Thread: WORLD BRACES FOR WAR: Canada send Jetfighters to Poland to Bolster NATO Forces

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

The U.S. Army's New 84-Ton Tank Prototype Is Nearly IED-Proof [Updated]

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FOCUS if you will sir on the word 'PROTOTYPE.'

Hitler had many of them, 98% never saw battle.

As Army shrinks, young officers being pushed out

Associated Press
By LOLITA C. BALDOR 1 hour ago

As Army shrinks, young officers being pushed out
Associated Press
By LOLITA C. BALDOR 1 hour ago



FILE - This Nov. 7, 2013 file photo shows Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, young men and women joined the military to fight through the rugged mountains of Afghanistan and the dusty deserts of Iraq. Less than 10 years later, many of these young officers are captains in the Army with multiple combat deployments under their belts. But now, as the wars wind down and Pentagon budgets shrink, many are being told they have to leave. The process is painful and frustrating. In quiet conversations across Fort Bragg, N.C., and at Fort Eustas in Virginia, captains talked about their frustrations and their fears. And they nervously wait as their fates rest in the hands of evaluation boards that may spend only a few minutes reading through each service record before making the decision that may end their careers. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — After the 9/11 attacks, tens of thousands of young men and women joined the military, heading for the rugged mountains of Afghanistan and dusty deserts of Iraq.

Many of them now are officers in the Army with multiple combat deployments under their belts. But as the wars wind down and Pentagon budgets shrink, a lot of them are being told they have to leave.

It's painful and frustrating. In quiet conversations at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Eustis in Virginia, captains talk about their new worries after 15-month deployments in which they battled insurgents and saw roadside bombs kill and maim their comrades. They nervously wait as their fates rest in the hands of evaluation boards that may spend only a few minutes reading through service records before making decisions that could end careers.

During the peak war years, the Army grew to about 570,000, as commanders worked to fill combat brigades and support units to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands of newly minted officers came in during 2006-2008.

Already down to about 522,000, the Army must shrink to 490,000 by October 2015, and then to 450,000 two years later. If automatic budget cuts resume, the Army will have to get down to 420,000 — a size service leaders say may not allow them to wage even one major, prolonged military campaign.

While a lot of the reduction can come from voluntary retirements, resignations and decreased enlistments, Army commanders will have to force as many as 3,000 officers — nearly 10 percent of the planned decrease — to leave by the end of October 2015. Of those, nearly 1,500 are captains, 550 are majors.

Behind some of those big numbers are soldiers in their late 20s who will be forced out of their military careers long before retirement age and into the still struggling American job market. They would leave with honorable discharges, but without 20 years in the service they would not be eligible for retirement benefits.

"The captains are a problem," Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. "Because when we increased the size of the Army we recruited heavily in certain year groups. So as we draw the Army down, those are over strength."

The military has been through this before. In the years after Vietnam and during the 1990s as the Cold War thawed, the Pentagon pushed thousands of service members out the door, creating what some felt was a hollow military that lacked the soldiers, training and equipment needed to fight and win.

This time, Army leaders argue they're trying to do it right. They're not asking for volunteers, because too many good people leave. So they are combing through files, looking for soldiers with disciplinary or other problems in their annual evaluations — known as efficiency reports — to weed out lower-performing officers.

Col. Trevor Bredenkamp, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, said he talked to all of his majors who were in that group, and he had his battalion commanders talk to their captains.

"The challenge is there are about 8 percent that they will have to select that don't have any derogatory information in their file. So there will be some people that will say I don't know why I was selected," Bredenkamp said. "I'm telling people, hey, they're going to decide who they decide on, and if you've been working hard and doing a good job, by and large, the majority of you don't have to worry about it."

Capt. Fred Janoe, a battery commander with the 18th Fires Brigade at Fort Bragg, said the process may create a short-term decline in morale but will be positive in the long term.

"You keep your best performers and as an organization you're able to do more with less," Janoe said.

Sometimes, he said, "you see guys who just barely get by. I don't wish for anything bad to happen to them." But he added, "I grew up on a cattle ranch, and sometimes you cull the herd a little bit."

Other captains did not publicly discuss their concerns about impending separation. But there are broad concerns that when the young officers were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan during the peak war years, the attention paid to their evaluations may have slipped a bit and many of them got largely the same positive ratings. Some worry that a less than stellar relationship with one senior officer may doom their relatively short careers, while others say many lower performers got high marks while deployed, skewing the system.

Some officers have even found themselves in the odd position of being up for a promotion at the same time as they are being considered for separation, with both evaluation boards going on at about the same time.

Odierno said he recognizes the concerns and the Army is trying to go through the process carefully once it gets to the officers who don't have problems in their files.

"We're doing that a bit slower. I want to make sure that they have enough years where we can do a proper evaluation," he said. "We want to keep the best. We want it to be very competitive."

