Antiwar literary and philosophical selections

U.S. Department of Defense
January 12, 2015

U.S. Troops Resuming Atlantic Resolve Training in Eastern Europe
By Cheryl Pellerin

WASHINGTON: U.S. Army troops resumed Operation Atlantic Resolve land-forces training of allied and partner forces this week as 75 Stryker combat vehicles arrived in Eastern Europe, Pentagon Press spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said today.

The training will take place in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, Warren added, and continues to demonstrate U.S. commitment to NATO allies.

The Stryker combat vehicles are from U.S. Army Europe’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment, elements of which will conduct training in Eastern Europe alongside soldiers from allied and partner nations, Warren said, adding that much of the training will focus on individual and team tasks.

Defense Department spokeswoman Air Force Lt. Col. Vanessa Hillman said the training also will include combined, multinational platoon-level exercises and live fires involving a combination of vehicle and foot-soldier maneuvers.

Enhanced Multinational Training

According to Warren, “Since April 2014 the U.S. Army has conducted continuous, enhanced multinational training and security cooperation activities with allies and partners in the region due to increased regional tensions following Russia’s illegal actions in Ukraine.”

The Stryker combat vehicle is an eight-wheeled, air- and ground-transportable light-armored vehicle built for the Army by General Dynamics Land Systems. It has a Caterpillar engine, a 310-mile operational range, a 60-mile-an-hour top speed, and armor. Its primary armament is a Protector M-151 remote weapon station with one of two machine guns or an automatic grenade launcher.

Atlantic Resolve training involves about 550 European-based American personnel and 75 Stryker vehicles. The Stryker group is based in Germany.

Elements from the Army 2nd Cavalry Regiment are replacing elements from the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, out of Fort Hood, Texas, that were involved in Atlantic Resolve training before the holiday break. 2nd Cavalry elements will conduct training in the four countries until March 31, Warren said.

“There will be approximately one cavalry troop each in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia,” Warren said, explaining that one cavalry troop has about 20 Stryker vehicles.

Training Regional Allies and Partners

Hillman said that while elements of 2nd Cavalry Regiment participate in Atlantic Resolve, the unit also will conduct a decisive-action, training-environment exercise called Saber Junction.

That exercise will take place, she said, in the German Hohenfels and Grafenwoehr training areas and in the Black Sea region, with U.S. soldiers working alongside those from more than a dozen other NATO and partner nations.

The 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division — the Army’s regionally aligned force for Europe — is expected to be the next rotational Atlantic Resolve unit when the 2nd Cavalry Regiment’s rotation ends.

The Army’s ongoing, enhanced training is supported by about $1 billion in funding from the European Reassurance Initiative, Hillman said.

This allocation is designed to enable DoD to continue efforts to reassure NATO allies, she added, and bolster the security and capacity of allies and partners in the region.

Rustavi 2
January 30, 2015

Video

NATO training center is expected to be deployed on the Vaziani military base.

This was stated by the NATO high official and Defense Minister of Georgia at a demonstrative training of Georgian armed forces in Vaziani.

Georgia was one of the issues discussed at the NATO headquarters where NATO Secretary General also spoke about the substantial package given to Georgia at the last summit.

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The Messenger
January 30, 2015

NATO official: All parties to stand together for Georgia’s European advancement
By Tea Mariamidze

Alexander Vershbow with Georgia’s Parliament Speaker Davit Usupashvili NATO officials meet with parliament speaker and opposition representatives Deputy-Secretary General of NATO Alexander Vershbow paid an official two-day visit to Georgia and met with Georgia’s Parliament Chair Davit Usupashvili and the opposition on January 29.

The parties spoke about the implementation of the measures adopted at the NATO Wales Summit and the involvement of the NATO alliance, and discussed capacities and obligations imposed on Georgia in terms of implementation of the new package.

Usupashvili and Vershbow underscored the role of the parliament in this process.

“We have a very important guest here in Georgia. We spoke about security for Georgia. The decisions made at Wales Summit with regard to the NATO substantive package are being implemented, and Georgia and NATO have resumed more intensive cooperation in this new era. We have quite ambitious plans within the package and I am glad that we heard the full commitment of the NATO Secretary General from member states to fulfill their duties. All leading NATO states will be involved in these events in various aspects,” Usupashvili said.

Speaking about regional security, the parties attached their attention to the situation in occupied Abkhazia, relations between the separatist regime and Russia, including the Agreement on Alliance and Strategic Partnership.

The sides spoke about the events in Ukraine and the role of the democratic world in the regulation of this process.

“NATO representatives informed us about the evaluation of the situation in Ukraine. We noted that the Georgian people always were and are on the side of the Ukrainian people,” Usupashvili said.

According to A. Vershbow, this was a very useful meeting and very important as the Speaker summoned the opposition parties as well.

“All the measures to be implemented in Georgia – democratic reforms, judicial system reforms, reforms in the Interior Ministry and Prosecutor’s Office – shall unify all the political parties, as it is very important for the enhancement of democratic systems in Georgia and for the preparation of NATO membership,” the NATO official said.

Vershbow praised Georgia for its support for NATO peacekeeping missions and stated the implementation of the substantial NATO-Georgia package was going well.

Vershbow will hold several more meetings in Georgia, including a meeting with the Prime Minister.

Civil Georgia
January 30, 2015

NATO Deputy Secretary General on Planned Training Center in Georgia

Tbilisi: Despite Russia’s “very negative” reaction towards planned joint Georgia-NATO training center, the alliance is “firm in resolve” to go ahead with this plan and have the facility in Georgia before the end of this year, NATO Deputy Secretary General, Alexander Vershbow, said in Tbilisi.

Setting up of a joint “training and evaluation center” in Georgia is part of that substantial package, offered to Georgia by NATO at its summit in Wales in September.

During his two-day visit to Georgia, the NATO deputy secretary general also toured the Vaziani training range outside Tbilisi on January 30, which is one of the potential locations for the planned joint training center. Vershbow said that Vaziani is one of the “strong candidates”, but there are some other options as well.

An assessment team from NATO is expected to visit Georgia tentatively in February that will look into different possibilities in order to pick the location for the planned training and evaluation center, he said.

Speaking to an audience at the Tbilisi-based think-tank, Atlantic Council of Georgia, Vershbow said that NATO and Georgia have yet to “flesh out the goals and purposes of the center.”

He said that it has to be determined whether the focus will be primarily on command post exercises or there will also be capacities for field exercises with participation of troops from multiple countries.

“The hope is that it will be the latter,” Vershbow said.

He also said that the centre could host live and simulated trainings and certification for allied and partner military units, in particular for units committed to the NATO Response Force, and it could also host exercises and training in support of NATO’s Connected Forces initiative.

Vershbow said that the training and evaluation center will be “the most visible element of a NATO presence in Georgia” and also is the most visible element of the substantial package of cooperation agreed at the Wales summit.

He also said that the substantial package of cooperation “contains all the tools necessary for Georgia to meet its membership aspirations.”

Its implementation, Vershbow said, requires important political and financial commitments from both NATO and Georgia.

“But we have already made good progress in finding the necessary resources,” he said, adding that the work is expected to be further advanced when NATO and Georgian defense ministers meet in the NATO-Georgia Commission in Brussels on February 5.

He also said that starting this year, “we aim to hold periodic military exercises” in Georgia “with NATO allies as well as with other interested NATO partners.”

Among other elements of the package are “strategic-level advice” to the Georgian Ministry of Defense and general staff of the armed forces.

Vershbow said that it will include further strengthening of the NATO Liaison Office in Tbilisi, which was opened in 2010, and having “a core team of NATO country advisors embedded” in the Georgian MoD, “complemented by experts in specific areas on a permanent basis or on frequent rotations.”

“I think that their presence [team of NATO advisors] may be not as evident to the general public as to some other capitals to North,” Vershbow said.

Responding a question on possible Russia’s reaction to the planned center and if he discussed possible scenarios in this regard during his meetings with the Georgian authorities, Vershbow responded: “We’ve already heard Russians making very negative and even threatening statements regarding the planned joint training and evaluation center.”

“We made it very clear that it’s Georgia’s sovereign choice to host such a facility and it’s our right to assist the sovereign state in strengthening its security by establishing such a facility,” the NATO deputy secretary general said. “We did not get into potential scenarios of what the Russians might do next, but we are very firm in our resolve to go ahead with this.”

“We have to see what the Russians say, what they do, but we will not let them have veto over this sort of legitimate activity. Full stop,” Vershbow said.

He said in his speech that Russia has “turned into an aggressive, unpredictable power.”

“Of course, we saw worrying signs of that reckless behavior before, in particular here in Georgia seven years ago. But by annexing part of another country, waging an undeclared war of subversion in Eastern Ukraine, and intimidating its other neighbors, Russia has gone a decisive step further,” Vershbow said. “NATO does not seek to isolate Russia. Russia is isolating itself. “

…

During his two-day visit to Georgia, the NATO deputy secretary general met PM Irakli Garibashvili and other senior government officials; President Giorgi Margvelashvili; parliament speaker Davit Usupashvili and leaders of opposition UNM and Free Democrats parties, as well as head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilia II.

Xinhua News Agency
January 30, 2015

NATO deputy chief visits Georgia

TBILISI: Visiting NATO deputy secretary- general Alexander Vershbow on Thursday assured Georgia that the military alliance will help the South Caucasus country to reform, modernize and strengthen its security and defense sector via a joint training center.

Vershbow’s two-day visit includes a tour of a possible location for a joint Georgia-NATO training center which will be opened later this year in Georgia.

“It will help Georgia to reform, modernize and strengthen security and defense sector and it will also be open to other NATO allies and to some other NATO partners as well since Georgia’s geography and the high quality of its own armed forces together create unique possibilities to train together broad group of partners and allies and to foster cooperation and interoperability, ” the deputy NATO chief said after meetings with senior Georgian government officials including Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili.

“It (the joint training center) will also be a visible demonstration of NATO’s commitment to Georgia,” he added. The NATO official described Georgia as being an exporter of security thanks to its remarkable democratic and defense reforms.

“NATO very strongly supports Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations,” Alexander Vershbow said, “Georgia is a great partner to NATO and a great contributor to our operations which makes Georgia an exporter of security.”
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Ministry of Defence of Georgia
January 31, 2015

Alexander Vershbow Attended Field Training of Georgian Company

On the second day of the official visit to Georgia NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow attended the field training at Vaziani Range. Georgian Defence Minister Mindia Janelidze, Chief of General Staff of the GAF, Major General Vakhtang Kapanadze and Commander of Land Forces Command – East, Colonel Alexandre Kiknadze hosted the foreign guest.

The Georgian Armed Forces held a demonstrative training especially for the NATO Deputy Secretary General aimed at presenting him the abilities of the Vaizani Range. The main purpose of the training was to demonstrate the perfection of interaction between combined forces during military operations and rapid reaction.

Following the exercise, Alexander Vershbow emphasized high professionalism of the Georgian military and potential of Vaziani firing ground: “The training going here at Vaziani by the professional skills of the Georgian Armed Forces is a very impressive performance. Just confirm, I have heard for many years from NATO Commanders, from American Commanders that the Georgian troops are among the best they have ever seen as they are doing great job in our real operations in Afghanistan. This range curtly has tremendous potential for the future and it certainly will be one of the candidates for the Joint Training and Evaluation Center that NATO has agreed to establish with Georgia in the coming months. So, real experts will come to see it, hopefully, next month. But I can say as non-expert, I am very impressed”.

Before the training, Assistant to Commander of IV Mechanized Brigade, Major Davit Paposhvili briefed the invited guests about the aim and mission of the exercise, participating elements, security aspects and the presumable action plan of the enemy.

A special program was developed for the exercise. According to an imitated scenario, the main task of the training was to create obstacles for the enemy forces not to enable them to advance while carrying out attacks.

