Russia has been violating the START arms treaty signed with the United States and the Intermediate Missile Agreement for some time as recognized by the Department of State. President Barack Obama has not taken any action to stop dictator Vladimir Putin as he is rapidly improving Russia’s nuclear arsenal and modernizing its weapons.
Bill Gertz wrote an article entitled “Russia Doubling Nuclear Warheads” which was published in the website Accuracy in Media on April 1, 2016. Gertz explained that Russia deployment of new multiple-warhead missiles violates the New START arms treaty, according to Pentagon officials. Russia is doubling the number of its strategic nuclear warheads on new missiles by deploying multiple reentry vehicles that have put Moscow over the limit set by the New START arms treaty.
The reporter pointed out that a recent intelligence assessment of the Russian strategic warhead buildup indicates that the increase is the result of the addition of multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, or MIRVs, on recently deployed road-mobile SS-27 and submarine-launched SS-N-32 missiles, said officials familiar with reports of the buildup. A Pentagon official stated the following: “The Russians are doubling their warhead output. They will be exceeding the New START [arms treaty] levels because of MIRVing these new systems.”
The 2010 treaty requires the United States and Russia to reduce deployed warheads to 1,550 warheads by February 2018. While Obama has cut its warhead stockpiles significantly in recent years, Putin has increased the number of its deployed warheads and new weapons.
Bill Gertz stated the following: “The State Department revealed in January 2016 that Russia currently has exceeded the New START warhead limit by 98 warheads, deploying a total number of 1,648 warheads. The U.S. level currently is below the treaty level at 1,538 warheads. Officials said that in addition to adding warheads to the new missiles, Russian officials have sought to prevent U.S. weapons inspectors from checking warheads as part of the 2010 treaty. Disclosure of the doubling of Moscow’s warhead force comes as world leaders gather in Washington in late March 2016 to discuss nuclear security—but without Russian President Vladimir Putin, who skipped the conclave in an apparent snub of the United States. The Nuclear Security Summit is the latest meeting of world leaders seeking to pursue President Obama’s 2009 declaration of a world without nuclear arms. Russia, however, is embarked on a major strategic nuclear forces build-up under Putin. Moscow is building new road-mobile, rail-mobile, and silo-based intercontinental-range missiles, along with new submarines equipped with modernized missiles. A new long-range bomber is also being built.”
Russia fires SS-N 30 from one of its submarines.
Admiral Cecil Haney is the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command.
On March 10, 2016, Admiral Cecil Haney, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command which is in charge of nuclear forces, told Congress the following: “Russia’s modernization program and their nuclear deterrent force are of concern. When you look at what they’ve been modernizing, it didn’t just start. They’ve been doing this quite frankly for some time with a lot of crescendo of activity over the last decade and a half.”
President Obama has not modernized the aging U.S. nuclear forces and for seven years, has made sharp defense spending cuts. The president has stated that he wants to eliminate eventually all nuclear weapons from the United States. This is insane! Now, the Pentagon is scrambling to find funds to modernize aging U.S. nuclear forces. In addition to a large-scale nuclear buildup and the improvement of other weapons systems, Russia has repeatedly threaten to use nuclear arms against the United States in recent months, compounding fears of a renewed Russian threat.
General Joseph Dunford is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Earlier in March 2016, General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress that Russia continues to pose the greatest threat to the United States. General Dunford stated the following: “The one that has the greatest capability and poses the greatest threat to the United States is Russia because of its capabilities—its nuclear capability, its cyber capability, and clearly because of some of the things we have seen in its leadership behavior over the last couple of years.”
Gertz explained that Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon official involved in strategic nuclear forces, said he has warned for years that Russia is not reducing its nuclear forces under the treaty. Since the New START arms accord, Moscow has eliminated small numbers of older SS-25 road-mobile missiles. However, the missiles were replaced with new multiple-warhead SS-27s.
Schneider said the following: “The Russians have not claimed to have made any reductions for five years. If they could have claimed to have made any reductions under New START counting rules they would have done it there. The Obama administration also has been deceptive about the benefits of New START. The administration public affairs talking points on New START reductions border on outright lies. The only reductions that have been made since New START entry into force have been by the United States. Instead, Russia has moved from below the New START limits to above the New START limits in deployed warheads and deployed delivery vehicles.”
Schneider pointed out that senior Russian weapon officials have been quoted in press reports discussing Moscow’s withdrawal from the New START arms accord. If that takes place, Russia would have had six and a half years to prepare to violate the treaty limits, at the same time that the United States would have reduced its forces to treaty limits.
The Russian SS-27 road-mobile missile will be armed with 10 warheads.
Schneider stated the following: “Can they comply with New START? Yes. They can download their missile warheads and do a small number to delivery systems reductions. “Will they? I doubt it. If they don’t start to do something very soon they are likely to pull the plug on the treaty. I don’t see them uploading the way they have, only to download in the next two years.”
Gertz wrote that Russian officials deceptively sought to make it appear that their nuclear forces have been reduced during a recent nuclear review conference. Yet, the deployment of new multiple-warhead SS-27s and SS-N-32s are pushing up the Russian warhead numbers. Published Russian reports have stated that the missiles will be armed with 10 warheads each. In addition, Russia is building a new heavy Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) called Sarmat, code-named SS-X-30 by the Pentagon, that will be equipped with 10 to 15 warheads per missile. A new rail-based ICBM is being developed that will also carry multiple warheads. Another long-range missile, the SS-X-31, is under development and will carry up to 12 warheads.
Sadly, these new weapons are much better than those of the United States. The United States does have road-mobile ICBMs. Obama has failed in protecting the national security of the nation.
