The New Common Sense Well I knew if I waited long enough today something would happen that would twist my torque wrench, and sure enough it did. I went and checked my mail and found a flash from Fox News with the headline: U.S. sending fighter jets to boost NATO presence in Baltic countries Well let me tell you, I was impressed until I read the story. WASHINGTON – The U.S. military is boosting its NATO presence in a bid to support the defenses of U.S. allies in Europe in response to Russias takeover of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula. After Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel first alluded to the effort during testimony on Capitol Hill earlier Wednesday morning, a Defense official confirmed that the U.S. will send six additional F-15s and one KC-135 to augment the mission in Baltic countries. Me: Six lousy Planes plus a tanker. Six planes can be very effective, but as a deterrent, they make better targets. This means that they are facing odds of about 100 to 1 even if you throw in the entire air forces of all the Balkan states. This will not deter Putin at all,, but it will give him a good laugh. The U.S. currently provides four F-15s to whats known as the Baltic Air Policing rotation. The additional aircraft will be sent from a base in Britain to Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania, the official said. This action comes at the request of our Baltic Allies and further demonstrates our commitment to NATO security, the official said. Speaking during a press conference in Paris, Secretary of State John The Traitor Kerry described these decisions as concrete steps to reassure our NATO allies. Me: Concrete steps, yeah right. Is that anything like a red line that you better not cross? And as to reassuring our allies, I bet they are just feeling all warm and fuzzy knowing that we are willing to send a show force of 6 planes to piss off Putin. In his remarks earlier Wednesday, Hagel focused on U.S. diplomatic and aid efforts since Moscows invasion into Ukrainian territory. He said hed speak later Wednesday with Ukraines new defense minister; Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey spoke to his Russian counterpart earlier in the day. Neither Hagel nor Dempsey mentioned military options. I urge continued restraint to reserve room for a diplomatic solution, Dempsey told the Senate panel. Me: While it is one thing for the SecDef and the Chairman of the JCOS to hope privately for a diplomatic solution to such a crisis as myself and any sane person would, you dont talk publicly about them. Your area is supposed to be military operations. It sends the wrong signal to the enemy to have military people talking about diplomatic settlements. The United States assumed control over NATOs air policing duties over Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in January. Belgium previously had the four-month rotating duty. The mission not only protects the integrity of NATO airspace, it illustrates the alliances core function of collective defense, the 28-nation bloc said in a statement at the time. Me: The United States now has control for another 2 months of Air operations for NATO, that makes it a little hard to lead from the rear, which seems to be the only thing this administration seems to know how to do, and they dont do it very well. If I were a citizen of the Balkans, I would brush up on my Russian.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 01:29:46 +0000
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