The demonstrative training was a large-scale exercise with participation of 425 military personnel from the 42nd Mechanized Battalion of IV Mechanized Brigade, a medical team, aviation, artillery, engineer and tank units. Two units of Su-25 jet fighters, UH-1H Iroquois, as well as armored technique of IV Mechanized Brigade and artillery systems of I Artillery Brigade were involved in the training.

Experience from the Georgian soldiers wounded in August War 2008 and ISAF mission were also shared in the training. The Georgian wounded warriors participated in the exercise as observers. The military servicemen of Command and Staff College of the Davit Agmashenebeli National Defence Academy attended the training as well.

Following the demonstrative training, NATO Deputy Secretary General, Defence Minister of Georgia and Chief of the General Staff visited IV Mechanized Brigade. Commander of the military unit, Colonel Zaza Leladze hosted the guests at virtual simulation training center. Later on, Alexander Vershbow viewed Georgian army equipment and the armament of the IV Mechanized Brigade that meets NATO standards.

Ukrinform
January 31, 2015

15 Ukrainian servicemen killed in Donbas in past 24 hours

KYIV: 15 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed in the area of the anti-terrorist operation in Donbas in the past 24 hours.

Spokesman for the anti-terrorist operation in eastern Ukraine Andriy Lysenko said this at a briefing in Kyiv on Saturday.

“15 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and another 33 have been wounded in the past 24 hours,” he said.
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UNIAN
January 30, 2015

Five Ukrainian soldiers killed, 23 wounded in last day

Five Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and another 23 wounded in the Donbas conflict zone over the last 24 hours, Acting Speaker of the General Staff of Ukraine Vladyslav Selezniov wrote on his Facebook page on Friday.

“Over the last day, we have lost five Ukrainian soldiers, and another 23 were injured as a result of military clashes,” he said.

Selezniov also said that 390 Ukrainian soldiers were in hospitals, including 11 people with serious injuries.

As UNIAN reported earlier, on January 29 five Ukrainian soldiers were killed and another 29 wounded in the Donbas conflict zone.

The fighting in the east of Ukraine has worsened sharply in the last few weeks, as militants launched attacks on Ukrainian forces in several areas. The militants have taken more territory, and are threatening to encircle Ukrainian forces in the town of Debaltseve, which forms a salient deep into militant-held ground between the towns of Horlivka and Alchevsk.

Interfax-Ukraine
January 31, 2015

US-backed program for retraining Ukrainian military men will start in March – ambassador

US military aid to Ukraine this year will be $120 million, including a new $75 million, the funds will be used for training Ukrainian military men, US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt has stated.

“We have purchased armored vehicles, night vision devices, radar systems, encrypted radio communications equipment. Now we consider the most important assistance is training and retraining Ukrainian military formations. We will start the appropriate program in March,” the ambassador said in an interview with the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia newspaper.

The official noted that last year US military assistance to Ukraine amounted to $118 million.

“Ukraine cannot win the war with Russia [sic] with the help of army. You have to win because of your political and economic power. We are very serious about helping you protect your sovereign territory. We do this by means of a billionth economic aid, loan guarantees,” the ambassador stressed.

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

American writers on peace and against war

Sinclair Lewis: Selections on war

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Sinclair Lewis
From It Can’t Happen Here (1935)

By June, the enrollment of the Minute Men had increased to 562,000, and the force was now able to accept as new members only such trusty patriots and pugilists as it preferred. The War Department was frankly allowing them not just "expense money" but payment ranging from ten dollars a week for "inspectors" with a few hours of weekly duty in drilling, to $9700 a year for "brigadiers" on full time, and $16,000 for the High Marshal, Lee Sarason… fortunately without interfering with the salaries from his other onerous duties.

…

Since all members of the National Guard were not only allowed but encouraged to become members of the Minute Men also, since all veterans of the Great War were given special privileges, and since "Colonel" Osceola Luthorne, the Secretary of War, was generous about lending regular army officers to Secretary of State Sarason for use as drill masters in the M.M.'s, there was a surprising proportion of trained men for so newly born an army.

Lee Sarason had proven to President Windrip by statistics from the Great War that college education, and even the study of the horrors of other conflicts, did not weaken the masculinity of the students, but actually made them more patriotic, flag-waving, and skillful in the direction of slaughter than the average youth, and nearly every college in the country was to have, this coming autumn, its own battalion of M.M.'s, with drill counting as credit toward graduation. The collegians were to be schooled as officers. Another splendid source of M.M. officers were the gymnasiums and the classes in Business Administration of the Y.M.C.A.

Most of the rank and file, however, were young farmers delighted by the chance to go to town and to drive automobiles as fast as they wanted to; young factory employees who preferred uniforms and the authority to kick elderly citizens above overalls and stooping over machines; and rather a large number of former criminals, ex-bootleggers, ex-burglars, ex-labor racketeers, who, for their skill with guns and leather life-preservers, and for their assurances that the majesty of the Five-Pointed Star had completely reformed them, were forgiven their earlier blunders in ethics and were warmly accepted in the M.M. Storm Troops.

It was said that one of the least of these erring children was the first patriot to name President Windrip "the Chief," meaning Führer, or Imperial Wizard of the K.K.K., or Il Duce, or Imperial Potentate of the Mystic Shrine, or Commodore, or University Coach, or anything else supremely noble and good-hearted. So, on the glorious anniversary of July 4, 1937, more than five hundred thousand young uniformed vigilantes, scattered in towns from Guam to Bar Harbor, from Point Barrow to Key West, stood at parade rest and sang, like the choiring seraphim:

"Buzz and buzz and hail the Chief,
And his five-pointed sta-ar,
The U.S. ne'er can come to grief
With us prepared for wa-ar."

Stars and Stripes
January 30, 2015

NATO: 2014 was a ‘black year’ for European security
By John Vandiver

STUTTGART, Germany: If 2014 was a “black year” for European security, the year ahead will test NATO’s ability to respond to new challenges in its own back yard, the alliance’s top official said Friday.

“2014 was not a good year for European security. In fact, it was a black year,” Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during a news conference in Brussels following the release of the organization’s 2014 annual report. “So our security environment has fundamentally changed.”

Going forward, NATO will be focused on a series of new measures, including a continuous presence in a series of eastern European countries, to respond to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine as well as growing concerns about Islamic radicalism along NATO’s southern flank, Stoltenberg said.

The first order of business comes next week when NATO defense ministers meet for two days of talks at the 28-nation alliance’s Brussels headquarters. They are expected to make decisions on a new “Readiness Action Plan” that calls for the formation of a rapid reaction force expected to involve several thousand NATO troops.

“We will also decide on the size and the composition of our new Spearhead Force,” Stoltenberg said. “And setting up NATO command and control units in six of our eastern allies. “This will be the biggest reinforcement of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War.”

Small teams will deploy to Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Bulgaria as part of a command and control unit, which will operate in support of the new spearhead force, Stoltenberg said.

“[T]he crisis in Ukraine has breathed new life into the Cold War alliance, which has been ramping up its presence in eastern Europe as part of an effort to reassure allies along Russia’s periphery who have been rattled by Russia’s actions.

…

On Tuesday, the U.S.’s top diplomat for European affairs, Victoria Nuland, called on allies to expedite the installation of new command and control posts in eastern Europe, underscoring the sense of urgency that has emerged within Europe.

“We must install command and control centers in all six frontline states,” said Nuland, a U.S. undersecretary of state, during a talk at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “NATO is a defensive alliance. Our goal is deterrence of aggression. But if that fails, we have to be ready.”

…

StephenLendman Blog
January 30, 2015

Heading for War with Russia?

U.S. Department of Defense
January 29, 2015

Special Ops Assuming Greater NATO Responsibilities
By Jim Garamone

WASHINGTON: NATO is incorporating special operations into all aspects of its operations and training, the commander of NATO Special Operations Headquarters said here yesterday.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Marshall B. Webb told the National Defense Industries Association’s Special Operations/Low-intensity Conflict Symposium that the organization is perfectly placed to capitalize on the multinational, multi-network response to threats.

“It’s all about information sharing, it’s about comprehensive collaboration and it’s about partner and allied trust,” the general said.

NATO Special Operations

NATO Special Operations Headquarters, formed in 2009, is the primary point of development, coordination and direction for all NATO Special Operations-related activities, in order to optimize employment of special operations forces, according to Webb’s Air Force biography. Webb, the biography continued, is responsible for providing an operational command capability when directed by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

The special operations experience in Afghanistan drove the headquarters, and NATO special operators are still working to capture the lessons learned from that “under fire” experience, Webb said.

Troubling Developments

NATO is concerned about several developments, including Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its continuing actions in eastern Ukraine, he said.

At the same time “the south is on fire,” Webb said. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant poses serious problems for all NATO allies, but especially for Turkey, which shares a border with Syria. Foreign fighters have flocked to ISIL’s standards in Iraq and Syria and many come from Europe. The attacks in Paris and arrests in Belgium and other European countries point to the serious nature of the threat, Webb said.

…

The headquarters trains special operators from around the alliance to work together, Webb said. Alliance personnel understand how each nation conducts operations and the idea is that all special operators can fall in on an understood framework. Webb said this is already paying dividends with special operations forces working not only in Europe, but Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

Improving Responsiveness

Going forward the organization must demonstrate improved responsiveness and readiness for NATO forces to be able to respond to any threat, he said.

NATO special operators are active in reassuring NATO allies that border Russia, Webb said. “It needs to be preventative and it needs to be persistent,” he added.

The headquarters also is involved in increasing NATO responsiveness, Webb said. The alliance, he said, must respond in days or weeks, not weeks and months.

“Viewing the aggressive actions we see along the Eastern front,” he said, “you need a force that is in place that can receive and marshal forces … going forward.”

NATO special operations forces need to be in front “to be able to look at this asymmetric, hybrid challenge that we’re up against, and be in place in case we’re ever called for to provide situational awareness that would be used for any NATO response,” Webb said.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
January 30, 2015

Enhanced NATO Air Policing Patrols Baltic Airspace

Fighter aircraft from Italy, Poland, Spain and Belgium took over NATO’s Baltic Air Policing Mission on January 1, 2015 and will continue to patrol the skies over Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia with a total of sixteen aircraft over the next several months. NATO has quadrupled the number of NATO fighter jets monitoring the airspace over the Baltic states since early 2014. This is one of several…measures taken by NATO in response to the security challenges posed by Russia’s recent destabilising actions…in Eastern Europe.

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Preserving the integrity of NATO airspace is a collective task. For member nations not having the full range of Air Defence assets in their own militaries (Albania, Luxembourg, Iceland, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia), agreements exist to ensure a single standard of security within NATO’s Area of Responsibility.

The air policing mission above the Baltic States illustrates the ability of the Alliance to share and pool existing capabilities. It started in April 2004 and has been executed continuously ever since. So far, 14 NATO nations have participated in this mission. This is an important confidence building measure to demonstrate the Alliance solidarity and resolve not only to current members, but also to our partners and future potential members. Air Policing has been, and remains, the cornerstone of Alliance solidarity and cohesion.

…

Currently the Italian Air Force is leading the Baltic Air Policing mission operating out of Siauliai airbase in Lithuania. It is the first deployment for Italy to the Baltic mission and that makes Italy the first Ally to participate in all NATO’s interim air policing activities conducted over Albania, Slovenia, Iceland and now the three Baltic States.

“We are proud to conduct this important mission,” said the Italian detachment commander, Colonel Marco Bertoli. “The Baltic Air Policing Mission is very exciting because we don’t know what to expect until after we are scrambled. Our mission is to intercept and identify an unknown aircraft and report our findings back to the NATO chain of command through the Combined Air Operation Centre in Uedem (Germany),” he added.

Story by: SHAPE Public Affairs Office.

