Dear Readers:
Today I have this piece by reporter Andrei Rezchikov. Here is my translation of the first two sentences of the lede paragraph:
Elite subdivisions of the American 101st Airborne Division, stationed in Romania, are preparing to fight on Ukrainian territory as early as “tonight”. As their commanders point out, these troops possess unique talents and abilities of airborne assault.
It was just this past summer that the American army transferred roughly 4700 of these “Screaming Eagles” to the Mihail Kogălniceanu airbase in Romania. The airbase is named after a Romanian Prime Minister who served from 1863-65. Already back in 2013 the Romanians had agreed to let the Americans use this base, as a logistics hub for their war against Afghanistan. You know what happens when you graciously let Americans in anywhere: They are the guests from Hell, they never leave. It’s theirs now. And this base is prime real estate: close to the Black Sea, and also just a stone’s throw from Ukrainian territory. (Well, admittedly, if you had the throwing arm of a Paul Bunyan.)
The Commanders of the 101st have stated their readiness and eagerness to engage against the Russians on Ukrainian soil. In an interview with CBS News, Colonel Edwin Matthaidess affirmed that his soldiers were ready to enter Ukrainian soil at any moment, should there be any “escalation”, or if Russia should attack NATO. He was seconded by his boss, Brigadier-General John Lubas: “We’re ready to defend every inch of NATO soil. We bring a unique capability. We’re a light infantry force. But again, we bring that mobility, with our aircraft and our air assaults.”
As the CBS reporter pointed out, the Eagles brought their own Howitzer with them from Fort Campbell Kentucky, to Romania. They are shooting live ammo and training every minute of the day, they are very gung-ho to engage the Russian army. The arrival of the American troops was accompanied by a grandiose welcoming ceremony; after which American and Romanian soldiers conducted joint exercises, using attack helicopters, artillery, machine guns and guns. They attempted to imitate, as closely as possible, real-live battle conditions on the Ukrainian front against Russian troops. The American press laid it out thick that all of this was intended as a chest-thumping signal and warning to Russia. Warning to … do what? To pull out of Ukraine? Or else… ?
The Russian reporter turns to military analyst Alexander Bartosh to help explain the situation, and the risks involved.
Bartosh: There are not so many of them [Screaming Eagles], so in that sense they don’t present that much of a threat. However, in terms of escalating the situation, there is a real danger here. The moment those guys set foot on Ukrainian soil, this brings the United States of America in direct collision with the armed forces of the Russian Federation. “This means there could be a war between Russia and NATO. All this B.S. and bravado that we see coming out of these Americans, shows us that they have not really thought it through, what could happen after they start doing what they are talking about doing.”
Bartosh is worried that the Americans will seek out any excuse to cross the border into Ukraine, and offer themselves as official cannon fodder.
The Wider War Begins
Already back in June, at the NATO Summit in Madrid, American President Joe Biden announced the creation of a permanent garrison in Poland and the rotation of troops to the Romanian base. The base in Poznań, Poland, is considered the eastern flank of NATO, and the American 5th Army Corpus is now permanently housed there. This Corpus is responsible for controlling the maneuvers of all NATO soldiers in Europe.
Now, there is some fudging going on, what is America and what is NATO. For example, David Petraeus, who used to direct the CIA, after commanding American/NATO forces in Afghanistan, has stated that the U.S. and “allied countries” may react against Russian aggression, but most likely as a multi-national force under U.S. leadership, and not necessarily as NATO.
Pessimistically, one may expect the Americans will enter the war with their own troops and equipment. Hopefully just as themselves, and not necessarily NATO. Should this occur, it would be the first time in history, since the Russian Civil War, that Americans and Russians have officially faced off against each other on the field of battle. Screaming Eagles vs Roaring Bears!
Awful Avalanche 
If the Merikanos are stupid enough to step into Ukraine they’re in for an unpleasant experience.
But… they’re not that stupid… are they?
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I reckon we’ll find out soon enough!