Bill Gertz concluded his article by stating the following: “The White House said Moscow’s failure to take part in the nuclear summit was a sign of self-isolation based on the West’s sanctions aimed at punishing Russia for the military takeover of Ukraine’s Crimea. A Russian official said the snub by Putin was directed at Obama. This summit is particularly important for the USA and for Obama—this is probably why Moscow has decided to go for this gesture and show its outrage with the West’s policy in this manner, Alexei Arbatov, director of the Center for International Security at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told the business newspaper Vedomosti. A Russian Foreign Ministry official, Mikhail Ulyanov, told RIA Novosti that the summit was not needed There is no need for it, to be honest, he said, adding that nuclear security talks should be the work of nuclear physicists, intelligence services, and engineers. The political agenda of the summits has long been exhausted.”
Russia is preparing for war against the United States and its NATO allies
Alexander Dugin, a long-time adviser to Putin who hates the United States, wants the American empire to be destroyed. He is a key theorist of the ideological underpinnings of “Putinism” and “Eurasianism” which is a very dangerous movement that seeks to provide a basis for uniting not only Russia, but all the world’s anti-freedom forces under Moscow’s leadership against the United States and its allies in the West.
Aleksandr (Alexander) Gelyevich Dugin is a long-time adviser to Putin.
Aleksandr (Alexander) Gelyevich Dugin is a Russian political scientist well known for his fascist views and who calls to hasten the “end of times” with all-out war. He has close ties with the Kremlin and the Russian military, having served as an advisor to State Duma speaker and key member of the ruling United Russia party Sergei Naryshkin. Dugin was the leading organizer of the National Bolshevik Party, National Bolshevik Front, and Eurasia Party. He is the author of more than 30 books, among them Foundations of Geopolitics and The Fourth Political Theory.
Dugin advocates the restoration of the Russian Empire through the unification of Russian-speaking territories, which roughly corresponds to the former Soviet republics, such as Georgia and Ukraine, and unification with Russian-speaking territories, especially eastern Ukraine and Crimea. In the Kremlin, Dugin represents the “war party,” a division at the center of the leadership concerning Ukraine. He is seen as the driving conceptual force behind Vladimir Putin’s initiative for the annexation of Crimea by Russia. According to his geopolitical views, he considers the war between Russia and Ukraine to be inevitable and has encouraged Putin’s military intervention in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
Putin and his adviser Dugin are tired of American hegemony. Russia wants to impose its destructive Russian bloody hegemony of chaos as it is doing effectively in Syria, Iran, and other nations in the Middle East. Putin’s massive attacks against the people of Syria have provoked tens of thousands to flee to Europe. This massive Russian intervention in Syria has created enormous chaos and disruption to the European nations which are allies of the United States.
The current head of al-Qaida, Ayman Mohammed al-Zawahiri, appears in the picture with Osama bin Laden when he was second in command.
The head of al-Qaida, Ayman Mohammed al-Zawahiri, is a KGB agent who works with Russia. Russia is working with all terror organizations to distract the United States while it spent trillions in wars while Putin has been rearming Russia as well as China. Obama’s erroneous and weak foreign policy and his unilateral disarmament have given the opportunity for Putin to become the strong man in the Middle East as well as continue the military aggression of Ukraine.
According to Dugin what Russia needs is a “genuine, true, radically revolutionary and consistent, fascist fascism.” The reporter stated the following: “On the other hand, Liberalism is an absolute evil…Only a global crusade against the U.S., the West, globalization, and their political-ideological expression, liberalism, is capable of becoming an adequate response…The American empire should be should be destroyed.”
Garry Kasparov wrote a book entitled Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped, that explained how Russia’s fell back into a dictatorship—and how the West is now paying the price for allowing it to happen. Kasparov explained the following: “The coming of power of Vladimir Putin—a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB—to the presidency of Russia in 1999 was a strong signal that the country was headed away from democracy. Yet in the intervening years—as America and the world’s other leading powers have continued to appease him—Putin has grown not only into a dictator but as a major international threat. With his vast resources and nuclear arsenal, Putin is at the center of a worldwide assault on political liberty and the modern world order.”
Garry Kasparov’s book, Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped, explained the nature of the dictatorship in Russia and why Putin must be stopped.
Kasparov fled Russia and his book is an indictment of both major political parties in the United States regarding their treatment of Putin’s Russia. Kasparov, the former chess champion, fled Russia when he learned that his life would be in danger if he remained in his country. His longtime friend and colleague, Boris Nemtsov, stayed in Russia to organize politically against Putin. Nemtsov was murdered in cold blood in the middle of Moscow on February 27, 2015.
Garry Kasparov has been a vocal critic of Putin for over a decade, even leading the pro-democracy opposition against him in the farcical 2008 presidential election. Yet, after years of seeing his Cassandra-like prophecies about Putin’s intentions fulfilled, Kasparov was left with a darker truth: Putin’s Russia, like ISIS or al-Qaeda, defines itself in opposition to the free countries of the world. Kasparov pointed out in his book that he accepts the evidence that Putin’s comrades in the Federal Security Service (FSB) —the successor to the KGB—carried out the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings that were blamed on Islamists and used to justify Putin’s war in Chechnya.
Kasparov stated the following: “As Putin has grown ever more powerful, the threat he poses has grown from local to regional and finally to global. In this urgent book, Kasparov shows that the collapse of the Soviet Union was not an endpoint—only a change of seasons, as the Cold War melted into a new spring. But now, after years of complacency and poor judgment, winter is once again upon us.”