Ukrinform
January 30, 2015

U.S. to increase its support of NATO allies in Eastern Europe

KYIV: The United States vows to continue actions on “renewal of its commitment”, regarding the security of NATO allies in Eastern Europe amid Russian aggression in the region.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said this during a meeting with his Latvian counterpart Edgars Rinkevics in Washington on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

“Let me affirm, as clearly as I can today on behalf of President Obama and the United States, that our Article 5 obligations are absolutely rock-solid. We are engaged in major reassurance efforts at this point in time, which we will continue,” Kerry said.

He also thanked Latvia for its commitment to raise its defense spending to the two percent and meet the requirement of NATO. Kerry called this “a strong example” to the rest of NATO partners.

Edgars Rinkevics, in turn, has confirmed that the establishment of peace in Ukraine is one of the main concerns for the EU. And Latvia believes that both EU and the United States should maintain very close cooperation.

“We should also look into possibility of further sanctions as the situation deteriorates; I’m ready to discuss with that,” Rinkevics said.

Ukrinform
January 30, 2015

Russia undermines international security – Stoltenberg

KYIV: The impact of the violence and insecurity caused by Russia has not been limited to Ukraine. Hence NATO supports the international sanctions imposed to address Russia’s destabilising behaviour.

This is stated in the Secretary General’s annual report released on Friday, an Ukrinform correspondent in Brussels reported.

“The impact of the violence and insecurity caused by Russia and Russian-backed separatists has not been limited to Ukraine. This violence can undermine the safety, stability and well-being of people around the world, as demonstrated by the tragic downing of Malaysia Airlines passenger flight MH17 in July. NATO supports the sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU), the G7 and others as part of an international effort to address Russia’s destabilising behavior,” reads the document.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
January 30, 2015

NATO Scouts Out Sites For Training Center In Georgia

A senior NATO official is scouting out prospective sites for a joint training center the alliance plans to establish in Georgia.

January 30 is the final day of NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow’s visit to the South Caucasus nation whose NATO aspirations were a chief cause of its five-day war with Russia in 2008.

Vershbow’s meetings with Georgian leaders on January 29 focused on the implementation of a package integration mechanisms that was expanded at a NATO summit in Wales in September.

Afer meeting with Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, Vershbow said Georgia and NATO “are committed to have the training center up and running later this year.”

He said it would “help Georgia to reform, modernize, and strengthen security and defense sector, and it will also be open to other NATO allies.”

Vershbow said on Twitter that “all 28 NATO Allies are committed to Georgia’s future membership in the Alliance, provided it meets all necessary requirements.”

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Charles Reade: War is sweet to those who have never experienced it

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Charles Reade
From The Cloister and the Hearth (1861)

[‘T]is a rule with us soldiers never to publish our defeats: ’tis much if after each check we claim not a victory.”

“Now that is true,” said Gerard. “Young as I am, I have seen this; that after every great battle the generals on both sides go to the nearest church, and sing each a Te Deum for the victory; methinks a Te Martem, or Te Bellonam, or Te Mercurium, Mercury being the god of lies, were more fitting.”

***

Gunpowder has spoiled war. War was always detrimental to the solid interests of mankind. But in old times it was good for something: it painted well, sang divinely, furnished Iliads. But invisible butchery, under a pall of smoke a furlong thick, who is any the better for that? Poet with his note-book may repeat, “Suavi etiam belli certamina magna tueri;” but the sentiment is hollow and savours of cuckoo. You can’t tueri anything but a horrid row. He didn’t say “Suave etiam ingentem caliginem tueri per campos instructam.”

United States Army
January 25, 2015

TRADOC commander visits Allied Spirit I in Hohenfels, Germany
By Capt. Christopher Bradley, Joint Multinational Readiness Center

HOHENFELS, Germany: U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, or TRADOC, Commander Gen. David Perkins visited here to observe Exercise Allied Spirit I and share his vision on the Army’s new operating concept, or OC, ‘Win in a complex world,’ Jan. 25.

Perkins visited with Soldiers from all five nations participating in the exercise, and discussed leader development, training and the challenges inherent in multinational interoperability.

During a visit to the 1st Mercian Battalion from the United Kingdom, Lt. Col. Mark Ellwood, battalion commander, stated that training exercises like Allied Spirit provide freedom for commanders to try new solutions to military problems, and work leader development at every level.

…

More than 2,000 participants from Canada, Hungary, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States are participating in the exercise through Jan. 31.

Allied Spirit I is designed to provide multinational interoperability training at brigade and battalion levels to enhance U.S. and alliance effectiveness.

Perkins had the opportunity to elaborate on this idea and discuss the Army’s new operating concept in a question and answer session with the staff and observer coach trainers of the Joint Multinational Readiness Center, which is headquartered at Hohenfels.

The TRADOC’s job is to ask the really big questions, and the Army’s operating concept provides a framework for us to answer those questions going into the future, Perkins said.

The Army and its sister services are responsible for “synchronizing and delivering national power” to “seize, retain and exploit the initiative and maintain relative advantage over all enemies,” Perkins said.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
January 29, 2015

Secretary General stresses NATO’s solidarity with Ukraine

Video (in English of course)

In talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin on Thursday (29 January 2015), Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO would continue its strong political and practical support for Ukraine. He also expressed concern about the recent escalation of violence in the country. “We are very much concerned about the situation and also by the continued support of Russia to the separatists,” the Secretary General said.

Mr Stoltenberg repeated his call for the ceasefire to be respected, and stressed that “NATO is supporting all efforts to try to find a peaceful solution, based on the Minsk agreements.”

The Secretary General said “we will continue to support you, and we will work with you, with strong support to the independence and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.”

Interfax-Ukraine
January 29, 2015

Overall strength of army will reach 250,000 servicemen in 2015 – president

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that strength of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will reach 250,000 people in 2015.

“This year we plan to increase strength of the Armed Forces of Ukraine up to 250,000 people,” he said on Thursday, after the flower-laying ceremony at the memorial sign to Kruty Heroes in Kyiv.

Poroshenko has stressed that the Ukrainian army was being reborn at the cost of colossal efforts.

He reminded that the age of conscripts had been raised up to 20 years. “I have forbidden sending the conscripts to the ATO area,” Poroshenko added.
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Interfax-Ukraine
January 29, 2015

Five Ukrainian soldiers killed, 29 injured in east in past 24 hours – operation spokesman

Five Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and another 29 have been injured in the army operation area in the east of Ukraine in the past 24 hours, operation spokesman Andriy Lysenko said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.

“Over the past 24 hours, five Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and another 29 have been injured,” he said.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
January 29, 2015

NATO Military Experts ‘war game’ VJTF Implementation

Mons, Belgium: Military experts conducted a two-day table-top exercise at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons, Belgium on 27-28 January 2015 in order to further define and develop how the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) will be implemented and tested.

The VJTF is one of many measures agreed to at the Wales Summit in 2014 in order to enhance the capabilities of the Alliance to respond to emerging security challenges. It is a joint force consisting of a land component with appropriate air, maritime and special operations components as needed. It will be able to deploy within a few days to respond to any challenges that may arise on NATO’s flanks.

Work on developing and testing the VJTF concept is proceeding well. The Land Component of the ‘traditional’ NRF 2015 is now acting as an Interim VJTF and is the basis for VJTF development. The troops for NRF 2015 are provided by Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and other nations. Maritime and air elements will be provided by the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Belgium amongst others.

SHAPE military staff have been working for several months to produce recommendations on how the VJTF might be structured, deployed, sustained and integrated into the overall NRF structure. NATO Defence Ministers will discuss the size and design of the force when they meet in Brussels on February 5, 2015.

“I am immensely pleased with the outcomes of this two-day table-top exercise,” said Colonel Jacques Parenty, one of the senior military leaders working on VJTF development at SHAPE. “Military and national experts from across the Alliance came together to develop the functions and criteria for the various forces within the NRF structure. We also agreed on a series of exercises that will help us evaluate our progress and make necessary refinements as we move forward,” he added.

The program of exercises, trials, and evaluations will be conducted throughout 2015 in order to develop, refine and implement the VJTF concept. Key training events will include an ‘Alert Exercise’ in early April that will refine NATO’s abilities to rapidly deploy troops at short notice and a ‘Deployed Exercise’ where troops from an interim VJTF will be tested on their abilities to deploy and respond to an evolving crisis. The interim force will also feature prominently in Exercise TRIDENT JUNCTURE in October, as well as in other exercises later in the year.

“The development process for the VJTF is rigorous, but the end result will be a highly reactive and extremely flexible force that will improve the capabilities of the existing NRF,” said Colonel Parenty. “There is still a lot of work for us to do, but I am pleased with our progress to date,” he said.

Story by: SHAPE Public Affairs Office.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Operations
January 28, 2015

Africa Experts Discuss Current and Future Security Challenges

Representatives from NATO’s 28 nations, partner nations, academic institutions and international organizations met at a conference on Africa at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) this week.

The event, organised by SHAPE’s Comprehensive Crisis Operational Management Centre, put an important emphasis on security-related issues and gathered high-level representatives from NATO, the African Union (AU), United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), and think tanks including the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and Brookings Institute.

“This was a groundbreaking conference in that it is the first step on a journey we must continue,” said Maj. Gen. Gordon B. Davis, Jr. SHAPE’s Deputy Chief of Staff Operations and Intelligence. “In gathering so many Africa experts, partners, and organisations together, this conference improves NATO’s awareness and growing understanding of the potential opportunities, challenges, and security threats emerging from this key region as well as how best to develop common approaches and partnerships to address common or at least complementary objectives.

…

NATO has been supporting the African Union (AU) in different ways since 2005. The Alliance’s first mission on the African continent provided strategic lift [for Darfur, Sudan].

Since then, NATO has been assisting with other missions and objectives including the AU Mission in Somalia for which NATO provided planning and strategic air- and sealift. NATO also provides assistance in developing long-term peacekeeping capabilities, in particular the African Standby Force (ASF) brigades.

In March 2011, NATO took control of all military operations for Libya under United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1970 & 1973. As part of these resolutions, Operation UNIFIED PROTECTOR was launched to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under attack or threat of attack, and ended on 31 October 2011.

“This conference is a perfect example of the comprehensive approach in action,” said Davis. “By cooperating in this way, we can further improve our knowledge and understanding of this key region and work together with national and international partners in common areas of interest.”

Story by: SHAPE Public Affairs Office.

NATO Response Force being inaugurated in Cape Verde in 2006

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Richard Aldington: Selections on war

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Richard Aldington
From Death of a Hero (1929)

The casualty lists went on appearing for a long time after the Armistice – last spasms of Europe’s severed arteries. Of course, nobody much bothered to read the lists. Why should they? The living must protect themselves from the dead, especially the intrusive dead.But the twentieth century had lost its Spring with a vengeance. So a good deal of forgetting had to be done.

***

The death of a hero! What mockery, what bloody cant! What sickening, putrid cant! George’s death is a symbol to me of the whole sickening bloody waste of it, the damnable stupid waste and torture of it…The Army did its bit, but how could the Army individually mourn a million “heroes”?

***

Somehow or other we have to make these dead acceptable, we have to atone for them, we have to appease them. How, I don’t quite know. I know there’s a Two Minutes’ Silence. But after all, a Two Minutes’ Silence once a year isn’t doing much – in fact, it’s doing nothing. Atonement – how can we atone? How can we atone for the lost millions and millions of years of life, how atone for those lakes and seas of blood? Something is unfulfilled, and that is poisoning us…What can we do? Headstones and wreaths and memorials and speeches and the Cenotaph – no, no; it has got to be something in us. Somehow we must atone to the dead – the dead, murdered, violently-dead soldiers. The reproach is not from them, but in ourselves. Most of us don’t know it, but it is there, and poisons us. It is the poison that makes us heartless and hopeless and lifeless – us, the war generation, and the new generation too. The whole world is blood-guilty, cursed like Orestes, and mad, and destroying itself, as if pursued by an infinite legion of Eumenides. Somehow we must atone, somehow we must free ourselves from the curse – the blood-guiltiness. We must find – where? how? – the greater Pallas who will absolve us on some Acropolis of Justice. But meanwhile the dead poison us and those who come after us.