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“This means there could be a war between Russia and NATO. All this B.S. and bravado that we see coming out of these Americans, shows us that they have not really thought it through”
Corrections: There will be a non-obfuscated war against NATO
The American politicians have, from engagement in Ukraine in 2014 to the latest sanctions, thought through little of it. Like a chess player that just is able to only think one move ahead. And then they are surprised by their opponents’ moves.
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Not that it matters, but boy, that is a lame ‘screaming eagles’ patch. As the page loaded, I was expecting to see something that looked like a screaming eagle, but that thing could be the head of a parakeet begging for a cracker.
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Wow you’re right. I think yalensis might have dug up a spoof emblem, likely created by rivals in the 82nd. That poor bird looks like it’s dry-heaving.
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It’s a Norwegian Blue! It’s pining for the fjords…
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https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gifer.com%2F99XQ.gif&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=1fc1fdcf9f1f0e907d932119d3700e5350f3bd3bc058f151a12d579f496ee14e&ipo=images
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This US analyst notes that the 101st are light infantry. They are good at what they do … but what they do will make no difference on the battlefield, because the war in Ukraine is not a light-infantry campaign. He thinks the CBS report is just PR for its incredibly naive and stupid domestic audience:
https://sonar21.com/101st-airborne-does-photo-op-in-romania/
US light infantry – Marines, paratroopers and helicopter assault troops like the 101st – are not trained or equipped to fight a peer or even a near-peer military force. Their entire experience, for three decades now, has been trying, and failing to suppress popular insurgencies by enthusiastic amateur warriors in poor countries that the US chose to invade and occupy.
Since the 101st is merely replacing the 82nd Airborne in Romania, who’ve been there for months, it’s not as if the presence of US light infantry purportedly ready to invade Ukraine is new.
Given the hostile electronic-warfare and anti-aircraft environment the Russians have created, it’s unlikely that a US light-infantry helicopter assault would even reach the target LZ intact. Even if some choppers did manage to drop off troops, I expect they would be quickly pinned down and annihilated by Russian artillery.
Since that’s obvious even to me, hopefully it’s obvious to US commanders too.
On the other hand, US commanders also tried to run an evacuation airlift out of Kabul airport, having inexplicably abandoned the much more secure Bagram airfield weeks earlier. So – never underestimate ‘command stupidity.’
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Yes – was about to show the same link.
Larry thinks this is just a photo op that went wrong. The 101s replaced another group there. They are light infantry who can’t achieve a lot except perhaps grab some land quickly until some back up arrives. He thinks that the Austin’s call to Shoigu was to walk back some of the over zealous talk from some local commander.
I agree with Larry on this.
It is all over just as soon as November US elections are done.
If I were Boris Johnson the last thing I would want is to be not just UK PM in November, but the only UK candidate who can’t simply blame the Ukraine debacle on his predecessors.
Ukraine is going to look far far far worse for US and Nato than Afghanistan ever did.
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I certainly hope you’re right. Unfortunately, ‘America’ – by which I really just mean this administration, the permanent natl-security bureaucracy and the MIC – badly needs to be humiliated, over and over, until their failures generate enough public outrage to overthrow the entire corrupt regime.
On the other hand, Americans these days are so self-absorbed, ill-informed and complacent, that foreign policy disasters may not be enough. I fear it may take some horrific domestic catastrophe – like currency collapse and Weimar-style hyperinflation – to catalyze a new order … and then only after a long spell of civil unrest.
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The neo-conservative cabal, i.e. Victoria Nuland, Joe Biden, Jake Sullivan, Lindsey Graham, Lloyd Austin, Anthony Blinken–these assholes need to go for there to be any major change in U.S. foreign policy away from projected U.S. hegemony and towards the inevitable multipolar world which is now coming into place with China, Russia, India etc becoming more advanced, developed economically etc. The neo-con scum are Straussians. Stauss was a European Jew who emigrated to USA during WWII and started to teach his philosophy which is, in a nutshell massive military spending, Machiavellian relations with other countries and total American dominance of the entire world. What makes these assholes so dangerous is their extreme ideology: if confronted with losing in Ukraine/Europe, they will do a full nuclear exchange. They would rather the whole shithouse go up in flames than except defeat or negotiated detente. For there to be world peace the neocons MUST GO.