Arguing with the force of Kasparov’s world-class intelligence, conviction, and hopes for his home country, Winter Is Coming reveals Putin for what he is: an existential danger hiding in plain sight.
Jeff Nyquist, is a geopolitical analyst who has written several books on Soviet/Russian strategy, including The New Tactics of Global War (2015), which he co-authored with Benjamin Baruch. Both of them are very concerned about those who are running for president and their attitude and views towards Russia. This is a book that everyone needs to read especially all 2016 presidential candidates, members of Congress, and officials in the Departments of Defense, State, and all 17 intelligence agencies in the government.
In their book, The New Tactics of Global War, Nyquist and Baruch explained the following: “The 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union ended the Cold War, an event described in the West as the end of history. Post-Soviet Russia appeared to embrace free markets and democratic elections so the West would begin to view the new Russia as a friend. In 2014 Russian forces invaded and annexed Crimea. A New Cold war had begun. Russia was ready for this conflict, having armed itself to the teeth with new weapons. The demise of the Soviet Union now appears to have been greatly exaggerated or, at worst, an intentional deception. Although the intelligence service of the Soviet era, the KGB, was renamed the Federal Security Service( FSB), it facilitated the rise of Vladimir Putin to power, himself a former KGB official, proving the Security service from the former Soviet era was still very much in power within the new Russia.”
In The New Tactics of Global War, the authors explained what happened at the end of the Cold War and why Russia remains the number one threat to the national security of the United States. The moves and counter-moves of the present crisis stem from a long-running deception game. The book allows the reader to understand the “mind of the enemy.”
Nyquist and Baruch said that the last seven years while President Obama was disarming the United States, there has been have a gradual shift in the military balance of power as Russia has begun to deploy new weapons systems that are better than those of the United States. They explained that given Russia’s renewed military power, the risk of war should not be underestimated. The two writers cited an article written by Anne Applebaum in the Washington Post entitled “War in Europe is not a Hysterical idea” published in August 2014. Applebaum said that a Russian dissident Andrei Piontkovsky has recently argued that Vladimir Putin is “really is weighing the possibility of limited nuclear war.”
Russian dictator Putin has made public threats against the United States, Baltic nations of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania as well as Poland and Romania. Nyquist and Baruch said that on August 11, 2015, the Daily Mail reported, “Shock waves reverberated through Eastern Europe after Vladimir Putin boasted he could invade five NATO capitals inside two days.” The article quotes Vladimir Putin as saying, “If I wanted, Russian troops could not only be in Kiev in two days, but in Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Warsaw or Bucharest, too.”
Nyquist and Baruch pointed out that while most people in the United States and the West view war with Russia as impossible and nuclear war as unthinkable since there is the delusion that the Cold War is over and the West won. Unfortunately, Russia and its ally China do not share those views and war against the United States and its NATO allies is a possibility in the near future. The current attitude in the United States and in the West can best be described as complacent. Due to the effective and very successful disinformation and deceptive campaign by Russia and its spies and operatives in the United States, many people including political leaders have been fool into thinking the Cold War had ended and the United States won.
Nyquist and Baruch explained that the long-term Russian goal to eventually eliminate the military superiority of the United States and NATO has been achieved. They wrote the following: “Russia’s sudden leap ahead is decidedly obvious with the upcoming deployment of 10 battalions of S-500 antiballistic missiles, the revolutionary new T-14 Armata tank, and the road model version of the SS-27 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The United States does not possess weapons systems comparable to these. The sudden emergence of Russian military superiority should surprise no one… Suddenly, out of nowhere, there appears a reinvigorated Russia backed by China… The SS-N-22 Sunburn missile that travels three times the speed of sound has the destructive payload to threaten large U.S. warships, including aircraft carriers. There is no effective countermeasure to defeat the Sunburn missile today. The Russians have armed Chinese destroyers with these Sunburn missiles… Another formidable weapon is the fuel air bomb. This bomb has the explosive power of the tactical nuclear weapon. The Russians have now miniaturized the fuel air bomb, producing a rifle-fire-grenade with the firepower of a 155 mm howitzer. It can knock down a three-story building. This is a new kind of conventional firepower that greatly increases the hitting power of infantry.”
Russian Stealth fighter T-50
Russian aircraft Sukhoi-30
Another powerful new weapon is the Russian aircraft Sukhoi-30 which the Air Force in India believes is superior to the best aircraft in the United States. Russia has developed more than 10 years ago a technology known as plasma stealth. When the nosecone of a Russian aircraft equipped with plasma stealth it gradually releases plasma as it approaches an enemy target generating a shield around the aircraft that makes it invisible to enemy radar.
In 2014 a Russian jet aircraft flew several times over a U.S. Navy destroyer. As the Russian jet approach the destroyer, it conducted an electronic attack which disabled all the electronic defense systems and the destroyer was helpless. If it had been a real attack, the U.S. Navy destroyer would have been blown out of the water. This incident led that every sailor aboard that destroyer to ask to be released from the Navy.
It is beyond this writer imagination, why President Obama did not immediately start improving the research and development of weapons to match or exceed the new weapon systems of Russia. The only answer that this writer has is that Obama wishes to deliberately harm the national security of the nation that elected him twice.
The evidence that Russia is preparing for war can be found in the Kremlin constant anti-America propaganda over the state media. The Russians are hearing daily propaganda that the United States wants to destroy Russia. As Nyquist and Baruch have indicated Russia is getting their population ready for war against the United States and its NATO allies.
Anatoliy Golitsyn wrote a book New Lies for Old in 1984.