Civil Georgia
January 28, 2015

NATO Deputy Secretary General to Visit Georgia

Tbilisi: NATO Deputy Secretary General, Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, will visit Georgia on January 29-30.

He will meet President Giorgi Margvelashvili; PM Irakli Garibashvili; Minister of Defense Mindia Janelidze; parliament speaker Davit Usupashvili, and First Deputy Foreign Minister David Dondua.

Meeting with head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilia II, is also scheduled.

Implementation of the “substantive package” of cooperation, which NATO offered to Georgia at its summit in Wales in September, including planned joint training center in Georgia, will be among the issues of discussions, according to the Georgian officials.

During the visit, the NATO Deputy Secretary General will also attend a panel discussion at the Atlantic Council of Georgia where he will deliver a keynote speech.

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Ministry of Defence of Georgia
January 28, 2015

UK Delegation Visited MoD

The delegation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland visited the Ministry of Defence of Georgia. Defence Minister Mindia Janelidze together with his deputy Levan Girsiashvili hosted the UK delegation led by Defence and Security Adviser in the cross-government Security & Justice Group David Clarce. Special advisor to Georgian Defence Minister Stephen Glover attended the meeting as well.

At the introductory meeting Defence Minister delivered information to the guests concerning the ongoing reforms in the Georgian defence sphere and future plans. Implementation of Substantial Package Georgia received at NATO Summit in Wales was one of the main topic of the discussion. The sides highlighted UK’s support in the implementation process of Substantial Package. Opening of NATO-Georgia Joint Training Center in Georgia, national documents of military policy, infrastructural projects, resources management, improving defence policy, as well as deepening bilateral cooperation between Georgia and the UK were discussed at the meeting.

At the end of the meeting, Defence Minister once more expressed gratitude to the guests for Georgia’s support and experience sharing.

Xinhua News Agency
January 28, 2015

Polish Speaker for Sejm Radoslaw Sikorski to visit US

WARSAW: Polish Speaker for Sejm, Radoslaw Sikorski is going to visit the United States on Friday at the invitation of U.S. vice-president Joe Biden, the Chancellery of Sejm informed on Tuesday.

Sikorski will participate in the international conference “Toward a Transatlantic Strategy for Europe’s East.” The debate will be held on Friday in Washington. The organizers are North Atlantic Council and Latvia – the country currently holding presidency of the EU.

The main goal of the debate is “creating an effective strategy for the Eastern Europe, which will help to face the most serious political, economical and security challenges in the region.”

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Franz Werfel: Selections on war

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Franz Werfel
From Star of the Unborn (1946)
Translated by Gustave O. Arlt

“How can I, in just a few words, give you any impression of what we experienced in World War One or Two? Shall I describe the feelings of a relatively free young man who is unceremoniously jammed into a barracks with hundreds of others in order to be drilled, that is, to be subjected to a process of hardening and brutalization that fits him to be a soldier? How could I make highly developed people like you…understand the condition of men living by day and night for months on end in trenches, dugouts, and foxholes filled with water and muck, their lives endangered day in and day out by dive bombers, mortars, heavy artillery, field artillery, tank artillery, ships’ batteries, machine guns of every kind, and God knows what else, until they pray for a severe wound just to be delivered from this horrible exposure? And worse than that, how could you gentlemen…ever get an adequate concept of what it means when a boy, maddened by rum, benzedrine, and party fanaticism, crawls out of his foxhole, gun in hand, and stumbles over muddy clods, shell holes, land-mines, and barbed wire, over black, bloated corpses stinking to high heaven, on toward the enemy, filled with a breathless, insane lust to twist his bayonet in that enemy’s guts even when he has thrown up both arms and is screaming for mercy?”

euronews
January 26, 2015

Spain: NATO plane crash kills 11, injures 21

Video:
http://www.euronews.com/embed/297040/

A French serviceman severely injured in a plane crash at a Spanish military base has died in hospital bringing the death toll from the accident to 11 people.

The Greek fighter jet was part of the Tactical Leadership Programme (TLP) and was taking part in a training exercise. It crashed during NATO training at the Los Llanos base in Albacete.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said two pilots were among the dead. The other eight were French citizens.

Speaking within hours of the tragedy, Rajoy said there were “many injured,” ten of them French and 11 Italians.

One witness to the crash said the accident happened very fast. “Just after taking-off on the runway, I noticed the plane turned right and hit the ground. It then exploded,” he said.

The Greek fighter jet was part of the Tactical Leadership Programme (TLP) and was taking part in a training exercise. It crashed during NATO training at the Los Llanos base in Albacete.

A defence ministry statement said the F-16 lost power and crashed shortly after take off from Spain’s Los Llanos airbase.

The jet hit other aircraft parked at the base. Several pilots and mechanics were working in the immediate area of the crash.

Stars and Stripes
January 25, 2015

Army looking to store tanks, equipment in eastern Europe
By John Vandiver and Michael Darnell

Abrahms tanks arrive in Germany for war with Russia

U.S. Army Europe will soon dispatch a survey team to eastern Europe to scout locations for tanks and other military hardware as part of a broader effort to bolster the U.S. military presence in a region rattled by Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, the Army’s top commander in Europe said Friday.

“We are doing surveys here in the next few weeks up in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria to see if there is a place where perhaps some of that equipment could be stored there,” USAREUR chief Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges said during an interview with Stars and Stripes. “Maybe it’s a company, maybe it’s a whole battalion, we don’t know yet until we do the survey.”

In 2015, the Army expects to rotate a full-sized, U.S.-based heavy brigade of some 3,000 troops and additional tanks and other armored vehicles through Europe in connection with the service’s Regionally Aligned Force initiative. Last year, the program kicked off on a smaller scale, bringing combat tanks back into Europe after a brief absence following the elimination of two Germany-based heavy brigades in 2013. Now, the regional concept is picking up steam, with plans for 220 armored vehicles in Europe.

“The big question for us right now is ‘where are they going to go?’ Obviously, a part is going to stay here,” Hodges said, referring to the Grafenwöhr training area. “We really want to put some in southeastern Europe, some in the Baltics, some in Poland. Those countries want them bad — an obvious reason, they’re a deterrent aspect.”

Once the surveys are concluded, a formal recommendation will be submitted to European Command chief Gen. Philip Breedlove, Hodges said. That will happen sometime in February.

In the meantime, the challenge is finding places to store all the inbound heavy gear. Initially, the regional brigade concept called for forward positioning enough equipment to support a battalion rotating through Europe at any given time. Hodge’s plan calls for expanding those “European Activity Sets” to the brigade level, making it easier for larger elements to move in and out of Europe for training missions.

“The European Activity Set is growing obviously,” Hodges said. “The ultimate EAS will include the full armored brigade combat team, three maneuver battalions, a reconnaissance squadron, artillery, engineers and all that. That’s probably about 220 armored vehicles, tanks, Bradleys.”

Hodges expects all the heavy armor equipment to be in place by the end of 2015.

“Some of it is already here now, in fact, its right at Grafenwöhr,” he said.

Meanwhile, USAREUR could for a time hold on to at least one site that it had previously planned to turn over to the Germans — Coleman Barracks in Mannheim — which has the potential to be used as a temporary storage site until permanent locations are found in the east, according to USAREUR.

Hodges, who was at the Army’s sprawling training center in Hohenfels, Germany, on Friday to observe U.S. soldiers working alongside Canadian, British, Dutch and Hungarian troops, said the Army plan to rotate a heavy brigade through Europe comes at a crucial time. The latest rotational brigade bound for Europe — 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division — fits into an overall European Command strategy that aims to deter Russian aggression, reassure allies in the east, and strengthen training partnerships with allies, Hodges said.

Europe-based troops also continue to play a key role. In the spring, the Vicenza, Italy-based 173rd Airborne Brigade will deploy a battalion into western Ukraine to train the country’s national guard and Defense Ministry personnel in a range of tactics, Hodges said.

For nearly a year, Ukrainian forces have been at war with Russian-backed separatists in the country’s east. While Moscow has denied sending troops into Ukraine or providing heavy weapons, Hodges said there are numerous signs of Russian involvement.

…

UNIAN
January 27, 2015

Nine Ukrainian soldiers killed, 29 wounded in Donbas conflict zone in last day

Nine Ukrainian soldiers were killed and another 29 were wounded in the Donbas conflict zone over the last 24 hours, Acting Speaker of the General Staff of Ukraine Vladyslav Selezniov said at a briefing on Tuesday, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

“Over the last day, we have lost nine Ukrainian soldiers, and another 29 were injured as a result of military clashes,” he said.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine has worsened significantly in the last few weeks, with the Russian-backed militants launching fresh attacks on Donetsk airport, areas north of the city of Luhansk, and the town of Debaltseve.

The government-held town of Mariupol was attacked with rockets on Saturday, and 30 civilians were killed. The OSCE and other experts determined that the rockets were fired from militant-controlled areas.
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Ukrinform
January 27, 2015

VERKHOVNA RADA DECLARES RUSSIA AGGRESSOR

KYIV: The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has declared Russia an aggressor country.

A total of 271 MPs voted for this decision at a parliament meeting on Tuesday.

Thus, the Verkhovna Rada adopted an appeal to the United Nations, the European Parliament, PACE, NATO Parliamentary Assembly, GUAM Parliamentary Assembly and the national parliaments, on the recognition of the Russian Federation as an aggressor country and the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) as terrorist organizations.

“The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine declares the Russian Federation an aggressor country and encourages Ukraine’s international partners to prevent impunity of those guilty for crimes against humanity committed since the beginning of aggression against Ukraine,” Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs Hanna Hopko quoted the text of the appeal.

…

In this appeal the Verkhovna Rada has also called on international partners to provide Ukraine with military and humanitarian assistance.

Xinhua News Agency
January 27, 2015

Lithuania seeks U.S. military deployment

Stryker fighting vehicle

VILNIUS: Lithuania is working with the United States over the possibility to deploy American military equipment in the Baltic country, local media reported on Monday.

Lithuanian Minister of National Defense Juozas Olekas made the remarks on Monday when responding to media reports that U.S. army will soon start surveys on possible locations for the deployment of tanks and other military hardware in countries including Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, Lithuanian National radio broadcaster LRT reported.

According to Olekas, part of [that] military equipment will be deployed in Lithuania.

“We work a lot with American allies in order to deploy this hardware rationally, according to our needs,” said Olekas in an interview to the LRT.

“We will inform later on, what are those equipment and where will they be deployed,” added the Minister.

Olekas was reluctant to comment on the type of possible military hardware and the size of the forces deployed, but insisted Lithuania is making efforts to assist the allies to find locations that are suitable for the deployment of their equipment and personnel.

Stars and Stripes, a Pentagon newspaper, reported U.S. Army will carry out surveys in the next few weeks in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria in order to examine possible locations for U.S. military hardware.“Maybe it’s a company, maybe it’s a whole battalion, we don’t know yet until we do the survey,” Lieutenant General Frederick Hodges, the chief of U.S. Army Europe, told the newspaper.

U.S. troops has been attending permanent rotations and military exercises in the Baltic countries and Poland since last year in response to changing geopolitical situation in the region and in order to strengthen NATO military presence there.

U.S. Air Forces in Europe
U.S. Air Forces Africa
January 27, 2015

Dutch relinquishes NATO mission to Spanish allies
B Senior Airman Michael Battles
39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey: The Spanish Patriot Unit officially replaced the 1st Netherlands Ballistic Missile Defense Task Force during a change of responsibility ceremony for Operation Active Fence Jan. 26, here.