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Amen!
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If anybody is interested in the Straussian neocons who have taken over Washington’s foreign policy in State Dept and CIA, there is a great article that just came out (linked above) about the ‘Wolfowitz doctrine’, i.e. total American hegemony of the world and to attack and destroy any emerging rival nation. This is exactly what is happening now in Ukraine. Wolfowitz met Leo Strauss in his student days. Wolfowitz and Victoria Nuland were in GW Bush’s admin and started the Iraq war in 2003. These people are the root cause of the Ukraine war, just as they were the root cause of Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
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I don’t doubt it. These vampires believe that all the oil and gas resources of Eurasia and the Middle East (basically, all the fossil fuels) belong, by divine right, to the United States of America. I truly believe that this belief is the root cause of everything that is going on.
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I suggest you read Larry Johnson piece on the subject for a balance, https://sonar21.com/101st-airborne-does-photo-op-in-romania/.
I’m inclined to agree with Larry and Andrei Martyanov that this is just a huff and puff exercise by the USA.
I also agree that maybe the reason “Austin called Shoigu (was) to inform him that arrival of 101st’s Brigade Combat Team to Romania was only for training and not the part of the assembling forces for some nefarious purposes.”
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I apologize for my earlier comment. I didn’t read other comments before I posted it. I see that other commenters have already pointed to Larry’s post. I’m really sorry.
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Don’t worry. It seems we are all following the same blogs and have the same insight.
This is another well informed blog to check …
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/
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That’s okay, Steve! All part of the process of sharing information.
It helps to read a lot of different analyses to try to figure out what is going on.
For example, I saw a podcast by Brian Berletic (“The New Atlas”), he believes that the screaming eagles are being prepared to make a bridgehead assault on Odessa and hold it until the rest of the American army arrives.
Gonzalo Lira, on the other hand, believes that the screamers will join up with Poles and Lithuanians to invade Belorussia.
All scenarios sound equally crazy, and yet equally plausible, given the state of affairs!
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Yes, the problem here is a bizarre hash of stupidity and overconfidence, mitigated only by cowardice. Yikes!
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Airborne Troops are highly motivated soldiers, to earn the Airborne patch is to set oneself well above common troops [and I include myself in the latter group]. Only ugly malingerers do not respect the Airborne patch and…the man who wears it. If Airborne troops are used/abused by DC’s ruling cabal* in former-Ukrainia they will certainly fight well but…
Outside of igniting a larger conflagration, their military use is limited in that they are meant to pave the way of a larger force. And…where-oh-where is that force? And oh-uhm, once deployed in former-Ukrainia, what’s the plan to keep them resupplied? Inquiring minds would really like to see how DC’s big-talkers/little-thinkers plan to pull that one off. No doubt the Ruskie command structure thought through the Screaming Eagles resupply options more thoroughly than DC’s brat-pack.
For a cabal of globalists/neocolonialist to ruin a force of exceptional Americans to cover their idiotic miscalculation in Ukrainia is akin to throwing pearls amongst swine.
DC’s ruling cabal simply can’t stand to be shown to be the fools that they are, they are or, at least pretend to be, willing to destroy one the finest groups of American men on a bonfire of their vanity. That being the case, may DC’s ruling cabal come to see the Devils bonfire…damn these vile fools!
*[basically, all virulently anti-Trump D’s & R’s in DC]
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Like others commenting here, I watched the CBS video on Larry Johnson’s site. I don’t typically watch any American news clips. That reminded me why. The silver-haired reporter — what a smarmy twat! Oozing the attitude of “we’re the greatest and anyone who thinks they can get in our way is a foolish child.” Jayzus! I didn’t catch any sense of “I know I’m faking this, and the situation is actually more complex than I’m making it out to be.” (I mean, as much as I could analyse the reporter’s internal reality based on a brief filmed segment. I could be totally wrong. I don’t think the presstitute has any notion that HE could be in error, though.) No, the reporter really seems to believe that this 4,700-man unit is invincible. They really ARE that stupid!