In New Lies for Old: an ex-KGB officer warns how communist deception threatens survival of the West (1984), Anatoliy Golitsyn warned about a long-term deception strategy of seeming retreat from hardline Communism designed to lull the West into a false sense of security, and finally economically cripple and diplomatically isolate the United States. Golitsyn stated the following: “The liberalization would be spectacular and impressive. Formal pronouncements might be made about a reduction in the communist party’s role: its monopoly would be apparently curtailed. An ostensible separation of powers between the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary might be introduced. The Supreme Soviet would be given greater apparent power, and the president of the Soviet Union and the first secretary of the party might well be separated. The KGB would be reformed. Dissidents at home would be amnestied; those in exile abroad would be allowed to return, and some would take up positions of leadership in government. Sakharov might be included in some capacity in the government or allowed to teach abroad. The creative arts and cultural and scientific organizations, such as the writers’ unions and Academy of Sciences, would become apparently more independent, as would the trade unions. Political clubs would be opened to nonmembers of the communist party. Leading dissidents might form one or more alternative political parties. There would be greater freedom for Soviet citizens to travel. Western and Unitized Nations observers would be invited to the Soviet Union to witness the reforms in action.”
In 1995 Anatoliy Golitsyn published a second book entitled The Perestroika Deception which claimed the following:
- “The Soviet strategists are concealing the secret coordination that exists and will continue between Moscow and the ‘nationalist’ leaders of the ‘independent’ republics.”
- “The power of the KGB remains as great as ever… Talk of cosmetic changes in the KGB and its supervision is deliberately publicized to support the myth of ‘democratization’ of the Soviet political system.”
- “Scratch these new, instant Soviet ‘democrats,’ ‘anti-Communists,’ and ‘nationalists’ who have sprouted out of nowhere, and underneath will be found secret Party members or KGB agents.”
The massive deception of Russia fooled and has continued to fool the leaders and some presidential candidates of the United States and West into thinking that Russia is not a geopolitical enemy and an existential threat to the United States. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nyquist and Baruch explained that a former KGB officer Anatoliy Golitsyn who defected to the West in 1961 in his books warned the United States that the Soviet Union was planning a massive campaign of deception. This campaign would include fake reforms and a fake collapse of communism, the sign to fold the West into thinking the Cold War had ended.
Golitsyn the Soviet KGB defector and author of two books about the long-term deception strategy of the KGB leadership provided “a wide range of intelligence to the CIA on the operations of most of the ‘Lines’ (departments) at the Helsinki and other residencies, as well as KGB methods of recruiting and running agents.
Obama, Putin, Ukraine, and the New Cold War
Obama and Putin meet in Russia
On March 1, 2014, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to invade Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. The day before, the Russian Parliament had granted the Russian dictator complete authority to use military force in response to the impeachment of the pro-Russian President Viktor F. Yanukovych of Ukraine and the turmoil that ensued.
The ousted President Yanukovych had refused to sign an expected free trade and political agreements with the European Union. Russia opposed the agreements with the European Union and instead wanted Ukraine to become part of Russia’s customs union. The refusal of President Viktor F. Yanukovych to sign the agreements with the European Union and his desire to establish a closer relation with Russia were strongly opposed by the pro-Western Ukrainian people. On February 22, 2014, after three months of rioting in Ukraine’s capital of Kiev and other cities and the death of approximately 100 people, the Ukrainian Parliament voted to impeach and dismiss President Yanukovych, who then fled to Russia.
Six days later after the impeachment of the pro-Russian President Yanukovych, the Russian troops with masks covering their faces and without using any identifying insignia, but using military vehicles with Russian license plates, closed the airport, surrounded the Ukrainian Navy and Army bases, and took over government buildings and roads throughout Crimea. The naked aggression by Russia reminds this writer of the events prior to World War II when Adolph Hitler began annexing parts of nations and then entire nations while England and France conducted a failed appeasement policy. Weakness always invites aggression by ruthless dictators like Hitler and Putin.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin ignored President Barack Obama’s warning of not intervening militarily in Ukraine. Obama stated the following: “Over the last several days, the United States has been responding to events as they unfold in Ukraine. Throughout this crisis, we have been very clear about one fundamental principle: the Ukrainian people deserve the opportunity to determine their own future… We are now deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside Ukraine… It would represent a profound interference in matters that must be determined by the Ukrainian people… The United States will stand with international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine.”
The Russian dictator disregarded Obama’s threats and invaded Crimea. Barack Obama condemned Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine on March 1, 2014, calling it a “clear violation and a breach of international law.” President Obama held a 90-minute telephone conversation with the Russian dictator, who refused to withdraw Russian forces from Crimea.
Ukraine has 130,000 soldiers in its Armed Forces and reserves of approximately 1,000,000. However, it is no match to the Russian Armed Forces. Russia has an army of 285,000 soldiers. Ukraine has eight ships in its Navy while Russia has 50 ships. Ukraine has 230 fighter aircrafts and Russia has over 1,500 aircraft. However, Ukraine is not similar to the small and defenseless country of Georgia. If war were to break out between the two countries, Russia would have a difficult time defeating Ukraine. Russia will suffer enormous casualties. Ukrainians will fight hard as they remember the millions who were starved to death by orders of Josef Stalin during the 1930s.
The approximately 2,000,000 people who live in Crimea are primarily of Russian descent and many, but not all of them, welcomed the Russian invasion. Crimea has approximately 15% Tartar as well as many Ukrainian-speaking and Russian-speaking individuals who do not want to live under the boot of Russia. Crimea had a great deal of autonomy under Ukraine. Crimea serves as the headquarters of the Russian Navy Black Sea fleet. Russia had a long-term lease of this naval base that was signed with Ukraine.