Operation Active Fence is part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization patriot missile support deployment, which includes the missile batteries operated by the U.S. and Germany located respectively in two other areas within Turkey: Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras.

For the last two years, the Dutch has provided air defense for the city of Adana by constantly maintaining and monitoring two patriot missile batteries located at Incirlik Air Base and near the Adana airport.

“The switch between the Dutch and the Spanish means that the NATO mission can continue to protect the citizens of Turkey and augment an already strong Turkish air defense system,” said Army Lt. Col. Robert Phillips, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe and NATO Allied Command Operations Public Affairs media operations desk officer.

According to Phillips, the most important aspect of the mission is the NATO allies who stepped up to support Turkey.

…

As out-going commander, Col. Niels Vredegoor, 1st Netherlands Ballistic Missile Defense Task Force commander, talked about the Dutch’s time at Incirlik and welcomed the incoming Spanish unit.

“These past two years proved to be highly successful for two reasons: First of all, no missiles were fired into NATO territory and secondly, it shows a strong NATO; in commitment, in partnership and capability,” he said.

In January 2013, the Dutch joined the U.S and Germany, both of which had already deployed patriot missile batteries to help bolster security along Turkey’s border with Syria. These combined efforts were in response to an air defense assistance request from the Turkish government.

According to Vredegoor, the mission success is due in large part to all allies involved and that the Spanish will add to the overall successful efforts of the mission.

“This allied multinational effort was and will be the key to success,” said Vredegoor. “We are leaving this team and I have no doubt that Spain will fit into the system like a glove.”

With Vredegoor’s role with the Incirlik patriot missile mission complete, the Dutch National Anthem played as the nation’s flag lowered in respect of the service performed by the Dutch during their deployment. To commemorate the 1st Netherlands Ballistic Missile Defense Task Forces’ service, Vredegoor was presented his nation’s flag before bestowing the NATO flag to CDR. Jorge Cotorruelo, Spanish Patriot Unit commander.

In receiving the NATO flag, Cotorruelo assumed responsibility of the patriot missile mission, which was signified by the playing of the Spanish National Anthem and raising of the nation’s flag.

As incoming commander, Cotorruelo thanked the Dutch for their service at Incirlik and Turkey for their support.

“I would like to thank my predecessor, Col. Vredegoor for his continuous work and continued success,” Cotorruelo said. I also want to thank the Turkish armed forces for their great support.

In recognition of his service, Gen. Adem HUDUTİ, 2nd Army commander, presented Vredegoor with a Decoration of Merit on behalf of the commander of Turkish armed forces and thanked all members of the 1st Netherlands Ballistic Missile Defense Task Force.

“On behalf of the commander of the Turkish Armed Forces, I would like to thank the outgoing Col. Vredegoor and his soldiers for their sincere support and for the countries support of the mission,” said HUDUTİ. You have represented your country in an excellent manner.”

According to HUDUTİ, the people of Turkey are thankful for the support of the Spanish.

“Spain’s concrete demonstration of alliance solidarity is critically important to the people of Turkey and for all members of the alliance,” he said. “We are grateful for your willingness and decision to contribute to this mission at a very critical point.”

For the next two years, the Spanish will continue the legacy left behind by the Dutch – a dedication and commitment to protecting Turkey and its NATO allies from any threat that require air defense.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
January 26, 2015

NATO Secretary General statement on the extraordinary meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission

We have just held an extraordinary meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission. The meeting was held at Ukraine’s request.

We condemn the sharp escalation of violence along the ceasefire line in eastern Ukraine by Russia-backed separatists.

…

The aggressive actions and provocative statements of the separatists are in direct contradiction with the Minsk agreements.

Yet despite its repeated commitments to work for a peaceful solution, Russia continues to provide them with support, training, equipment and forces.

…

We call on Russia to stop its support for the separatists immediately…

We urge all parties to continue all efforts without delay to achieve a peaceful solution, in full conformity with the Minsk agreements.

We reaffirm that an independent, sovereign and stable Ukraine, firmly committed to democracy and the rule of law, is key to security in the Euro-Atlantic area.

Questions and answers

Q. Secretary General, can you tell us if NATO agreed to give any new aid to Ukraine at today’s meeting and is it time to respond positively to Ukraine’s request for lethal aid from NATO? And, secondly, could we get a response to President Putin saying that there is a NATO legion fighting alongside Ukrainian armed forces in Ukraine?

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: [W]hat NATO does is that we provide both practical and political support for Ukraine. Just the meeting today in the NATO Ukraine Commission is a strong sign of the strong political support from NATO and all NATO Allies to Ukraine. In addition we provide practical support. We support Ukraine when it comes to defence reform: modernising their armed forces. We have established trust funds helping them with reforming their defence. In addition we have a trust fund for providing medical aid for wounded soldiers. And tomorrow, NATO defence councillors from NATO allied countries will meet with General Koval here at NATO headquarters. And he’s the deputy secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council and he briefed us at the council meeting today and I think that he’s here today, together with a delegation from Ukraine, underlines that we are now actually doing what I think is very important and that is to help them with reforming their armed forces. In addition to that, of course, we support the economic sanctions imposed by the European Union, the United States and others. And I will later today meet with High Representative Mogherini and discuss the very severe situation in Ukraine.

…

NATO continues its full support for Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders.

Ministry of Defence of Georgia
January 27, 2015

Meeting with Defence Attaches

Chief of General Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces hosted Defence Attaches accredited to Georgia and the representatives of NATO Liaison Office today. Major General Vakhtang Kapanadze delivered report to the diplomats on the fulfilled and planned reforms in the Georgian Armed Forces.

At the meeting Major General underlined several important aspects, including Georgia’s engagement in “Resolute Support” mission, opening of NATO-Georgia Training Center in Georgia, implementation issues of NATO Substantial Package, military education and training. Chief of General Staff thanked the foreign guests for support and cooperation and expressed hope for intensive relation in the future.

Regional security and strategic cooperation with neighbor countries were also discussed at the meeting. Later on the meeting continued in an interactive format.

Deputy Chiefs of General Staff, Brigadier General Vladimer Chachibaia, as well as Colonels Roman Jokhadze and Giorgi Kbiltsetskhlashvili attended the meeting.

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Russian writers on war

Alexander Herzen: Selections on the military and war

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Alexander Herzen
From My Past and Thoughts
Translated by Constance Garnett

Yes, if the army could be reduced to the defenders of property, the bodyguard of capital, everything would quickly reach its stable final order. But there is nothing perfect in the world, and the hereditary knightly spirit keeps up the ferment and prevents life from settling down. However tempting is plunder and however natural is blood-thirstiness to men in general, the dash of a huzzar, the aggressiveness of a Suvorov, are not compatible with maturity, with quiet unruffled culture. The dislike for everything military in China is much more comprehensible in a mature people than the passion of a Nicholas for ‘braid and epaulettes and buttonholes.’

That is just the trouble. What is to be done with the great people which boasts of being a military people, which is made up of Zouaves, pioupious, and Frenchmen, who are also soldiers!

Peuple de France, peuple de braves!

It is absurd to talk about quiet nights, moonlight walks, free trade, political freedom, or freedom of any sort, while five hundred thousand bayonets, bored and idle, are clamoring for their ‘right to work.’

Interfax-Ukraine
January 26, 2015

NATO-Ukraine Commission to meet at ambassadorial level on Monday – source

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will make a statement on Ukraine on Monday afternoon, a NATO source has told Interfax.

On Monday, the NATO headquarters will host a meeting at the ambassadorial level of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, in connection with the shelling of a residential area in Mariupol on January 24.

Stoltenberg will also meet with European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Operations
January 26, 2015

Change of Command at German PATRIOT element in Kahramanmaras, Turkey

Kahramanmaraş, Turkey: Thursday 22 January 2015, Brigadier General Thorsten Poschwatta, Deputy Commander of the German Joint Operations Command, relieved Colonel Thorsten Ilg, Commander of the German Ballistic Missile Defense Task Force Active Fence Turkey (DEU BMDTF AF TUR) in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, of his duties.

In his speech, Brigadier General expressed his gratitude to Colonel Ilg and outlined several initiatives of Ilg deepening both the bonds of friendship to the Turkish host nation and the mutual support between the German PATRIOT element and its brothers in arms, the US and Dutch PATRIOT detachments in Southern Turkey. Colonel Ilg served seven months as the Commander of DEU BMDTF AF TUR.

…During the ceremony Colonel Thorsten Ilg was awarded the German Armed Forces Deployment Medal “Active Fence Turkey”.

During the change of command ceremony Brigadier General Thorsten Poschwatta transferred the command to Colonel Wolfgang Rasquin. In front of the troops as well as national and international guests, General Poschwatta handed over the command flag to him with best wishes for his time as the commander. Colonel Rasquin will lead the German BMDTF AF TUR for the upcoming six months.

Story by: PAO DEU Ballistic Missile Defense Task Force Active Fence Turkey.

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

C.P. Snow: As final product of scientific civilization, nuclear bomb is its ultimate indictment

C.P. Snow: Even if moral judgments are left out, it’s unthinkable to drop the bomb

C.P. Snow: Hiroshima, the most horrible single act so far performed

C.P. Snow: Hope it’s never possible to develop superbomb

C.P. Snow: Worse than Genghiz Khan. Has there ever been a weapon that someone did not want to let off?

Ministry of Defence of Georgia
January 23, 2015

Chief of General Staff in NATO HQ

Chief of the General Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces Major-General Vakhtang Kapanadze attended the Military Committee in Chiefs of Defence Session in NATO HQ. Within the frames of 172nd CHODs Session, Chiefs of Defence of NATO met in Resolute Support format to discuss the Resolute Support Mission and partnerships. The Chiefs of Defence received briefing from the Commander of the Resolute Support mission, General John F. Campbell who talked about the existing security situation in Afghanistan and his vision. He thanked the contributing nations and underscored the importance of Georgia’s participation in the mission.

In the framework of his visit, Chief of the GS of the GAF was received by the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, General Knud Bartels. The sides discussed the implementation of the Substantial Package granted to Georgia at the NATO Wales Summit.

Major-General Vakhtang Kapanadze also held bilateral meetings with Czech and Polish counterparts. Bilateral cooperation and future plans of development of the Georgian Armed Forces was discussed at the meetings.

The Chief of Defence also visited the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons and met with General Philip Breedlove, Supreme Allied Commander of Europe, SHAPE leadership and Commander NATO Special Operations Headquarters. He also got a firsthand look at operations in the NATO Military Partnership Directorate and the NATO Allied Centre for Medical Education.

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Ministry of Defence of Georgia
January 23, 2015

Meetings of Deputy Defence Minister at NATO HQ Completed

Deputy Defence Minister of Georgia completed an official visit to NATO HQ in Brussels. Levan Girsiashvili participated in NATO-Georgia Commission where discussions were led in the NATO HQ about fulfilling commitments undertaken by Georgia under Defence Planning and Review Process (PARP).

In the 28+1 format of NATO-Georgia Commission, the representatives of NATO member countries positively evaluated ongoing and implemented defence reforms of Georgia. They appreciated Georgia’s contribution to the international operation in Afghanistan and expressed readiness to support the country in implementing the substantial package granted to Georgia at the NATO Wales Summit.

At NATO HQ Deputy Defence Minister met with NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathurai. The sides focused on the aspects of implementation of the NATO-Georgia substantial package.

Within the visit to Brussels, Levan Girsiashvili held meetings on Georgia’s NATO integration prospects with NATO Defence Policy and Planning Director, Frank Boland, Head of NATO Office of Security Tod Brown and other officials of NATO.

