This is the kind of post that makes me wonder is anybody on this site really interested in actually trying to understand the situation. The entire issue here is huge military and political disadvantage a US Military presence in Poland puts the Russians in. THIS WAS NEVER about Iranian ICBMs, Russian BMs of any kind or the DoD as a tripwire.

Iranian ICBMs:

A dream. Seriously, look at the Norks. Look at the response options. Look how we have successfully held several orders of magnitude more ICBMs at bay for 50 years.

Russian BMs:

Again, please spare me. We've stared down Russian BMs for half a century and we know how to counter that threat. Moreover, the Russians are not suicidal. They haven't been in a position to challenge NATO since the late 1980's and conventionally speaking their position has only deteriorated since then.

DoD Tripwire:

It's called the Polish Border. Get familiar with NATO's mission.

What this is about is the United States placing more and more pressure on the Russians and containing them. Domination of the Northern European plain makes any kind of defense of the Russian interior completely untenable. By having the US Military that close to Russian proper and in that particular geography, the Russians would be in the same kind of predicament they were in when the fought the Nazis. Go look at the invasion routes and how badly Russia suffered due to the Germans controlling this terrain. This BMD strategy was always intended to be used as leverage against Russia.

The comment about Russian troops 90 miles from the US not causing a crisis is almost completely devoid of logic. Russia does not and never has had the kind of expeditionary capability and particularly the Navy and sea lift the United States has. Russian soldiers in Cuba cannot invade and hold terrain in CONUS. But when Russian missiles and other nuclear weapons were there. We had the Cuban Missile Crisis which of course almost ended in nuclear war. This is because Russian missiles there completely undermine any defense we had at that time. Well Poland with a US Military Garrison does that to the Russians. The thing is that the United States isn't planning on invading Russia and we don't need Polish BMD bases. So we could afford to trade it for things we actually do want. Things like Russian cooperation against Iran. The Iranians cannot stay on their current course without RUSSIAN support. The idea here is not war with Iran but to compel them to give in to our demands via diplomacy. THAT MEANS RUSSIAN HELP.

Now, we always have the option of using war. But because of OIF/OEF and the obvious economic difficulties we are facing, a war is not the best choice right now. Defeating the Iranians is going to take A LOT MORE than a few PGMs over  couple of nigh

Russia is not gonna invade Poland or the Czech republic. Neither is Russia gonna fire missiles at Europe.

This ABM placement in Poland was fixing a problem that did not exist in my opinion. It was also creating problems where there were none before in my opinion.

As for using Putin as a scarecrow, that has more to do with local US politics IMHO.

-DA 

 

- And they expect the US to pay in blood for the F-U they raise.

   That is exactly simialr to a little guy in a bar picking a fight and expecting his big "friend" to defend him and take the punches coming

   from the guys he pissed off. I have seen that trick so often it's not funny anymore. I say, good for the US for not buying into that one.

- Ukraine and Georgia are ruled by people very similar to Putin. Helping one Putin to against another is not a good idea IMHO.

This is the kind of post that makes me wonder is anybody on this site really interested in actually trying to understand the situation. The entire issue here is huge military and political disadvantage a US Military presence in Poland puts the Russians in. THIS WAS NEVER about Iranian ICBMs, Russian BMs of any kind or the DoD as a tripwire.

Iranian ICBMs:

A dream. Seriously, look at the Norks. Look at the response options. Look how we have successfully held several orders of magnitude more ICBMs at bay for 50 years.

Russian BMs:

Again, please spare me. We've stared down Russian BMs for half a century and we know how to counter that threat. Moreover, the Russians are not suicidal. They haven't been in a position to challenge NATO since the late 1980's and conventionally speaking their position has only deteriorated since then.

DoD Tripwire:

It's called the Polish Border. Get familiar with NATO's mission.

What this is about is the United States placing more and more pressure on the Russians and containing them. Domination of the Northern European plain makes any kind of defense of the Russian interior completely untenable. By having the US Military that close to Russian proper and in that particular geography, the Russians would be in the same kind of predicament they were in when the fought the Nazis. Go look at the invasion routes and how badly Russia suffered due to the Germans controlling this terrain. This BMD strategy was always intended to be used as leverage against Russia.

The comment about Russian troops 90 miles from the US not causing a crisis is almost completely devoid of logic. Russia does not and never has had the kind of expeditionary capability and particularly the Navy and sea lift the United States has. Russian soldiers in Cuba cannot invade and hold terrain in CONUS. But when Russian missiles and other nuclear weapons were there. We had the Cuban Missile Crisis which of course almost ended in nuclear war. This is because Russian missiles there completely undermine any defense we had at that time. Well Poland with a US Military Garrison does that to the Russians. The thing is that the United States isn't planning on invading Russia and we don't need Polish BMD bases. So we could afford to trade it for things we actually do want. Things like Russian cooperation against Iran. The Iranians cannot stay on their current course without RUSSIAN support. The idea here is not war with Iran but to compel them to give in to our demands via diplomacy. THAT MEANS RUSSIAN HELP.

Now, we always have the option of using war. But because of OIF/OEF and the obvious economic difficulties we are facing, a war is not the best choice right now. Defeating the Iranians is going to take A LOT MORE than a few PGMs over  couple of nigh

- And they expect the US to pay in blood for the F-U they raise.

   That is exactly simialr to a little guy in a bar picking a fight and expecting his big "friend" to defend him and take the punches coming

   from the guys he pissed off. I have seen that trick so often it's not funny anymore. I say, good for the US for not buying into that one.

- Ukraine and Georgia are ruled by people very similar to Putin. Helping one Putin to against another is not a good idea IMHO.