The Russian dictator, like all tyrants who invade other countries, gave the excuse that the Russian intervention was conducted only to protect the Russian-speaking citizens. This was a blatant lie since at no time the Russian speakers were threatened. As Great Britain Prime Minister David Cameron stated, “There can be no excuse for outside military intervention” in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, ordered the Armed Forces to be in full readiness and to add more security at nuclear power plants, airports, and all strategic places. Prime Minister Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk stated that he was sure that Russia would not intervene militarily in eastern Ukraine since it would mean war and the end of all relations with Russia.
In August 2008, the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin invaded the sovereign nation of Georgia and annexed half of its territory. As in Crimea, two areas of Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, had the majority of ethnic Russians. President George W. Bush and Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain strongly condemned this naked aggression to this small nation. Senator Obama, who was vacationing in Hawaii, did not condemn the Russian intervention and said that the two nations needed to start a dialogue and negotiations. What was there to negotiate after Georgia was completely devastated?
President Bush ordered Navy ships to move into the region and sent humanitarian aid on military aircraft to Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi. President Bush also suspended a pending civilian nuclear agreement with Russia and requested that NATO suspend all military contacts with Russia. After the cease-fire, Russia was supposed to evacuate its military personnel, but it refused to do so.
Vladimir Putin perceives Obama to be indecisive and weak
After Obama came to power in January 2009, the isolation of Russia ended quickly. Obama tried to improve relations with Russia and NATO resumed military contacts with that nation in 2009. A superpower cannot impose short-lived penalties and quickly end the isolation of a large nation that has invaded and committed aggression against a small nation. Russia understood that its aggression to Georgia went unpunished by our nation.
Putin stated that the disintegration of the Soviet Union was the worst thing that happened during the 20th century. His dream and goal are to bring back under Russian control the former parts of the Soviet Union that became independent nations. Barack Obama never understood Russia’s intention. This is why an editorial by the Washington Post stated that Barack Obama’s foreign policy is a “fantasy.”
The United States under President Obama entered into an agreement with Russia to reduce the nuclear arsenal of both nations. As indicated earlier, Russia has violated with complete impunity the nuclear agreement. Obama stated that he wanted eventually to abolish all nuclear weapons in the United States. This statement was perceived by both China and Russia as a sign of extreme weakness. Moreover, the enormous reduction of the budget of the Pentagon under President Obama has emboldened both China Russia, Iran and other enemy nations.
While the United States is reducing the size of its Armed Forces, both China and Russia are increasing their defense spending, and the size of their Armed Forces and modernizing their weapons. Obama’s disarmament has seriously endangered our national security. This writer has been pointing this out for several years in a series of articles and in his book, America in Decline (2014).
President Obama, soon after being sworn into office, gave in to Russia’s pressure to remove the antimissile missiles that President Bush had negotiated with the Czech Republic and Poland. Both Eastern European countries felt betrayed. Even worse, Obama did not ask for a “quid pro quo” or something in return. This was a major mistake since a superpower never gives up an advantage over a potential enemy without asking for something in return. In essence, Obama abandoned all of Eastern Europe to Russia. The Russian dictator realized he could get away with pushing around the former republics of the Soviet Union and that the United States would do nothing to protect them.
Herszenhorn wrote an article entitled “Russia Putting a Strong Arm of Neighbors” in The New York Times on October 23, 2013. The reporter explained that Russia is bullying some of the countries that were formerly included in the Soviet Union in an effort to force them to join Russia’s customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus. In November 2013, the European Union planned to offer political and trade accords to several ex-Soviet republics. To prevent that from happening, Russia is putting strong pressure on its neighboring countries. Dmitry O. Rogozin, the deputy prime minister of Russia, warned Moldova, a landlocked nation of 3.6 million people between Romania and Ukraine and the poorest country in Europe, that it would be a “great mistake” to seek closer ties with Europe. At the conclusion of a visit to Moldova, Rogozin said, “We hope that you will not freeze.” Moldova, like most of the European countries, depends on Russian gas for heat.
The reporter pointed out that the strong pressure being placed on the former Soviet republics is not directed at Moldova alone. In August 2013, Russia suddenly stopped all Ukrainian imports at the border for closer customs inspections. A Russian official said that import restrictions from this country could become permanent if Ukraine, as expected, signs agreements with the European Union. The Russian official said that such a move would be “suicidal.”
The immense pressure put on Armenia by Russia was effective. In September 2013, Armenia declared that it would join Russia’s customs union, even though it had worked for years to obtain various agreements with the European Union. Russia is also putting pressure on Lithuania, a country that had already joined the European Union. In October 2013, Russia banned milk and other dairy imports from this small Baltic country. A couple of years ago, Russia stopped sending gas for a few days in the middle of the winter to Ukraine and other European countries in an effort to show its power over all of Europe.
Recently, the Russian Duma, or legislature, approved a budget to increase spending on nuclear weapons by 50% over the next three years. Russia is also increasing the size of its armed forces and improving and modernizing its weapons. The Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who has stated that the worst thing that happened in the 20th century was the disintegration of the Soviet Union, has been trying to bring back the former Soviet republics into its fold.
On August 1, 2013, Russia defied the United States and granted asylum to Edward Snowden, the NSA´s leaker and spy. Putin ignored Obama´s repeated requests to return Snowden to our nation to stand trial for stealing many important secrets, which has damaged our national security, as explained by present and retired government officials. Many U.S. allies have been incensed about the spying by NSA of their nations and even the telephone calls of the head of states in Europe and Latin America. Some of them are working with the United Nations to stop the NSA’s spying on their nations.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev
As explained earlier, Obama’s request to Dmitry Medvedev, while meeting with him in South Korea, to ask Putin to give him “flexibility” and “space” until reelected was most troubling. After his reelection, the president announced that he would enter into an unconstitutional informal agreement with Russia to further cut our nuclear arsenal.
