is a city called Hamtramck, it is the place the Pope visited back in the 80's when I still lived there, it was a freakin riot madhouse, the Pope actually visiting tiny ole Hamtramck, all of it's huge square mile. The Poles are our friends.........
