http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/39413


Stop NATO
May 14, 2009


Pentagon Preparing For War With The Enemy: Russia
Rick Rozoff


    "Today the situation is much more serious than before August
    2008....[A] possible recurrence of war will not be limited to the
    Caucasus.

    "The new President of the United States did not bring about any
    crucial changes in relation to Georgia, but having a dominant
    role in NATO he still insists on Georgia's soonest joining of
    the Alliance. If it happens, the world would face a more serious
    threat than the crises of the Cold War.

    "Under the new realities, Georgia's war against South Ossetia
    may easily turn into NATO's war against Russia. This would be
    a third world war."


On May 12 James Mattis, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation [ACT] and
commander of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, spoke at a three-day symposium
called Joint Warfighting 09 in Norfolk, Virginia, where NATO's Allied Command
Transformation is based, and stated: "I come with a sense of urgency. The enemy
is meeting like this as well." [1]

A local newspaper summarized his speech:

"Mattis outlined a future in which wars will not have clearly defined beginnings
and ends. What is needed, he said, is a grand strategy, a political framework
that can guide military planning." [2]

He failed, for what passes for diplomatic reasons no doubt, to identify who "the
enemy" is, but a series of recent developments, or rather an intensification of
ongoing ones, indicate which nation it is.

Last week the head of the U.S. Strategic Command, Gen. Kevin Chilton, told
reporters during a Defense Writers Group breakfast on May 7 "that the White
House retains the option to respond with physical force - potentially even using
nuclear weapons - if a foreign entity conducts a disabling cyber attack against
U.S. computer networks...."

An account of his talk added "the general insisted that all strike options,
including nuclear, would remain available to the commander in chief in defending
the nation from cyber strikes."

Chilton "said he could not rule out the possibility of a military salvo against
a nation like China, even though Beijing has nuclear arms," [3] though the
likely first target of alleged retaliation against equally alleged cyber attacks
would be another nation already identified by US military officials as such:
Russia.

In late April and early May of 2007 the government of Estonia, which was
inducted into NATO in 2004 and whose president was and remains Toomas Hendrik
Ilves, born in Sweden and raised in the United States (where he worked for Radio
Free Europe), reported attacks on websites in the country which were blamed on
Russia.

Over two years later no evidence has been presented to substantiate the claim
that Russian hackers, much less the government itself, were behind the attacks,
though it remains an article of faith among US and other Western officials and
media that they were.

The response from American authorities in the first place was so sudden and
severe, even before investigations were conducted, as to strongly suggest that
if the attacks hadn't been staged they would need to be invented.

Right afterward Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne stated, "Russia, our
Cold War nemesis, seems to have been the first to engage in cyber warfare."

The US Air Force news source from which the above is quoted added that the
events in Estonia days earlier "did start a series of debates within NATO and
the EU about the definition of clear military action and it may be the first
test of the applicability of Article V of the NATO charter regarding collective
self-defense in the non-kinetic realm." [4]

NATO's Article 5 is a collective military defense provision, in fact a war
clause, one which first and to date for the only time has been used to support
the protracted and escalating war in Afghanistan.

References to it, then, are not to be taken lightly.

On a visit to Estonia last November Pentagon chief William Gates met with the
country's prime minister, Andrus Ansip, and "discussed Russian behavior and new
cooperation on cyber security...."

It was reported that "Ansip said NATO will operate under the principle of
Article 5 of the alliance’s treaty, which states that an attack on one
ally is treated as an attack on all," and "We are convinced that Estonia, as a
member of NATO, will be very well defended.” [5]

That the repeated mention of NATO's Article 5 continued a year and a half after
the alleged cyber attacks when none had occurred in the interim is revealing.

At the beginning of this month the Pentagon announced that it was launching what
it called a "digital warfare force for the future," at Fort Meade in Maryland
under the control of the U.S. Strategic Command, whose chief, Gen. Kevin
Chilton, was quoted earlier as threatening the use of force up to and including
nuclear weapons.

The initiative was characterized in a news report as follows:

"Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, also the Pentagon's leading cyber warfare commander,
said the U.S. is determined to lead the global effort to use computer technology
to deter or defeat enemies...." [6]

The Pentagon is a synecdoche for the Department of Defense and everything
related to its activities is cloaked in the same euphemism, so when pressed the
US will insist its new cyber warfare project is intended for defensive purposes
only. Any nation which and people who have been on the receiving end of US
Defense Department actions know better. The new US cyber warfare command, its
rationale based on a supposed Russian threat emanating from a non-military
incident in the Baltics over two years ago, will be used to cripple the computer
systems of any nation targeted for direct military assault, thus rendering them
defenseless, and will be particularly effective for space-based and Star Wars
(missile shield, interceptor missiles) first strike plans.