Obama desires to completely eliminate our nuclear arsenal while reducing drastically the Pentagon’s budget. His own former Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, stated several times that those severe cuts would endanger our national security. Before he retired, Panetta stated “that the United States would be left with a force that suffers low morale, poor readiness and is unable to keep with potential adversaries. It would invite aggression.” Panetta was right. Russia and China believe that the United States is unable or unwilling to stand up to potential adversaries. Allies of the United States are terrified about the lack of resolve that they see in Barack Obama and so are many patriots in this nation.
Since sequestration became effective at the beginning of March 2013, $55 billion was cut from the Pentagon annually for the next 10 years. This massive cut represents 10% of the entire Pentagon´s budget. The U.S. Navy would be reduced from 286 to 230 ships, leaving our Navy the size it was in 1915! The U.S. Army would be reduced from 569,000 to 420,000 soldiers, the size it was in 1939. The 1,990 fighter aircraft of the U.S. Air Force would be reduced to 1,512.
The size of U.S. Marine Corps would also be cut. Millions would lose their employment in defense-related industries and this will increase unemployment in the nation. In February 2014, additional cuts were proposed by the Obama administration to the Pentagon, again sending a message of weakness to Russia, China, and other enemy nations. Our enemies are delighted with how Obama is chopping to pieces our Armed Forces! Additionally, President Obama has lowered the morale of our military by declaring war against religion and Christianity in violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution that guarantees the freedom of religion
The United States and Western European nations’ distrust of Russia has increased by Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula and his role in the arming, financing, and directing the pro-Russian rebel separatists in a renewed military aggression in eastern Ukraine, even after signing several cease-fire agreements. Russian-backed separatists have been assisted by several thousand Russian soldiers to take control of a large part of eastern Ukraine.
There is bipartisan support in Congress to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons to fight the better-equipped rebels and Russian military, but President Obama has refused to do so. Yet, the prospects of achieving a lasting peace plan are difficult due to the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who is acting in a way similar to Adolph Hitler in the 1930s. The Russian military aggression has killed and injured several thousand Ukrainians and forced hundreds of thousands to flee eastern Ukraine over the past year.
Sadly, the United States, the European Union, and Russia signed an agreement guaranteeing the “full territorial integrity” of Ukraine when that nation returned its entire nuclear arsenal to Russia. Obviously, Ukraine made an enormous mistake by trusting the United States and the European Union. Putin will not give back the Crimean peninsula and other conquered parts of Eastern Ukraine.
Russia has sent tanks, rockets, and other heavy weapons to the separatists, and about thousands of its own troops to help the rebels with their offensive. Barack Obama needs to provide lethal weapons, including antitank missiles, drones, radars, and other arms in addition to economic aid to help Ukraine’s military fight Russian and rebel forces. Only a show of force will convince Putin to seek a political settlement.
One Western diplomat sharply criticized an earlier Russian proposal. “It is not a peace plan,” said the diplomat, who declined to be identified to comment on confidential diplomatic discussions. “It is a road map to creating a new Transnistria or Abkhazia in Ukraine. It is a cynical effort to get out of all the commitments made in Minsk.”
Transnistria is a Russian enclave within Moldova that is effectively controlled by Moscow. Abkhazia is a breakaway region in Georgia that is also effectively under Russian control. Many Ukrainians express the same distrust of Russia’s motives, particularly the deployment of so-called peacekeeping forces as it did in Transnistria and Abkhazia. “Don’t play a Russian game, because Russia later will take care of all of this area,” said Igor Koziy, a military analyst at the Institute of Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, a research group in Kiev.
Russia’s support for the separatists far outstrips the assistance the United States and European nations have provided to Ukraine. The Russians have sent modern T-80 tanks, whose armor cannot be penetrated by Ukraine’s aging and largely inoperative antitank weapons, along with Grad rockets and other heavy weapons. Russian forces have also used electronic jamming equipment to interfere with the Ukrainians’ communications.
Ukrainian President Petro O. Poroshenko
Ukrainian President Petro O. Poroshenko has requested arms and equipment, including ammunition, sniper rifles, mortars, grenade launchers, antitank missiles, armored personnel carriers, mobile field hospitals, counterbattery radars, and reconnaissance drones. However, Obama, shamefully, has not sent that country a single bullet.
President Petro O. Poroshenko has continued to appeal for military assistance, arguing that it would encourage Russia to accept a political solution. “The stronger our defense, the more convincing is our diplomatic voice.” He strongly rejected the idea that additional territory concessions should be made in return for a new agreement. He said Ukraine wanted defensive weapons to counter Russian artillery and radar, not offensive weapons, including communications equipment and counter-battery radar.
Vice President Joe Biden said in his speech a couple years ago that while he had appeared before the conference six years before to urge that American-Russian relations be “reset,” that period was over. The West was now being tested by Russia’s actions and needed to change its focus. “The Ukrainian people have a right to defend themselves,” said Biden, who stopped short of saying that the United States would provide lethal weapons.
The United States and European Union economic sanctions so far have failed to dissuade the Russians from intervening in Ukraine. Germany, France, and Britain believe that economic sanctions need more time.