Following the end of the official visit to Brussels, Deputy Defence Minister Levan Girsiashvili estimated the meetings at NATO HQ: “In the 28+1 format of NATO-Georgia Commission, we discussed the implemented reforms in 2014 for improving Georgia’s defence capability. The representatives of NATO member countries positively evaluated ongoing and implemented defence reforms of Georgia. I also would like to emphasize the high level meetings, especially with Mr. James Appathurai. NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia reaffirmed Alliance’s firm support on Georgia’s way to NATO integration and implementation of Substantial Package”.

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Alfred Neumann: Selections on war

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Alfred Neumann
From Empire (1936)
Translated by Eden and Cedar Paul

The time has an unquenchable desire to laugh, it wants to laugh at death and the devil, at Jupiter and at itself. What’s afoot? War? Is this New Caesar happiness going to crash to-morrow or fifty years from now? Laugh, man, laugh! The quiet, sagacious laughter of political scepticism creates the best of all possible worlds out of an undervaluation and a contempt for political destiny…

The Bourse was raising a terrific outcry, there was a slump in values, Morny was pulling strings in the stock-market, Morny who was great at pulling strings. He was pale, and mute. Rothschild, however, was voluble enough. That shrewd and wealthy financier declared that the Emperor did not understand the new France he had made. Twenty years ago, France could have made war without serious internal convulsions; for in those days hardly anyone but the bankers held securities; now all the world and his wife owned railway shares or had invested money in the three per cents. The Emperor had once said that the Empire signified peace, and that had been a true word, the only true word. He seemed to have forgotten that it would be all up with the Empire should France go to war. So said Rothschild, and all the world and his wife agreed…

The Emperor invited Rothschild to invite subscriptions for the Austrian loan. This was a war-loan, since Austria was arming as vigorously and conspicuously as Piedmont…Securities rose, Rothschild was satisfied…

There are a lot of questions to ask in such days as these, when war has come at last, closing the streets like a turnpike gate which holds up the traffic, divides people in the old evil fashion into those who stay at home and those who go to the front, and in which all the women are weeping. Why are we at war? Why, nevertheless, has there been no panic on the Stock Exchange?

UNIAN
January 23, 2015

NATO to create offices in six countries of Central and Eastern Europe

NATO’s Military Committee on Thursday approved the establishment of international headquarters in Lithuania and another five countries of Central and Eastern Europe and intends to submit the proposal to defense ministers, Chief of the Armed Forces of Lithuania Major General Vytautas Jonas Žukas told Baltic news agency BNS on Thursday.

The decision is positive. These headquarters will be established,” the general told the agency by phone from Brussels, according to Baltic online news site Delfi.

“The headquarters, which will be directly subordinated to the head of the Allied forces in Europe, is proposed to be set up in Vilnius near the building of the Joint Staff. The staff will consist of 50% Lithuanians and 50% international forces.

The general also said that other similar offices should be established in Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. They are to be set up this year.

The establishment of offices should be approved by NATO defense ministers in early February.

“It’s good news for Lithuania. We were able to achieve what we wanted,” Žukas said.

The offices will liaise between national forces, NATO forces in Lithuania, and NATO leadership in Europe.

“During the discussions we also approved plans to create a Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) and raised the question of NATO rethinking its strategy and assessing new threats,” he said.

U.S. Army Europe
Janaury 20, 2015

U.S. Army Europe commander visiting Ukraine
By U.S. Army Europe Public Affairs

WIESBADEN, Germany: The commanding general of U.S. Army Europe, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, is in Ukraine today as part of a trip to meet with Ukraine defense officials and U.S. embassy personnel there ahead of a robust schedule of bilateral and multilateral military partnership exercises and training missions planned for 2015.

The Army Europe commander’s trip will include visits with the Ukrainian Minister of Defense and chief of Defense as well as the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, to gain a better understanding of the security situation in Ukraine. Ukraine has been a military partner of the U.S. dating back to the mid 1990s.

At an Army leadership forum conducted in Wiesbaden, Jan. 13-14, Hodges commented on the strategic importance of U.S. forces forward-stationed in Europe.

“Everything that happens in this part of the world the U.S. Army in Europe is part of that,” said Hodges, addressing U.S. Army leaders gathered for the event. “It’s exercises, it’s relationships, it’s capabilities, networks and allies and it is what enables our president to assure allies and deter potential threats.”

The general’s visit will also include a press engagement at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center in Kiev, scheduled for 4:30-5:30 p.m. local.

Hodges finished a similar visit in Latvia yesterday. Latvia and Ukraine are part of U.S. Army Europe’s 51-country area of responsibility.

—

About us: U.S. Army Europe is uniquely positioned in its 51 country area of responsibility to advance American strategic interests in Europe and Eurasia. The relationships we build during more than 1,000 theater security cooperation events in more than 40 countries each year lead directly to support for multinational contingency operations around the world, strengthen regional partnerships and enhance global security.

U.S. Department of Defense
January 21, 2015

NATO Defense Chiefs Meet, Ukraine a ‘Significant Concern’
By Lisa Ferdinando

BRUSSELS: The U.S. military says Russia has “funneled hundreds of pieces of Russian military equipment” to Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine. The comments from the spokesman of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff came today, on the first day of a two-day defense chiefs meeting at NATO headquarters here.

Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, who is attending the NATO meeting, is “closely following” reports of Russian activity inside Ukraine, said spokesman Air Force Col. Ed Thomas.

“Among the most pressing issues for the group is NATO’s planning and readiness to secure its eastern flank. It’s been a dominant factor for the alliance since Russian forces entered Crimea,” Thomas said.

He declined to discuss specifics about the reports of Russian activity, but did acknowledge a Russian role in the ongoing conflict.

…

NATO Focus on Russia

In the opening session today, the chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Danish Gen. Knud Bartels, said Russia’s “illegal military intervention” in Ukraine remains a “significant cause for concern.”

The events in Ukraine are “shaping our thinking on NATO’s security challenges,” he said.

“We have seen in Ukraine the use of hybrid warfare which combines traditional, conventional and paramilitary operations, as well as sophisticated disinformation campaigns,” the Danish general said.

Because of the developments in Ukraine, the Ukrainian chief of defense was “forced at very short notice to cancel his attendance” at the meeting, Bartels said.

The centerpiece for NATO’s’ response to the recent Russian aggression is cooperation on what the alliance has dubbed the Readiness Action Plan.

NATO heads of state agreed to the plan at the Wales summit in September. Alliance officials say the plan will “significantly enhance NATO’s readiness and responsiveness” and ensure that NATO forces remain ready.

In the interim, NATO has established a Very High Readiness Joint Task Force coordinated by Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

NATO has already increased maritime, land and air presence in Eastern Europe as member nations hammer out a final plan. The U.S. has stepped up its presence in Eastern Europe through a variety of reassurance measures to include airborne exercises in Poland and the Baltic nations.

But NATO leaders from countries like Greece and Italy are equally focused on the security of the alliance’s southern flank, where U.S. and European officials warn about the flow of extremists and the danger it poses to the region.

…

NATO must continue to have the capability and capacity to counter threats to its border, Bartels said.

“The growing instability in the south compounds the challenges facing the alliance,” Bartels said.

Afghanistan a topic for alliance members

Coalition commitments to Afghanistan’s long-term success are on the agenda, according to Thomas. “We have a willing partner in the government of Afghanistan and U.S. and coalition commitment will remain key,” he said.

The alliance has opened a “new chapter” in its relationship with Afghanistan, Bartels said, noting that one year ago the alliance was focused on the International Stabilization Force in Afghanistan.

…

As of January 2015, the alliance is conducting a train, assist, and advise mission in support of the Afghan National Security Forces, Bartels said.

“We are well aware that although this is a non-combat mission, it is conducted in a combat environment,” he said.

Threats in North Africa, Middle East

The chiefs of defense were also examining the “dynamic and evolving situation” in regards to regional security challenges in North Africa and the Middle East, Bartels said.

The alliance members had a session Wednesday with the NATO Mediterranean Dialogue partner nations. The group is comprised of seven non-NATO countries of the Mediterranean region: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.

Bartels said the Thursday session will provide an opportunity to develop the military advice to NATO’s Political Guidance 2015, which will be agreed in June by NATO’s defense ministers.

Substance News
January 22, 2015

“US, Ukraine and Russia: What Went Wrong?” A talk by John Mearsheimer and Rick Rozoff, Evanston, Illinois, January 10, 2015
Kim Scipes*

Photograph by Kim Scipes

Two widely recognized authorities on big power politics and NATO recently gave a public talk on the current situation in the Ukraine at the Evanston (Illinois) Public Library. Organized by the Evanston Neighbors for Peace, John J. Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago (http://mearsheimer.uchicago.edu), and Rick Rozoff, a long-time activist who maintains the “Stop NATO—Opposition to Global Militarism” web site (https://rickrozoff.wordpress.com), spent three hours recently trying to cut through the lies and obfuscation that the US public has been fed around the current developments in Ukraine.

Speakers at the forum on Ukraine. Substance photo by Kim Scipes.Mearsheimer began the session, and was followed by Rozoff. Afterwards, they responded to each other’s presentation and then took questions and statements from the public, making this a very lively and informative session. This reporter was present throughout and took notes from the presentations; this reporter inserted sub-headings within to help readability.

JOHN MEARSHEIMER

Mearsheimer started off, noting the “significant deterioration in US-Russian foreign relations.” He argued this situation is “fundamentally wrong.”

He gave background to what’s going on. Basically, US-Russian relations were ok until February 22, 2014. Since then, things have gone “down the toilet bowl.” (On February 22, 2014, there was a coup in Kiev, Ukraine, where protestors—which the support of the US government—overthrew the democratically elected government of Viktor Yanukovych.)

Before February 22, there was no evidence of American or European policy makers being concerned with Ukraine. US Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, stated there was “no reason to contain Russia,” and said that the US did not see [Russian President Vladimir] Putin as an “aggressor.” There was no evidence to suggest otherwise.

Since the coup, Russia has encouraged the citizens of Crimea—a Russian speaking area that had been given to Ukraine by Khrushchev in 1954—to reunite with Russia, which they did via a local referendum in March 2014. At the same time, there’s been a war “by virtually all accounts” in the Eastern Ukraine between the Ukrainian government on one side, and Russia-supporting rebels on the other.

The US blames Putin for all of the turmoil. According to Mearsheimer, the US is acting “like kids who never understand what they’ve done wrong.” Some commentators have called Putin “a new Hitler,” which Mearsheimer says such arguments are “ludicrous in the extreme”: nothing that Putin has done has ever put him in the category of Hitler.

Mearsheimer says, “The Russians have made clear that Ukraine is a core strategic area.” In other words, they will defend it at all costs: their response to crisis in Ukraine is similar to what the US would do if a nuclear-armed “opponent” were to try to take over Canada or Mexico.

Mearsheimer said there were three things going on in Ukraine: NATO was trying to expand, the EU (European Union) was trying to expand, and that the US was trying to “promote democracy” in Ukraine and Georgia: basically, the idea was to put the Western powers directly on the borders of Russia. And they were trying to do this by incorporating Ukraine (as well as Georgia) into NATO and the EU.

Some Relevant Historical Background

When the Soviet Union allowed its Empire in Eastern Europe to collapse in 1989 without sending in tanks, US President George Herbert Walker Bush (the old man) told Mikhail Gorbachev that the US would not take advantage of the situation and would not expand NATO eastward. [Apparently, Gorbachev accepted Bush at his word, and this was never written down—KS.] NATO did not expand eastward until 1999, when it expanded under Bill Clinton. In 2004, under George W. Bush, it expanded to include the Baltic States. In April 2008, at a NATO Summit in Bucharest, Romania, NATO offered membership to the former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Georgia. In August 2008, there was the war between Russia and Georgia, where the Russians said unequivocally, NO WAY.

At the same time, the EU was expanding eastward, trying to incorporate as many countries in Eastern Europe into its monetary and trading zone. They were steadily trying to incorporate Ukraine as well.