Once chosen for departure, the young officers will have two months to leave.

"We have an obligation to help them land softly on the outside of the Army," said Bredenkamp..

http://news.yahoo.com/army-shrinks-y...180314730.html

Originally Posted by HAPPY2BME

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FOCUS if you will sir on the word 'PROTOTYPE.'

Hitler had many of them, 98% never saw battle.

I very seriously doubt that anything Hitler did or didn't do in the past

has any correlation to what the U.S. Army will or won't do now.

U.S. says will act 'in days' if no Russian action in Ukraine
Reuters
By Doina Chiacu and Patricia Zengerle 14 hours ago

Biden in Kiev to announce U.S. aid package to Ukraine

By Doina Chiacu and Patricia Zengerle
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US demands 'concrete steps' by Moscow on Ukraine AFP
Russians sent to foment 'chaos' in east Ukraine: Kerry AFP
U.S. Secretary of State urges Russia to help implement Ukraine agreement Reuters
US warns Russia of 'additional consequences' over Ukraine AFP
Kerry to meet with top diplomats on Ukraine Associated Press

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States' government said on Monday it will decide "in days" on additional sanctions if Russia does not take steps to implement an agreement to ease tensions in Ukraine reached in Geneva last week.

The steps include publicly calling on pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine to vacate occupied buildings and checkpoints, accept an amnesty and address their grievances politically, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

"If they don't take steps in the coming days, there'll be consequences," she said at a Monday news briefing. "Obviously, we would have to make a decision in the matter of - in a matter of days - if there are going to be consequences for inaction."

Some U.S. lawmakers have been clamoring for President Barack Obama's administration to impose stiff new sanctions on Russia's energy industry and major banks to encourage President Vladimir Putin to withdraw troops from the Ukrainian border and discourage further Russian incursions into Ukrainian territory.

"I think it's time to move on the next round of sanctions," Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy told Reuters on Monday, although he added that he backed giving Moscow two to three days to implement the Geneva agreement.

"I think it is important to explore diplomatic solutions when they potentially become available," the Democratic chairman of the Senate's Europe subcommittee said in a telephone interview.

"The Russians were willing to sit down in Geneva for the first time across the table from their Ukrainian counterparts, I think that discussion was worthwhile. I don't think the jury is fully in on the Geneva agreement," he said.

'GOING TO LOSE EASTERN UKRAINE'

Some members of Congress have made it clear they do not believe sanctions already in place - such as travel restrictions on individuals announced by the Obama administration - will stop Moscow.

"I think we're going to lose eastern Ukraine if we continue as we are," U.S. Senator Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on NBC television's "Meet the Press" on Sunday.

Washington and Moscow each put the onus on the other to ensure tensions are eased in the worst confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

"If there's no progress, we remain prepared, along with our European and G-7 partners, to impose additional costs. So there'll need to be decisions made in a matter of days," Psaki said.

In a telephone call on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asked U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to "influence Kiev, not let hotheads there provoke a bloody conflict, and impel the current Ukrainian leadership to fulfill its obligations unflaggingly," Russia's Foreign Ministry said.

But Kerry said casting doubt on Ukraine's commitment to the accord "flies in the face of the facts," according to Psaki.

Ukraine has sent senior representatives to the east with representatives from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), put forth an amnesty bill for separatists to give up public buildings and weapons and called an Easter pause in military operations, Kerry said.

"He asked that Russia now demonstrate an equal level of commitment to the Geneva agreement in both its rhetoric and its actions," Psaki said, such as by sending its own senior representative to work with the OSCE.

Kerry also asked Russia to join the United States in seeking the release of Imra Krat, a Ukrainian journalist being held by pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country, she said.

(Additional reporting by Steve Gutterman in Moscow and Steve Holland and Patricia Zengerle in Washington; editing by G Crosse and; Bill Trott)

http://news.yahoo.com/u-says-act-day...210040700.html

The War on Antiwar Republicans - 'Rabid War Hawks Don't Want Competition'

The real issue is Jones’s willingness to stand against his party on foreign policy. A man from a military-heavy district with patriotic instincts, he initially supported the Iraq war and famously led the “freedom fries” campaign. He came to doubt the intelligence used to justify the war and turned sharply against it—and most of the subsequent military interventions pushed by the bipartisan establishment.

Bob Dole Talks About Starting World War Three

Former Senate Majority leader, presidential candidate and Republican establishment icon Bob Dole has come out in favor of sending the fascist junta in Ukraine weapons, including tanks.

“There are a lot of things we could do. We could give the poor Ukrainians some weapons,” Dole told about 75 people in Kansas. “I think I would first of all send some tanks and some weapons to help the Ukrainian people. Putin would understand then that we’re serious. Those would be consequences.”

Drudge Report

AMERICAN TROOPS ARRIVE IN POLAND...