Obama has conducted a very large purge at the Pentagon
In addition to severely cutting the Pentagon’s budget, Obama conducted the largest purge in history of the Armed Forces which lowered the morale of the military. The following senior officers were fired and thus, weakening our Armed Forces:
General John R. Allen-U.S. Marines
Major General Ralph Baker-U.S. Army Commander
Major General Michael Carey-U.S. Air Force Commander of the 20th US Air Force in charge of 9,600 people and 450 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles
Colonel James Christmas-U.S. Marines Commander 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit & Commander Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground
Major General Peter Fuller-U.S. Army Commander in Afghanistan (May 2011)
Major General Charles M.M. Gurganus-U.S. Marine Corps Regional Commander of SW and I Marine Expeditionary Force in Afghanistan (Oct 2013)
General Carter F. Ham-U.S. Army African Command (Oct 2013)
Lieutenant General David H. Huntoon, Jr.-U.S. Army 58th Superintendent of the US Military Academy at West Point, NY (2013)
Command Sergeant Major Don B Jordan-U.S. Army 143rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command (suspended Oct 2013)
General James Mattis-U.S. Marines Chief of CentCom (May 2013)
Colonel Daren Margolin-U.S. Marine in charge of Quantico’s Security Battalion (Oct 2013)
General Stanley McChrystal-U.S. Army Commander Afghanistan (June 2010)
General David D. McKiernan-U.S. Army Commander Afghanistan (2009)
General David Petraeus-Director of CIA from September 2011 to November 2012 & U.S. Army Commander International Security Assistance Force [ISAF] and Commander U.S. Forces Afghanistan [USFOR-A] (Nov 2012)
Brigadier General Bryan Roberts-U.S. Army Commander 2nd Brigade (May 2013)
Major General Gregg A. Sturdevant-U.S. Marine Corps Director of Strategic Planning and Policy for the U.S. Pacific Command & Commander of Aviation Wing at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan (Sept 2013)
Colonel Eric Tilley-U.S. Army Commander of Garrison Japan (Nov 2013)
Brigadier General Bryan Wampler-U.S. Army Commanding General
Rear Admiral Charles Gaouette-U.S. Navy Commander John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group Three (Oct 2012)
Vice Admiral Tim Giardina (3 Star, demoted to 2 Star)-U.S. Navy Deputy Commander of the US Strategic Command, Commander of the Submarine Group Trident, Submarine Group 9 and Submarine Group 10 (Oct 2013)
Since Barack Obama has been in the White House, high ranking military officers have been removed from their positions at a rate that is absolutely unprecedented. Things have gotten so bad that a number of retired generals are publicly speaking out about the purge of the U.S. military that they believe is taking place.
Dozens of highly decorated military leaders have been dismissed from their positions over the past few years. So why is this happening? Is there a deliberate attempt to reshape the military and remove those who do not adhere to the proper ‘viewpoints’? Does someone out there feel a need to get officers that will not cooperate with Obama out of the way?
Retired Army Major General Paul Vallely
Retired Army Major General Paul Vallely stated the following: “The White House protects their own. That’s why they stalled on the investigation into Fast and Furious, Benghazi and Obamacare. He’s intentionally weakening and gutting our military, Pentagon and reducing us as a superpower, and anyone in the ranks who disagrees or speaks out is being purged. Absolutely every communist regime on the planet did this as soon as they got in power. I am surprised this communist traitor with his feet up on our furniture in the White House hasn’t done this until now!”
Retired Army Major General Patrick Brady
Retired Army Major General Patrick Brady said, “There is no doubt Obama is intent on emasculating the military and will fire anyone who disagrees with him”. Retired Navy Captain Joseph John said, “I believe there are more than 137 officers who have been forced out or given bad evaluation reports so they will never make Flag (officer), because of their failure to comply to certain views.”
Retired Army Lt. General William G. Jerry Boykin
Retired Army Lt. General William G. Jerry Boykin said, “Over the past three years, it is unprecedented for the number of four-star generals to be relieved of duty, and not necessarily relieved for cause.” A Pentagon official who asked to remain nameless because they were not authorized to speak on the matter, said that even young officers, down through the ranks have been told not to talk about Obama or the politics of the White House. They are purging everyone and, if you want to keep your job, just keep your mouth shut. Now this trend appears to be accelerating.
Former Governor and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney
Governor Mitt Romney stated during his presidential campaign that he was planning to increase defense spending by $150 billion a year in order to make U.S. armed forces stronger and more capable of protecting this country from its enemies. China and Russia are drastically increasing their defense spending and modernizing their armed forces. Iran continues to enrich uranium in order to build nuclear bombs. North Korea continues to build nuclear weapons and improve its missiles. Al-Qaida, the Islamic State, and other terrorist groups continue to get stronger. Obviously, this is not the time to cut the Pentagon’s budget and disarm unilaterally.
President Obama, after he was sworn into office in January 2009, could have worked closely with European allies and incorporated into NATO both Georgia and Ukraine, as well as other independent nations that were once a part of the old Soviet Union. If that had happened, Vladimir Putin would not have dared to invade the Crimean Peninsula since that would have meant a state of war with the United States and the NATO members. He had several years to do that but he failed to act for fear of annoying Russia.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Governor Sarah Palin stated that Russia someday might invade Ukraine. Four years later, Governor Mitt Romney, during the 2012 presidential campaign, stated that Russia is a geopolitical enemy of the United States.
President Barack Obama, demonstrating his incompetence and lack of understanding of national security, made fun of Mitt Romney’s remark and ridiculed him, following the tactics of his extreme radical spiritual mentor Saul Alinsky. Obama said the United States was no longer involved in a Cold War. The pro-Obama established media also made fun of the 2012 Republican Party candidate for president. Both Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney were correct and Obama was wrong.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin considers Barack Obama to be very weak, especially when Obama sent him a message from South Korea asking for space and promising flexibility after his reelection. Putin was delighted that Barack Obama was reelected president in 2012 as was the Communist Party in the United States.
