$1bn US military build-up for Eastern Europe

Diplomacy Now? With F-16 backdrop Obama pledges $1bn for military build-up, drills in Eastern Europe

President Obama has announced a plan to invest $1 billion in stepping up its military presence in Eastern Europe amid the Ukrainian crisis. The White House will send more troops and equipment to the region to “reaffirm” its commitment to NATO allies.

Speaking at a news conference in Warsaw, Obama said America was stepping up its partnership with countries in Eastern Europe with a view to bolstering security. The moves are aimed at upping the pressure on Russia, which Washington has accused of inciting unrest in Ukraine.

In line with the plans, Obama will ask Congress to provide up to $1 billion to finance the deployment of more troops and equipment."Under this effort, and with the support of Congress, the United States will preposition more equipment in Europe," Obama said at the Polish capital's Belweder Palace.

With F-16 fighters in the background, U.S. President Barack Obama makes remarks next to Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski (R) at a military airport near Warsaw June 3, 2014 (Reuters / Jacek Marczewski)

Earlier in the day Obama met with US and Polish air personnel in Warsaw and said the US had already begun rotating additional soldiers in the region."Given the situation in Ukraine right now, we have also increased our American presence. We've begun rotating additional ground troops and F-16 aircraft into Poland... to help our forces support NATO air missions," said Obama, calling the commitment to NATO allies in Europe “the cornerstone of our own security.”

Obama called on Moscow to refrain from further provocation in Ukraine and said it has a responsibility to work constructively with the new government in Kiev. He added that the troop buildup in Eastern Europe was not meant to threaten Russia, but “rebuilding trust may take some time.”

The American president will meet with newly-elected Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko during his two-day stay in Poland.

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski praised Washington’s plans to beef up military forces in the region."We welcome them as an announcement of a real return by NATO to standing very strongly by the basis of the alliance, which is Article 5, which speaks about the collective defense of the countries' territories,"Komorowski said.

Paratroopers from the U.S. Army's 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team participate in training exercises with the Polish 6 Airborne Brigade soldiers at the Land Forces Training Centre in Oleszno near Drawsko Pomorskie, north west Poland, May 1, 2014 (Reuters / Kacper Pempel)


Russia has decried the increase in NATO troops close to its border as a blatant provocation and accused the organization of fueling violence in Ukraine. Moscow has said it is ready for dialogue with Poroshenko, but has urged the newly elected President to halt the “anti-terror operation” in the east of Ukraine.“NATO is providing Kiev – a member of its Partnership for Peace program – with technical assistance, thus encouraging the prolongation of its use of force. Thus the Alliance accepts a part of the responsibility for the escalation of the situation, and the collapse of diplomatic negotiations,” said Aleksandr Grushko, Russia’s envoy to NATO.

Thus far the US has deployed 600 troops for military drills in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland.

John Rees, British political analyst and national officer at Stop the War Coalition, told RT the US’ moves were indicative of an “expansionist mood” which could usher in a “dangerous period of interstate rivalry.”

Rees said operation Rapid Trident, a joint US, UK and Ukrainian military drill due to take place next month, could escalate the current crisis even further.

“I cannot think of anything more dangerous in the current circumstances than to have a deployment of UK and US troops alongside Ukrainian troops this summer,” he told RT.

Here is the CNN/presstitute view

Making sense of Obama's billion dollar hammer

Vineyard of the Saker,

3 June, 2014

You probably heard it by now: Obama has pledged a billion dollars to what my "beloved" BBC called "European security". The official name for this initiative is the "European Reassurance Initiative". You see, Obama and the BBC apparently believe that Europeans are really terrified and that they believe that the Russian tanks might roll into Warsaw, Athens, Rome or Lisbon at any time. The good news is that Uncle Sam is here to reassure them that he will let no such thing happen and that this additional 1 billion dollars will deter the Russian Bear.

Have you ever read something more ridiculous?

So what is really going on here?

There is a wonderful American expression which says that "to a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail". Well, to Obama, the EU and the Ukraine sure do look like nails because the only instrument the USA has used in its foreign policy for many decades now is a "hammer" composed of money and guns. But let's backtrack for a second.

I submit that the US policy in Europe is nothing short of a total failure. Not only has the US-instigated coup in the Ukraine turned into a full-spectrum disaster, but the latest elections in Europe clearly show that the European public is becoming more anti-EU and more anti-US. In fact, since the EU is nothing more than a US instrument of colonial domination over Europe, being anti-EU is being anti-US. Bernard-Henri Levi, the hyper-Zionist clown who fancies himself a "philosopher" and who is the darling of the European elites, once said that "anti-Americanism is a metaphor for anti-Semitism". To paraphrase him I would say that "anti-Europeanism is a metaphor for anti-Americanism" (at least if by "Europe" we understand that trans-national horror known as the EU and not the "Europe of the fatherlands" which de Gaulle, a true patriot of France and Europe, had called for). And the folks in DC understand that too, they are not stupid. Worse of all for them, time is running out and the situation on the ground is getting worse and worse not by the day, but by the hour. France, in particular, might explode literally any day.