At the same time, the West was also trying to “promote democracy,” and getting pro-Western leaders into positions of political leadership in these countries, including Ukraine. The so-called “Orange Revolution” in 2004 was intended to do this.

The Russians were spooked by these three strategies, especially when combined, like they were.

Where things hit the crisis level was the result of Ukraine’s president Viktor Yanukovych’s flirting with accepting a EU economic package for this country during the Fall of 2013. Ultimately, Yanukovych decided to “deep six” the deal, and decided to accept an economic package from Russia. This lead to massive protests inside Ukraine—particularly in the European-leaning western part of the country—and these protests led to the February 22 coup, which forced Yanukovych out of office and out of the country.

Russia’s Response to the Coup

Mearsheimer labeled Russia’s response “highly understandable.” Russia made clear this situation was “categorically unacceptable.” He said that if we wanted a good analogy, we should look at the US response to the Soviet Union’s placement of missiles in Cuba in 1962 or even the Monroe Doctrine itself, which he described as telling other world powers to stay out of “our neighborhood,” the entire Western Hemisphere.

As Mearsheimer summed it up, “Great Powers are very sensitive to disruptions on their borders and in their neighborhoods.

He stressed it again: Russia’s response is “completely understandable.” Putin and the Russians are not going to allow Ukraine to join NATO: they see this as an “existential threat.”

Accordingly, they “took Crimea,” although they had 25,000 troops stationed there under a long-term lease that allowed the Russian Black Sea Fleet to harbor at Sevastopol; obviously, they didn’t want to risk that lease being terminated, causing them to loose that naval base.

The Russians have also helped facilitate troubles in eastern Ukraine. According to Mearsheimer, however, they will not invade. He notes that Russia is in both serious economic and political trouble—the West’s sanctions have hurt Russia, but probably the bigger, immediate problem is the collapse of global oil prices—but he argues that the conventional forces of Russian cannot swallow Ukraine; they have limited military capabilities. He says an invasion by Russia is “not in the cards: there’s no evidence that they want to do it and they aren’t capable,” either.

What the Russians can do, however, is wreck the country as a functioning society.

In response, the West keeps telling the government in Ukraine to keep playing hardball with the Russians. Mearsheimer thinks this is misleading Ukraine. He said it’s stupid to tell Ukrainians to keep screwing themselves by poking the Russians. “Putin is certain to make sure Ukraine will not be part of the West.”

From Here?

Mearsheimer thinks there is a simple solution to the crisis: take NATO and EU expansion off the table. His idea is to make Ukraine a neutral border state. He argues that Putin hasn’t wanted to pick a fight, and the evidence shows that there really wasn’t a problem in Ukraine until the Fall of 2013, after Yanukovych decided to take a Russian deal instead of one with the EU. He states simply, “Putin did not create the crisis.”

Mearsheimer thinks that the US is being “foolish in the extreme” to keep supporting the Ukrainians’ conflict with Russia. He argues this makes the chance of a war more dangerous.

RICK ROZOFF

Rozoff started off by thanking Mearsheimer for speaking truth to power in a recent article in Foreign Affairs, “Why the Ukraine Crisis is the West’s Fault” (September-October 2014). He then pointed out this was Day 270 of the “anti-terrorist operation” by Ukraine, and the “Fifth Act” of NATO’s expansion.

Most Americans never even consider NATO, especially after the dissolution of the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe, which was touted as “the end of the Cold War.” Rozoff pointed out that despite the supposed end, NATO has been very aggressively expanding eastward toward Russia, which was the heartland of the Soviet Union.

• This began in 1990, when East Germany was absorbed into Germany. (GHW Bush administration);

• In 1999, at the 50th anniversary of the founding of NATO, in a NATO Summit in Washington, DC, NATO engaged in its first post-Cold War expansion, inviting Poland, Hungary and Poland to join it. (Clinton Administration).

• In 2004, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (the “Baltic States”) joined, along with Slovenia and Slovakia (parts of former Yugoslavia), Bulgaria and Romania (GWB Administration).

• In 2009, Croatia (part of former Yugoslavia) and Albania joined, although they had been invited in 2008, under the GW Bush Administration. By 2009, NATO had increased its membership by 75%, now having 28 full members and 49 “partner” countries, for a total of 77 country members. Over 70% of the total world spending on military weaponry is done by these nations.

(To get a good geo-political understanding of NATO, go to http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ANATO_partnerships.svg. By NATO_cooperations_partners.svg: *BlankMap-World-Microstates.svg: Nuclear Vacuum NATO_Cooperations_Partners.png: Alinor derivative work: Patrick [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons.) All countries except for Russia are in some relationship with NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including Australia and Columbia!

• In 2008, both Georgia and Ukraine were told they could eventually become members.

Rozoff pointed out that not only had NATO been expanding aggressively, it has now fought in a number of wars, most far away from Europe. It forces fought in the 1994-95 war in Yugoslavia, and then again in 1999, when it carried out a 78 day bombing campaign in support of Kosovo’s succession. After that, it sent forces to Afghanistan beginning in 2001, forces “for training” in Iraq in 2004, ships for anti-piracy duty in the Gulf of Aden (off of Somalia), and then in 2011, it led the war on Libya.

But NATO engages in war-like activities (called “exercises”) designed to enhance its war-fighting capabilities. For example, Rozoff talked about a March 2014 NATO exercise above the Artic Circle. This “exercise” involved 16,000 troops from 16 nations and took place approximately 200 miles from Russia.

Rozoff pointed out that this aggressive behavior towards Russia, up to and including developments in Ukraine—and he said it could only be seen that way by the Russians, despite whatever rationales were mouthed by NATO—was very dangerous. He mentioned that Mikhail Gorbachev had even suggested recently that things in Ukraine could easily get out of hand, and that ultimately could lead to nuclear war. Rozoff ended his talk with arguing the need to disband NATO, which he called “the biggest threat to world peace.”

DISCUSSION

Mearsheimer states that the ruling elite of Ukraine wants to be part of the West, not Russia. However, he argues, “they do not have a right to do whatever they want.” He says their problem is what he called “bad geography.” The Russians consider Ukraine to be a core strategic region. He says that the West is leading Ukraine “down a primrose path” that can only end up hurting Ukraine.

An audience member asked about US activities in Ukraine being connected to economic interests?

Mearsheimer stated that the there’s no doubt that the US is economically interested in Ukraine, but he argues there is no need to try to pull Ukraine away from Russia. The sanctions that the Obama Administration and the EU have imposed on Russia have “severely damaged” Russia, but it’s leading to blowback (i.e., unintended consequences) on Western Europe. He believes that some of the current EU economic problems are being caused by the Ukraine crisis. He says German business elites clearly are opposed to economic sanctions against Russia.

Someone else asked if Russia could withstand economic sanctions along with the collapse of oil prices?

Mearsheimer says this is a great crisis for Russia, but he does not think Russia will collapse—and that they will not give up, as Ukraine is a core strategic area for them. He says that Russia has two things going for it: “they have arms, including nuclear weapons, and hydrocarbon.” He pointed out that the EU is the second largest consumer of hydrocarbon in the world.

Someone else asked what was the US role in the 2013 protests/2014 coup in Ukraine? Mearsheimer said he didn’t know. He said it was hard to get details.

This reporter—a scholar who has done research on the US “democracy promotion” activities—then made a contribution to the discussion. He said that Americans were working closely with the protestors who came to power in the coup. He pointed out that Victoria Nuland, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, and US Senator John McCain—the Chairman of the International Republican Institute, which is a core institute of the US government’s so-called National Endowment for Democracy—participated in protests in Kiev. However, he said he doesn’t know if the US had facilitated the coup, but that there has been a lot of “democracy promotion” money sent to Ukraine to develop political parties, and this went to opposition politicians who opposed the democratically elected government.

Another audience member pointed out that he understood there had been considerable monies sent to the Ukraine opposition by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (a right-wing foundation) of Germany, as well as USAID (US Agency for International Development). He also stated he had been in Ukraine recently, and specifically noted that there were people from fascist organizations involved in the opposition, and they now held important positions in the post coup government.

With that last interaction, the session was closed. Thus ended a very informative program that helped clear up a lot of misinformation about currents in eastern Europe and specifically Ukraine. It’s importance became even more clear as President Obama, in his January 20th State of the Union speech, claimed that it was Putin who was the aggressor in Ukraine—more disinformation by the Commander in Chief.

___

*Kim Scipes, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Purdue University in Westville, Indiana, although he lives in Logan Square in Chicago. His research on the so-called National Endowment for Democracy is included in his latest book, The AFL-CIO’s Secret War against Developing Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage? (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2010 hardback, 2011 paperback.)

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

American writers on peace and against war

Charles Yale Harrison: Selections on war

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Charles Yale Harrison
From Generals Die In Bed (1928)

“I should like to go to Whitechapel this evening,” I say.

She looks at me with surprise.

“Why?”

“I’ve heard so much about it. I want to see it.”

“It’s not nice there.”

“I know, but I want to see more of London than just its music halls, Hyde Park, and its very wonderful pubs.”

“But very low people live there, criminals and such things – you will be robbed.”

“Well, I don’t mind. I am a criminal. Did I ever tell you I committed murder?”

She looks up with a jerk. Her eyes look at me with suspicion.

“It was some time ago. I came into a place where an enemy of mine was and I stabbed him and ran off,” I explain.

Her eyes are wide open. She is horrified. She does not speak.

I laugh and relate that the murder took place in a trench and that my enemy wore a pot-shaped helmet.

Her face glows with a smile.

“You silly boy. I thought you had really murdered someone.”

Interfax-Ukraine
January 21, 2015

Ukrainian armed forces chief of staff to visit NATO HQ on Jan 21-22

Chief of staff and Commander of the Ukrainian armed forces Viktor Muzhenko will take part in a meeting of the NATO Military Committee while visiting the NATO headquarters in Brussels on January 21-22.

“It is planned that a delegation of the Ukrainian armed forces led by Chief of Staff and Commander of the Ukrainian armed forces Viktor Muzhenko will take part in events at the level of chiefs of staff of the alliance member-states and partners at the NATO headquarters on January 21-22,” Ukrainian General Staff spokesman Vladyslav Selezniov said on Facebook on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian armed forces’ delegation will take part in NATO Military Committee meetings as a partner in the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission, he said.

“During the NATO Military Committee meeting in the Ukraine format, its participants will discuss the current military-political situation in Ukraine and around its borders, plans to reform the Ukrainian armed forces, and principal trends and prospects of military cooperation between the Ukrainian armed forces and NATO,” Selezniov said.

Apart from this, the Ukrainian delegation is expected to attend a number of working meetings to address practical aspects of military cooperation, in particular, with the heads of the NATO and EU military committees, members of the Allied Command Operations, the commander of the NATO Special Operations Forces (SOF), and the defense ministers of the alliance’s member-states and partners, he said.

Selezniov had said earlier that Muzhenko had canceled his visit to the NATO headquarters in Brussels, as he was “leading an operation in the antiterrorist operation area.”

It was planned originally that Muzhenko would be visiting the NATO headquarters in Brussels on January 20-22.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Operations
January 21, 2015

NATO and Serbia agree first Individual Partnership Action Plan
Story by NATO Military Liaison Office Belgrade

Chief of Military Liaison Office Brig. Gen. Lucio Batta (second from left) addressing conference on NATO in Kovacica, Serbia. Photo courtesy of: NATO Military Liaison Office Belgrade.

Tuesday 20 January 2015, NATO and Serbia agreed the country’s first Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) with a view to intensifying practical cooperation and bilateral dialogue.

An IPAP enables NATO and individual Allies to provide tailored assistance to partner countries by setting out cooperation objectives and priorities in defence and political affairs, as well as science and public diplomacy. The IPAP with Serbia will focus on reform activities that have been conducted through various Partnership for Peace mechanisms since 2006.

While Serbia does not aspire to join NATO, it is seeking to deepen relations with the Alliance and open accession talks with the European Union.