Both Russia and China have noticed that Barack Obama has never complained about the large Cuban Occupation Army in Venezuela. He did not ask for sanctions against Cuba for giving Migs planes and other weapons to North Korea in violation of the United Nations Security Council’s resolution of an arm embargo against North Korea. Quite the contrary, Obama normalized relations with the bloody Castro regime and has given a series of unilateral concessions with nothing in return. The bloody dictator of Cuba, Raúl Castro, realized that he has a free hand in Venezuela and that Cuban thugs can shoot students and tortured them in Venezuela without impunity.
Russia has negotiated military and naval bases in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. Obviously, Russia feels that the United States has become under Obama a superpower in rapid retreat. Will Obama allow Putin to build military and naval bases in Cuba? Most likely, yes!
As this writer has written in articles and in his book, America in Decline (2014), a world superpower needs to be respected by its allies and feared by its enemies. Sadly, we are neither. It is no accident that both Russia and China are exercising imperialism against their neighbors. Our allies are terrified of the weakness coming from the White House which has emboldened China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea.
The United States needs to respond strongly to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine
While no one is recommending a United States military intervention in Ukraine, there are many things that our nation can do to respond to Russia’s naked aggression in Georgia and Ukraine, violation of treaties and threats to the United States and its NATO allies in Europe. This writer recommends that President Barack Obama does the following:
· Denounce Russia’s violations of the treaties and increase and modernize quickly our nuclear arsenal and develop missiles and conventional weapons that are superior to those developed by Russia.
· Explain to Congress and the American people clearly how Russia has developed better intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) and anti-ballistic missiles (ABM), jet aircrafts and other conventional weapons that are much better than those of the United States and request billions of dollars to improve our defense.
· Freeze assets of selected Russian officials as well as state-run financial institutions.
· Send U.S. and NATO troops to Poland and the Baltic nations and move them close to the border with Russia. Obama very recently sent troops to these countries, instead of having done it several years ago.
· Strengthen the NATO alliance and request that all European nations increase their military budgets to face a more aggressive Russia.
· Quickly send military weapons and supplies as well as economic aid to Ukraine.
· Impose severe economic sanctions, including banking sanctions, against Russia.
· Suspend entry visas to the United States of members of the Russian oligarchy which supports Putin.
· Explain to Russia’s business people that they will not be allowed to do business with the United States and cease all Americans investment in that country.
· Install the missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland and improve drastically the anti-missile missile system of the United States.
· Deploy the anti-missile missile system to the South of the United States to protect the nation from North Korean and Iranian satellites that enter the nation from the South.
· Shoot down the North Korean satellite that goes over the United States on a daily basis to prevent a potential electronic pulse attack (EMP) from that communist nation that has threaten to attack the homeland many times. This would show China and Russia that the United States is prepared to meet any and all threats to our security with force.
· Increase significantly the budget of the Pentagon.
· Impose severe economic sanctions to the Venezuelan government, including suspension of entry visas to our nation to government officials and a reduction in the import of oil from that nation.
· Support the opposition in bringing down the bloody dictator Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela and the bloody dictator Raúl Castro in Cuba.
· Reverse the new policy towards Cuba, a communist regime who is closely allied with Russia and China.
· Impose severe retroactive sanctions to the Cuban regime for its violation of the United Nations Security Council’s resolution by sending weapons to North Korea.
· Denounce Cuba’s intervention in Venezuela and suspend diplomatic relations and all other unilateral concessions to Cuba until that country withdrawals every single soldier from Venezuela and stop the repression in the Island.
· Approve the Keystone oil pipe and open our oceans and federal lands for gas and oil drilling in order to make the United States energy independent as soon as possible.
· Isolate economically and diplomatically Russia indefinitely until it withdraws its soldiers from Crimea and Eastern Ukraine.
Conclusion
Unless President Obama changes his course quickly and start being stronger with our enemies with more assertive foreign and national security policy, our country will continue to be a world superpower in retreat. We could expect more aggression from Russia, China, and other enemy nations over the last year left of the disastrous presidency of Barack Obama. When aggression is not challenged with firmness, it invites more aggression. Just look at how the appeasement policy of France and Great Britain invited more aggression from Nazi Germany and led to World War II.
Obama and Congress need to increase the budget of the Pentagon drastically and improve the nuclear arsenal and missiles to match or exceed the better-equipped Russian missiles and other weapons. Failure to do so will severely endanger our national security.
It was shameful for President Obama to deny the request of President Poroshenko to the United States to provide that country lethal weapons and ignore the unanimous vote of Senate Foreign Relations Committee to provide Ukraine anti-tank anti-armor weapons and ammunition. Once again, President Barack Obama showed his extreme weakness with Russia as well as with China other enemy nations that have placed the United States security in grave danger.
As I stated in my book, America in Decline (2014), Barack Obama has made the United States a superpower in retreat. A superpower needs to be respected by its allies and feared by its enemies. Unfortunately, the United States is neither.
We are living in very dangerous times and we now have a new Cold War in our hands. We need to have a president who plays less golf and take fewer expensive vacations. Obama spends most of his time fund-raising for his own and unprecedented organization Action for America and the Democratic Party. The world is in flames and he looks the other way! Our nation’s security is in grave danger. How sad that our beloved country does not have a Reagan-like president in the White House to defend and protect us!