On the same day the report of General Alexander's pledge to "defeat enemies"
appeared another news item reported that "A quasi-classified satellite that will
serve as an engineering trailblazer for ballistic missile tracking technologies
flew into space Tuesday [May 12]." [7]

It was a Space Tracking and Surveillance System Advanced Technology
Risk Reduction (STSS-ATRR) satellite, which "is part of a space-based system for
the Missile Defense Agency.

"Sensors aboard the STSS-ATRR satellite and on the ground will communicate with
other systems to defend against incoming ballistic missiles." [8]

A few days earlier the California-based manufacturer Ducommun in a news report
titled Ducommun Incorporated Announces Delivery of Nanosatellites to U.S. Army
Space and Missile Defense Command announced that "its Miltec Corporation
subsidiary delivered flight-ready nanosatellites to the U.S. Army pace and
Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command (USASMDC/ARSTRAT) in
Huntsville, Alabama on April 28, 2009."

The delivery was "the completion of the first U.S. Army satellite development
program since the Courier 1B communications satellite in 1960."[9]

Military satellites used for neutralizing the potential of a rival nation not so
much to launch a first strike but to respond to one blur the distinction between
so-called Son of Star Wars missile shield projects and full-fledged
militarization of space.

A recent Russian commentary saw it in just that manner:

"Withdrawal from the 1972 ABM Treaty signified a switch to the testing and
deployment of a global missile defense system, with a view to fully removing the
deterrent potential of China, and partially that of Russia.

"Washington [is] still trying to eliminate international legal restrictions on
the formation of a system, which would theoretically make it invulnerable
towards an act of retaliation, and even a launch-under-attack strike." [10]

Added to which is another "quasi-classified" subterfuge related to a prospective
resumption of Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) talks between the US And
Russia.

American Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller stated this week "that
the US is not prepared to cut warheads removed from delivery means and kept in
storage." [11]

So in addition to US plans to deploy ground-, sea-, air- and space-based
anti-missile systems primarily around and against Russia (Poland, the Czech
Republic, Norway, Britain, Japan and Alaska to date), the Pentagon will hold in
reserve nuclear warheads for activation without a monitoring mechanism provided
to Russian inspectors and arms reduction negotiators.

On May 6 Euronews conducted an interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov, who warned, "The way it [the US anti-ballistic missile shield] is
designed has nothing to do with Iran's nuclear program. It is aimed at Russian
strategic forces, deployed in the European part of the Russian Federation." [12]

To add to the concerns of Russia and other nations, On April 30 the US
established a Navy Air and Missile Defense Command (NAMDC) at the Naval Support
Facility at Dahlgren, Virginia.

"NAMDC is the lead organization for Navy, joint and combined Integrated Air and
Missile Defense (IAMD). NAMDC serves as the single warfare center of excellence
to synchronize and integrate Navy efforts across the full spectrum of air and
missile defense to include air defense, cruise missile defense and ballistic
missile defense." [13]

The past two weeks has been a fertile period for stories in this vein and, to
bring attention nearer the Earth, the US-based Strategy Page reported from a
Russian source that "The United States has bought two Su-27 fighter jets from
Ukraine" to "be used to train American military pilots, who may face opponents
in them" and that the "US military will use them to test its radar and
electronic warfare equipment." [14]

This was at the very moment that the US client in Ukraine, President Viktor
Yushchenko, his national poll ratings plummeting to near 1%, signed a directive
to prepare for full NATO membership and a few days after a US military
delegation visited the country to inspect a tank unit and to plan "reforming the
system of combat training...." [15]

In terms of US training for warfare against the Russian Air Force, the Ukrainian
development is only the latest in a number of such activities.

Immediately following the nation becoming a full member of NATO, the US 81st
Fighter Squadron flew to Constanta, Romania (in which nation the Pentagon has
acquired four new bases since) to engage in combat training against Russian
MiG-21s.

According to one US pilot present, “It was pretty neat - you’re sitting in a
MiG-21 that will be airborne with a MiG-21 pilot within days. This was an arm of
the Soviet Union. These pilots were flying before the Soviet Union fell. They
have quite a bit of perspective.” [16]

In July of the next year the US 492nd Fighter Squadron was deployed to the Graf
Ignatievo Air Base in neighoring Bulgaria to insure the opportunity for "Air
Forces from multiple nations to learn about each other’s aircraft tactics and
capabilities.