Dutch Scramble Jets After Bombers Approach...

BRIT JETS CHASE OFF RUSSIAN SPY PLANES



RAF Jet Chases Russian Planes Away From UK

Two Russian planes are turned back as they approach Scotland, with jets from the Netherlands and Denmark also scrambled. Sky News



AMERICAN TROOPS ARRIVE IN POLAND...

RUSSIA WARGAMES UKRAINE...

Dutch Scramble Jets After Bombers Approach...


BRIT JETS CHASE OFF RUSSIAN SPY PLANES





http://drudgereport.com/

WND EXCLUSIVE

'Provocative' Putin reacts to U.S. presence

Puts U.S. warship on notice as Washington moves troops

Published: 22 hours ago
F. Michael Maloof, staff writer for WND and G2Bulletin, is a former senior security policy analyst in the office of the secretary of defense.

Vladimir Putin

WASHINGTON – Russian President Vladimir Putin has begun to react to subtle U.S. military deployments in the periphery of Russia.


The U.S. has sailed an Aegis anti-ballistic warship into the Black Sea, and the Pentagon announced Tuesday that U.S. troops would be sent for exercises in Eastern Europe to reassure allies on Russia’s border.

In an act deemed by the Pentagon as “provocative,” a Russian Sukhoi-24 fighter jet repeatedly buzzed the U.S.S. Donald Cook as low as 500 feet over a 90-minute period April 12 as the U.S. warship trolled the Black Sea in international waters near Crimea.

With enhanced Russian military presence in Crimea, the prospect of further provocations against ships and military aircraft from the U.S. and its partners of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is expected to increase, sources say.
In turn, such an episode would only increase Russian surveillance of Western military assets, possibly affecting their ability to conduct normal reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering operations.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is considering the deployment of up to 10,000 ground troops to Poland to show U.S. commitment to allied security in the area.
After a meeting with Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Poland would play a major role in the NATO buildup of troops in Eastern Europe “under U.S. patronage.”

Signaling a change in overall strategic defense policy, Hagel said the U.S. needs to “re-pivot back to Europe from Asia to confront “Russian aggression” in Ukraine.
One of the options for the U.S. is to move a 4,500-member combat brigade from Fort Hood, Texas, to Europe.

A forward contingent already is on the ground in Poland to oversee what may become a series of military exercises with NATO allies in the region. It’s a response to Putin’s apparent intention of taking over all of Ukraine and possibly other areas of Eastern Europe where there is a concentration of ethnic Russians.
The prospect has prompted concern among NATO countries in the region, which have assessed that the Russian military is stronger than all of their militaries combined. Consequently, the NATO members are hoping the U.S. will increase its presence to confront what they consider “Russian aggression.”

Regional sources have told WND that Putin’s motive is to set up buffer zones against the eastern encroachment of NATO, as Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia seek to join the Western alliance.

Putin, however, has reacted forcibly, in 2008 with the Russian invasion of Georgia and now the movement of Russian special forces into Crimea. The annexation of the peninsula came after a disputed referendum of its citizens, which are predominantly ethnic Russian.

The sources believe Putin will remain assertive in his determination to set up buffers while keeping out elements of NATO. For that reason, the Russian president last week reacted forcibly against the deployment of NATO anti-missile defenses, including the U.S.S. Cole, an Aegis-equipped missile warship, near Crimea.

Putin views the moves as a threat to the nuclear defenses of southwestern Russia, which include Crimea for the first time in Russia’s strategic doctrine.
The Cole actually was to head to the Ukrainian city of Odessa for a port call but canceled due to demonstrations and after Putin referred to the U.S. deployment as a threat.

The U.S. warship reportedly then pulled out of the area and headed toward Turkey and Georgia.

Russia expert John Helmer said that the use of the ships in the Black Sea is of particular concern to Putin.

A U.S. warship, the U.S.S. Mount Whitney, was in the Black Sea during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, to assist Putin in counter-terrorism activities. But it also secretly monitored Russian reaction to demonstrations in Ukraine at the time that led to the ouster of its pro-Russian president.

The Mount Whitney is described as a floating headquarters for NATO strike forces aimed at Russia. It was present in the Black Sea during the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia.

The ship has the capability of intercepting signals intelligence and listening in on Russian command communications.

According to Helmer, who said he was quoting European military observers, the actual purpose of the Mount Whitney during the Olympic Games was to monitor how far Putin’s attention was distracted by the Olympics “while the U.S. worked to transform the situation in Kiev, overthrowing the government of (Ukrainian) President Viktor Yanukovych, if it could.”

Putin was distracted by the Olympics, the Europeans believe, and so he was taken by surprise by the Feb. 21 coup in Kiev, prompting him to act first in Crimea to create the buffer against NATO.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/provocati...iedJLe6zcVm.99