What’s Next After All This Talk Of War With Russia?

By Graham Vanbergen – Six months ago you may have read or heard of a startling claim by the former deputy commander of NATO, the former British general Sir Alexander Richard Shirreff that the west is on course for war with Russia. The Guardian wrote “In a chilling scenario, he predicts that Russia, in order to escape what it believes to be encirclement by NATO, will seize territory in eastern Ukraine, open up a land corridor to Crimea and invade the Baltic states.“

Sherreff asserted that war was still avoidable provided NATO took the necessary steps to pre-position forces in large enough numbers in the Baltic states. He goes on to describe how Russia is now the west’s most dangerous adversary and says Putin’s course can only be stopped if the west wakes up to the real possibility of war and takes urgent action.

But, it appears that our ‘adversary’ is prepared. This report from The Japan Times and Germany’s Die Zeit – NATO would currently be unable to protect the Baltics against a Russian attack, the commander of U.S. ground forces in Europe, Gen. Ben Hodges, said in a news report on June 23rd

“Russia could take over the Baltic states faster than we would be able to defend them,” Hodges was quoted as saying in a German-language article by news weekly Die Zeit.

As a demonstrable counter to these claims, thousands of NATO troops arrived in Poland in a massive 10-day show of force as the alliance launched its biggest war games in Eastern Europe since the Cold War.

Russian President Vladimir Putin responded and accused NATO of “stepping up its aggressive rhetoric and its aggressive actions close to our borders.”

The leaders of France and Germany thought the NATO build-up would be too provocative towards Russia to call it a NATO exercise and therefore it was focused in Poland and called a Polish exercise.

Soon after, another new study confirmed that “Russia could invade Poland overnight and easily overwhelm its Nato allies.

“Even if Moscow currently has no immediate intent to challenge NATO directly, this may unexpectedly change overnight and can be implemented with great speed, following already prepared plans,” the Atlantic Council report warns. “The capability to do so is, to a large extent, in place.”

From here we see the rhetoric ramp up in the last few weeks as talk of war with Russia goes from the excitable to truly disturbing.

ZeroHedge – “NATO Says It Might Now Have Grounds To Attack Russia“. In this report, June 14th, NATO announced that if a NATO member country becomes the victim of a cyber attack by persons in a non-NATO country such as Russia or China, then NATO’s Article V “collective defense” provision requires each NATO member country to join that NATO member country if it decides to strike back against the attacking country.

ModernDiplomacy – “NATO Threatens Russia With Invasion“ – In this report the main focus was the formal ratification of plans to dispatch thousands more NATO troops to Poland and the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—all countries bordering Russia. In remarks made in the presence of Polish President Andrzej Duda, Stoltenberg praised NATO’s opening of military headquarters and missile bases across Eastern Europe as well as the tripling of the alliance’s rapid response force to 40,000 troops.

YourNewsWire – “Russia Prepares For NATO’s Declaration Of War” – In its report it states that NATO has deployed military personnel and weapons on the Russian border in readiness to declare war on Russia, according to Mike Billington, Asia editor for the Executive Intelligence Review. Billington says Russia is making the necessary plans to fight World War 3.

The Independent – “Mikhail Gorbachev says Nato is escalating Cold War with Russia ‘into a hot one'” – This report stated that tensions have been mounting between Russia and Nato member states, in particular the US, as diplomatic spats and military excercises have increased in frequency. Mr Gorbachev, the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, said: “Nato has begun preparations for escalating from the Cold War into a hot one. “All the rhetoric in Warsaw just yells of a desire almost to declare war on Russia. They only talk about defence, but actually they are preparing for offensive operations.”

EurActiv   – US moves nuclear weapons from Turkey to Romania – Here we see two independent sources telling Europe’s EurActiv that the US has started transferring nuclear weapons stationed in Turkey to Romania. According to one of the sources, the transfer has been very challenging in technical and political terms. “It’s not easy to move 20+ nukes,” said the source. This report also states the reason for the move was worsening relations with Turkey after the failed coup but as if by coincidence the weapons have been moved to Deveselu air base in Romania, near the city of Caracal. It is also the new home of the US missile shield, which infuriated Russia and intensified rapidly declining relations between Russia and the West.

According to practice dating from the Cold War that is quickly moving towards Hot War status, leaked information regarding the presence of US nuclear weapons on European soil, whilst never been officially confirmed, has emerged. It is now public knowledge that Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy host US nuclear weapons. Don’t forget that Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system is designed, manufactured and maintained in and by America.

As if to prepare for the impending catastrophe that would follow such a conflict, Germany’s Angel Merkel warns via Reuters Global News just two days ago; “Germany to tell people to stockpile food and water in case of attacks“.

This is a strange report because as it says “for the first time since the end of the Cold War, the German government plans to tell citizens to stockpile food and water in case of an attack or catastrophe, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper reported on Sunday.” Strange because the report stated “Germany is currently on high alert after two Islamist attacks and a shooting rampage by a mentally unstable teenager last month”. Why would the leader of Germany ask 81 million citizens to prepare for a 10 day shut-down of the entire country for a single terrorist attack that may or may not result in the harm of a few people?

Hot on the heels of that report comes the BBC with it’s headline: “Germany considers return of conscription for civil defence” – This report states that “the role of civilians is part of a new civil defence strategy to be discussed by the government on Wednesday (24th August) due to a possible major terrorist attack, hybrid (cyber) war or direct conflict with Russia.

And if more evidence were needed, according to a report issued in the German Economic News (Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten, or DWN) and published in Strategic Culture the German government is preparing to go to war against Russia, and has in draft-form a Bundeswehr report declaring Russia to be an enemy nation. DWN says: “The Russian secret services have apparently thoroughly studied the paper. In advance of the paper’s publication, a harsh note of protest has been sent to Berlin: The head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian State Duma, Alexei Puschkow, has posted the Twitter message: ‘The decision of the German government declaring Russia to be an enemy shows Merkel’s subservience to the Obama administration.’” Do relations get much worse than that?

In the meantime, it looks as though the stakes in the battle for Syria have increased as America has its sights on victory by way of a full invasion of Syria and then, finally to move on to Iran. But there’s an obstacle – Russia and China. As Global Research reported just yesterday: “China intends offering Syria humanitarian aid and enhanced military help. On Tuesday, People’s Liberation Army Admiral/high-ranking Defence Ministry official Guan Youfei met with Syrian Defence Minister Fahad Jasssim al-Freij and an unnamed Russian general in Damascus. Following their meeting, he issued a statement, saying “the Chinese and Syrian militaries traditionally have a friendly relationship, and the Chinese military is willing to keep strengthening exchanges and cooperation with the Syrian military.”

What this report does is postulate that if Syria falls, so will Iran and that would change the Middle East totally by giving “America and Israel unchallenged Middle East dominance.”

With 80 million citizens devastated in Iran the same way as Iraq, Libya, Syria and Afghanistan, Europe’s borders would be unable to cope with a humanitarian catastrophe infinitely worse than it currently is. The world is already witnessing a global displacement of people in conflict worse than that of the last world war. A war with Russia would be so catastrophic it is unimaginable for those living in Europe and the Middle East. OK of course for those in North America!

truepublica.org.uk

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