In the days before the Internet, it was possibly excusable that media people didn’t know what was happening in the wider world, especially within one’s ostensible opposition. But now, all sorts of viewpoints are available with a few flicks of the finger. IF one is inclined to look. But it seems like the schmoes who still have jobs in the mainstream media are similar to religious cult members, in that they do not want to seek out alternative ideology because that would conflict with The Truth that they “know for a fact.” How can they live with themselves, being so blindered? Answering my own question, it’s because they would not have jobs with CBS TV news etc. if they were not the sort of people who imbibed the official narrative. They don’t have to be TOLD “this is what to think.” If they were alternative thinkers, they would have jumped ship long ago in disgust, or they’ve had their “rough edges” smoothed off by groupthink conformity as they sucked their way up the corporate ladder. Those like Martyanov who call them “presstitutes” are not being hyperbolic.
As for the Squealing Eagles, “bless their hearts” as we used to say when I lived in the U.S. South. Meaning “Lord have pity on these childish fools.” No doubt the airborne guys are good at handling weapons; they’re in superb physical shape and could kick my arse three ways to Sunday if I gave them a dirty look. I wonder, though, if they have an institutional version of the Dunning-Kruger Syndrome, in that they don’t know their own limitations. That confident talk about how they could be in Ukraine ASAP if needed. Mate — it’s a one-way ticket! You don’t want to have your corporeal substance become nutrition for Ukrainian soil fungi wherever you die in a flaming flash of pain. It’s so unnecessary.
Little by little, the neo-kkkons in D.C. keep picking at the scab of Ukraine. They can’t stop; won’t back down. The 82nd is a human tripwire (Larry Johnson termed them a “speed bump”) to give an excuse to light the entire planet up with civilisation-ending nuclear war if the Russians blow them apart. If you start to read about trial balloons being floated of “America should loan tactical nuclear weapons to Ukraine for self-defence in case they face the existential crisis of having their country overrun by Russia,” then we are at the endgame. One nuke goes off, they ALL go off. Odds are getting higher of that. In my everyday life, I have started to think “Why NOT spend that bit of money on this or that instead of being frugal? I COULD save that cold beer in the fridge for later, because I don’t need the calories and it only slows me down.” Increasingly, my answer is “Money or beer isn’t going to do me much good later if the sky is dark with radioactive ash clouds from the firestorms in the Northern Hemisphere, and everything has stopped working Downundahere.” Didja ever see the original “On The Beach” movie from 1959, Yalensis? (Spoiler alert — everybody on Earth dies, but the plucky Aussies die last.) I caught it in college in the mid-70s, and it had a profound impact on my worldview. Looking more like a PREview these days…
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I used to love disaster movies, and I watched a lot of apocalypse movies, like Dr. Strangelove and some others. Not sure I ever sat down and watched “On the Beach” from start to finish, but my collective subconscious sort of knows the plot, and how it ends. I think the Aussies survive longer because they are in the Southern hemisphere, and the radioactive gas spirals counter-clockwise like when you flush the toilet down there? Or is it the other way around?
🙂
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Thanks for fixing the reversed carat on the italics! Like Anti-Swas, I often deal with a narrow-field comment window on WordPress, so it’s hard to adequately proofread what I typed. And unlike Blogger, there’s no “preview” function with WordPress.
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No prob, I saw your italic issue, and it was easy enough for me to fix, with my god-like powers.
Yeah, wordpress is cheapo product, I know it’s hard for the commenters sometimes. One thing you could try is type your comment in some other word processor, like Word or Notepad, and then copy-paste into the comment window, once you think it’s perfect.
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General Lubas doesn’t look very light to me.
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It’s been driving me crazy for a couple of days now, I can’t think of that American word for the little fuzzy thing under the bottom lip. Not goatee, it’s a different word I’m thinking of, a jive slang word, it’s on the tip of my tongue, but eludes me… and google doesn’t help either…
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Soul patch.
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Bingo!
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