But the real problem is not in Europe or in the Ukraine, it is in the USA. The US leadership, clearly intoxicated on imperial hubris and 1% class arrogance, has simply forgotten Bismark's motto that "politics is the art of the possible" and this is why instead of seeking some kind of best possible compromise leading to the best possible outcome, they are holding on with a desperate death-grip to an impossible outcome: a Europe run by the EU and a unitary state of Banderastan on the border with Russia. That ain't gonna happen, of course. In fact, the harder the US pushes for such an outcome, the less likely it is to ever become reality. No need to read Hegel to understand that - a quick look at the recent events in Europe clearly shows that the AngloZionist imperial design for the ATTU (Atlantic to the Ural) zone is going nowhere and will end up in an embarrassing meltdown.

Faced with this prospect, the White House does what the French call "fuite en avant" ("fleeing forward" if you want, or "advancing even faster into the quicksands"). The Russians did not take the Ukrainian bait? Fine - we will pretend like they did anyway and "reassure" the Europeans by declaring that "the security of America's European allies is sacrosanct" with enough gravitas to hopefully make them believe that they are really threatened. The neo-Nazi junta has just engaged in yet another massacre in the east? No problem, we will simply praise the regime for its restraint and "democratic nature". The EU leaders are having a panic attack over the latest elections? No problem either, we will just give them a one billion dollar bribe to show them that we will stand by them no matter what and regardless of whom those pesky Europeans might vote for the next time around.

Because, of course, this is what this billion dollar is all about. It's just bribe money for the 1% in the US and the EU to be distributed amongst these plutocrats under the guise of "reassuring Europe". In reality, the "European Reassurance Initiative" only serves to reassure the European elites and the Eurobureaucrats as they are the only ones who will truly benefit from it. And were shall the money come from? Well, hell, Uncle Sam can just create it out of thin air with a few keystrokes on the right computer. And as long as the EU and the rest of the US-colonized planet continues to accept payments in dollars, they will be the ones really paying for this "EU plutocracy reassurance initiative".

You might retort that this is a stupid strategy which will only make things worse. And you would be right. But not in the very short term, which is really the only term which has ever mattered to capitalists anyway. Besides, money and guns are the only two "policy instruments" the US elites understand, so why not throw some money at the issue and hope that guns will make the Empire look stronger?

It is as pathetic as it is immoral. The good news is that the AngloZionist Empire is really sabotaging itself and that it does so faster and better than any outside power could ever dream of. And we are far from having seen the worst of it (just think of what a Hillary Presidency would look like!).

As for the people of Novorossia and Russia - they should keep their cool and realize that all this hot air blowing from the West is just that - hot air. Yes, sometimes they *sound* scary, but that only because American politicians are the masters of make believe and that they are running what Chris Hedges so brilliantly called the "Empire of Illusions". No matter what they say, the reality on the ground, in the real world, is that Kiev does not have any military option in the Donbass just like the AngloZionist Empire has no military option against Russia. Yes, they can *pretend* like they have, but that does not make it so.

What we all should keep in mind is that neither money nor guns win wars. Yes, they are important factors, but they cannot decide an outcome. Willpower does. The Americans, by the way, are quite aware of that. The dumb ones really believe their own propaganda, but the smart ones know that the real purpose of the US "make believe propaganda" is not to really make it happen, but to demoralize the opponent and break down his will to resist. The danger of that is that the moment your opponent really understands that he will immediately understand something else too: that your bark is far bigger than your bite. This is what has happened with Hezbollah.

For years the AngloZionist propaganda has presented the IDF as some kind of elite, almost invincible, force (which they never were, as anybody who has trained with them knows). And that myth of Israeli invincibility has literally paralyzed the entire Middle-East until Hezbollah challenged it. As Robert Fisk reported in 2006 "while in the past the Lebanese would jump into their cars and drive north as soon as an Israeli attack was announced, now they would jump in their cars and drive south". That "switch" in the mind of the Lebanese is what really defeated the IDF in 2006, not some kind of Hezbollah super-weapon.

What does this mean for Novorossia?

It means that the people of Novorossia must truly believe in themselves and stop hoping for a Russian intervention which is not going to happen, at least at this moment in time. Let Obama shake his billion dollar hammer until he drops in exhaustion, but never let that distract you from a victory which is very much within your reach. Yes, the massacres in Odessa, Mariupol, Slaviansk, Kramatorsk, Donetsk and now Lugansk are disgusting atrocities which cannot be forgiven or forgotten, but they are not on the same scale as the horrors of WWII and yet the Russian people eventually also won that war.

Lies and terror have the exact same purpose: to defeat the will of their target and we can expect a lot more lies and terror from the neo-Nazis in Kiev and from the AngloZionist Empire. But if we take heed of Hezbollah's example in Lebanon and if we keep in mind that time is very much on our side, we will prevail, sooner rather than later.

The Saker