The Head of Department for NATO and Partnership for Peace at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dijana Ivancic said that Serbia wished to remain a reliable and predictable partner of the Alliance.

“Serbia sees IPAP as an optimal framework of cooperation that can primarily contribute to further improving of our defense and security system. We expect assistance from the Alliance in realization of the defined goals and priorities. The adoption of IPAP opens the possibility of raising the level of political dialogue too ” said Ivancic.

NATO and Serbia are currently working on 41 Partnership Goals, ranging from defence planning, public information, and cyber defense, to medical support, language training, and gender perspective.

The Chief of the NATO Military Liaison Office in Belgrade, Brig. Gen. Lucio Batta, explained that Serbia and NATO wanted to improve the Serbian public’s understanding of their partnership activities in the future, and added that his office would play a role in that regard during the implementation of the IPAP.

“It is important to have the Serbian citizens aware of our growing cooperation, as the upcoming reforms will not only improve their individual security, but will also allow Serbia to continue making its valuable contributions to UN and EU peacekeeping missions,” said Brig. Gen. Batta.

Story by: NATO Military Liaison Office Belgrade.

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Oliver Goldsmith: Selections on war

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Oliver Goldsmith
From Citizen of the World (1762)

But, perhaps, you may find more satisfaction in a real newspaper, than in my description of one; I therefore send a specimen, which may serve to exhibit the manner of their being written, and distinguish the characters of the various nations which are united in its composition…

VIENNA. We have received certain advices that a party of twenty thousand Austrians, having attacked a much superior body of Prussians, put them all to flight, and took the rest prisoners of war.

BERLIN. We have received certain advices that a party of twenty thousand Prussians having attacked a much superior body of Austrians, put them to flight, and took a great number of prisoners, with their military chest, cannon, and baggage.

Though we have not succeeded this campaign to our wishes; yet, when we think of him who commands us, we rest in security: while we sleep, our king is watchful for our safety.

PARIS. We shall soon strike a signal blow. We have seventeen flat-bottom’d boats at Havre. The people are in excellent spirits, and our ministers make no difficulty of raising the supplies.

We are all undone; the people are discontented to the last degree; the ministers are obliged to have recourse to the most rigorous methods to raise the expenses of the war.

Our distresses are great; but Madame Pompadour continues to supply our king, who is now growing old, with a fresh lady every night. His health, thank heaven, is still pretty well; nor is he in the least unfit, as was reported, for any kind of royal exercitation. He was so frighted at the affair of Damiens, that his physicians were apprehensive lest his reason should suffer, but that wretch’s tortures soon composed the kingly terrors of his breast.

ENGLAND. Wanted an usher to an academy. N. B. He must be able to read, dress hair, and must have had the small pox.

DUBLIN. We hear that there is a benevolent subscription on foot among the nobility and gentry of this kingdom, who are great patrons of merit, in order to assist Black and All Black, in his contest with the Paddereen mare.

We hear from Germany that Prince Ferdinand has gained a complete victory, and taken twelve kettle drums, five standards, and four waggons of ammunition prisoners of war.

***

After I had crossed the great wail, the first objects that presented were the remains of desolated cities, and all the magnificence of venerable ruin. There were to be seen temples of beautiful structure, statues wrought by the hand of a master, and around a country of luxuriant plenty; but not one single inhabitant to reap the bounties of nature. These were prospects that might humble the Pride of kings, and repress human vanity. I asked my guide the cause of such desolation. These countries, says he, were once the dominions of a Tartar prince; and these ruins the seat of arts, elegance, and ease. This prince waged an unsuccessful war with one of the emperors of China; he was conquered, his cities plundered, and all his subjects carried into captivity. Such are the effects of the ambition of Kings! Ten dervises, say the Indian proverb, shall sleep in peace upon a single carpet, while two kings shall quarrel though they have kingdoms to divide them. Sure, my friend, the cruelty and the pride of man have made more deserts than nature ever made! she is kind, but man is ungrateful!

Press TV
January 20, 2015

US military to stay in Afghanistan ‘indefinitely’: Activist

Audio

The US military plans to remain in Afghanistan “indefinitely” and conduct military operations inside the country for “years to come” despite the formal ending of US combat operations, an anti-war activist in Chicago says.

“The war [in Afghanistan] is not going to end in the imminent future,” said Rick Rozoff, a member of Stop NATO International.

“Western military forces who have been in the country for over 13 years…are to be there for an indefinite period of time,” Rozoff told Press TV on Tuesday.

The US and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues across the country, despite the presence of thousands of US-led troops.

The US-led combat mission in Afghanistan ended on December 31, 2014. However, some 13,500 foreign forces, mainly from the United States, will remain in Afghanistan in what is said to be a support mission.

The US-led NATO says the forces will focus more narrowly on counterterrorism and on training Afghan soldiers and policemen.

“The effort to portray a complete withdrawal of military personnel and an end of armed hostilities in the country is largely politically driven because of the [US] presidential election next year,” Rozoff said.

“The US will continue to directly and through its Afghan national army proxies conduct military operations in that country for years to come,” he added.

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

John Galsworthy: Selections on war

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John Galsworthy
From Saint’s Progress (1919)

‘The war! The cursed war!’ In the unending rows of little grey houses, in huge caravanserais, and the mansions of the great, in villas, and high slum tenements; in the government offices, and factories, and railway stations where they worked all night; in the long hospitals where they lay in rows; in the camp prisons of the interned; in bar racks, work-houses, palaces – no head, sleeping or waking, would be free of that thought: ‘The cursed war!’ A spire caught his eye, rising ghostly over the roofs. Ah! churches alone, void of the human soul, would be unconscious! But for the rest, even sleep would not free them! Here a mother would be whispering the name of her boy; there a merchant would snore and dream he was drowning, weighted with gold; and a wife would be turning to stretch out her arms to – no one; and a wounded soldier wake out of a dream trench with sweat on his brow; and a newsvendor in his garret mutter hoarsely. By thousands the bereaved would be tossing, stifling their moans; by thousands the ruined would be gazing into the dark future; and housewives struggling with sums; and soldiers sleeping like logs – for to-morrow they died; and children dreaming of them; and prostitutes lying in stale wonder at the busyness of their lives; and journalists sleeping the sleep of the just. And over them all, in the moonlight that thought ‘The cursed war!’ flapped its black wings, like an old crow! “If Christ were real,” he mused, “He’d reach that moon down, and go chalking ‘Peace’ with it on every door of every house, all over Europe. But Christ’s not real, and Hindenburg and Harmsworth are!”

***

‘What humbugs we are!’ he thought: ‘To read the newspapers and the speeches you’d believe everybody thought of nothing but how to get killed for the sake of the future. Drunk on verbiage! What heads and mouths we shall all have when we wake up some fine morning with Peace shining in at the window! Ah! If only we could; and enjoy ourselves again!’

***

“How long have you been at the Front, monsieur?”

“Two years, mademoiselle. Time to go home and paint, is it not? But art – !” he shrugged his heavy round shoulders, his whole bear-like body. “A little mad,” he muttered once more. “I will tell you a story. Once in winter after I had rested a fortnight, I go back to the trenches at night, and I want some earth to fill up a hole in the ground where I was sleeping; when one has slept in a bed one becomes particular. Well, I scratch it from my parapet, and I come to something funny. I strike my briquet, and there is a Boche’s face all frozen and earthy and dead and greeny-white in the flame from my briquet.”

“Oh, no!”

“Oh! but yes, mademoiselle; true as I sit here. Very useful in the parapet – dead Boche. Once a man like me. But in the morning I could not stand him; we dug him out and buried him, and filled the hole up with other things. But there I stood in the night, and my face as close to his as this” — and he held his thick hand a foot before his face. “We talked of our homes; he had a soul, that man. ‘Il me disait des choses‘, how he had suffered; and I, too, told him my sufferings. Dear God, we know all; we shall never know more than we know out there, we others, for we are mad – nothing to speak of, but just a little, little mad. When you see us, mademoiselle, walking the streets, remember that.” And he dropped his face on to his fists again.

***

“He said, a strange thing,” murmured Noel; “that they were all a little mad.”

“He is a man of queer genius – Barra; you should see some of his earlier pictures. Mad is not quite the word, but something is loosened, is rattling round in them, they have lost proportion, they are being forced in one direction. I tell you, mademoiselle, this war is one great forcing-house; every living plant is being made to grow too fast, each quality, each passion; hate and love, intolerance and lust and avarice, courage and energy; yes, and self-sacrifice – all are being forced and forced beyond their strength, beyond the natural flow of the sap, forced till there has come a great wild luxuriant crop, and then – Psum! Presto! The change comes, and these plants will wither and rot and stink. But we who see Life in forms of Art are the only ones who feel that; and we are so few. The natural shape of things is lost. There is a mist of blood before all eyes. Men are afraid of being fair. See how we all hate not only our enemies, but those who differ from us. Look at the streets too – see how men and women rush together, how Venus reigns in this forcing-house. Is it not natural that Youth about to die should yearn for pleasure, for love, for union, before death?”

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Operations
January 16, 2015

Exercise Trident Juncture 2015 Academics

Trident Juncture 2015 (TRJE15) is a high visibility exercise that will showcase NATO on the world stage. It will take place from 28 September to 06 November in multiple locations across the Alliance including Italy, Portugal and Spain. Over 25,000 troops are expected to participate.

The purpose of TRJE15 is to train and test the NATO Response Force, a high readiness and technologically advanced force comprising of land, air, maritime and special forces units capable of being deployed quickly on operations wherever needed. The exercise represents the final step in the certification process for the command and control elements of the NRF for 2016 where JFC Brunssum will be the on-call Standby Command. The exercise will also allow Allies and partners the occasion to train, deploy and exercise in a complex and distributed environment.

This week from 12 till 16 January JFC Brunssum hosted a demanding and informative training program designed to establish the conceptual baseline underpinning TRJE15 participation. Amongst other topics the complicated crisis response scenario was briefed whilst, in particular, the opportunity was taken to: discuss lessons learned from previous exercises/missions; remind of the impact of a comprehensive approach; highlight the criticality of a sound legal framework; and debate the importance of strategic communications.

In his closing remarks General Hans-Lothar Domrőse, Command JFC Brunssum and designated Commander NRF 16, emphasised the vital importance of ensuring we have well trained People implementing efficient Processes that generate high quality Products which translate into appropriate and timely actions of forces.

Hurriyet Daily News
January 16, 2015

NATO Patriot air defense missiles arrive in Turkey

Naval ships carrying Patriot air defense missiles, a result of Turkey’s request for NATO assistance, arrived at the İskenderun port on Jan 9. DHA Photo

Defense missiles from Spain have arrived in the southern Turkish province of Hatay’s İskenderun port, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Naval ships carrying Patriot air defense missiles, a result of Turkey’s request for NATO assistance, arrived at the port on Jan. 9, officials stated.

The authorities have begun to unload the missiles from the military ships.

…The batteries will be deployed at the İncirlik 10th Tanker Base Command in the southern province of Adana.

In September, Spain decided to send Patriot air defense missiles to Turkey to replace withdrawing units from the Netherlands as part of NATO assistance. The Dutch will end their participation at the end of January.

The U.S., Germany and the Netherlands each sent two Patriot batteries in 2012 to bolster Turkish air defenseThe U.S. and German contingents will continue to remain in Turkey….

Germany’s Cabinet on Jan. 7 agreed to keep two German Patriot missile batteries in southern Turkey for another year, Reuters reported.

The mandate, which needs approval from the German Parliament, allows a maximum of 400 German soldiers to serve in NATO-member Turkey until January 2016.

The civil war in Syria is about to enter its fifth year, with unrest inside the country having started in March 2011 as an extension of the Arab Spring that kicked off in Tunisia before rapidly spreading to the whole region.

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