"The pilots of the F-15E Strike Eagles and the MIG-29s and MIG-21s are sharing
knowledge of aircraft and tactics as the exercise wraps up its first week of
training."

A US Air Force colonel was quoted as saying, “Only two of the 38 aircrew
members have had a chance to fly against MIGs. By the time the exercise is over,
everyone will have had a chance to either fly in a MIG or fly against one.”
[17]

A month afterward the US Air Force 22nd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron arrived
in Romania for the Viper Lance exercises which "marked the first time U.S. F-16
pilots have trained in Romania" and "where "MiG-21 and F-16 pilots [flew]
integrated formations to conduct basic fighter maneuvers, dissimilar air combat
training and air-to-ground strike missions...." [18]

This time the quote is from an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot:

"My flight in the backseat of a Lancer [MiG-21] is a good opportunity to look at
different aircraft and it's a real privilege and an honor. I want to see what
they see from their cockpit, and view a new angle of understanding against our
adversaries." [19]

Two weeks ago a US Air Force fighter squadron flew to the Bezmer Air Base in
Bulgaria where an American airman said, "This is the first time a USAFE [United
States Air Forces in Europe] fighter squadron has deployed to this
location....The most rewarding part of this experience is knowing that I am
helping the pilots train for war." [20]

To prepare the US for air combat against the full range of Russian military
aircraft, India was invited to the annual Red Flag air combat exercises in
Alaska in 2007, war games "meant to train pilots from the US, NATO and other
allied countries for real combat situations.

"This includes the use of 'enemy' hardware and live ammunition for bombing
exercises." [21]

India provided six Sukhoi SU-30MKI fighters which were "particularly interesting
to the exercise as [they are] Russian-made, thus
traditionally considered 'hostile.'" [22]

May 1st, on the occasion of the Czech Republic taking over the six-month NATO
air patrol rotation in the Baltic skies over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -
five minutes flight from Russia's second largest city of St. Petersburg - a
Czech official boasted "The area we are protecting is about three times larger
than that of the Czech Republic. This is a NATO outpost."

Lithuanian Air Force Commander Arturas Leita announced that "the Baltic
countries would probably ask for the prolongation of the air force mission
within NATO until 2018." [23]

From June 8-16 Sweden will host a NATO drill, Loyal Arrow, described as "biggest
air force drill ever in the Finnish-Swedish Bothnian Bay," [24], also not far
from St. Petersburg, with a British aircraft carrier and more than 50 fighter
jets participating.

That exercise will begin exactly a week after the US-led NATO Cooperative Lancer
09 war games end in Georgia on Russia's southern flank.

In speaking of the dangers of the last-named but with equal application to all
that has preceded it, the South Ossetian Ministry for Press and Mass Media
website recently quoted political scientist Irina Kadzhaev as warning:

"Today the situation is much more serious than before August 2008. The then
threat endangered only South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but after Russia's
recognition of these states' independence and the conclusion of agreements
envisaging the presence of Russian armed forces on their territories, a possible
recurrence of war will not be limited to the Caucasus.

"The new President of the United States did not bring about any crucial changes
in relation to Georgia, but having a dominant role in NATO he still insists on
Georgia's soonest joining of the Alliance. If it happens, the world would face a
more serious threat than the crises of the Cold War.

"Under the new realities, Georgia's war against South Ossetia may easily turn
into NATO's war against Russia. This would be a third world war."
[25]


1) Virginian-Pilot, May 13, 2009
2) Ibid
3) Global Security, May 12, 2009
4) Air Force Link, June 1, 2007
5) U.S. Department of Defense, November 12, 2008
6) Associated Press, May 5, 2009
7) Space Flight Now, May 5, 2009
8) Pratt & Whitney, May 5, 2009
9) Ducommun Incorporated, April 29, 2009
10) Russian Information Agency Novosti, May 7, 2009
11) Russia Today, May 5, 2009
12) Euronews, May 6, 2009
13) Navy News, April 30, 2009
14) Moscow News, May 11, 2009
15) National Radio Company of Ukraine, April 29, 2009
16) Air Force Link, August 2, 2005
17) U.S. Air Forces in Europe, July 24, 2006
18) Stars and Stripes, August 26, 2006
19) Air Force Link, August 17, 2006
20) Air Force Link, April 28, 2009
21) Indo-Asian News Service, November 26, 2007
22) Avionews (Italy), November 28, 2007
23) Czech News Agency, May 1, 2009
24) Barents Observer, May 7, 2009
25) Ministry for Press and Mass Media of the Republic of South Ossetia, April
27, 2009
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