Ondervraging Mark Milley, hoge generaal VS. Enkele bijzondere punten daaruit:
Er is veel animo in Europa voor het vestigen van extra permanente NAVO-bases in Europa:
"I believe a lot of our European allies, especially those such as in the Baltics or Poland or Romania or elsewhere, they are very, very willing to establish permanent bases," Milley said. "They'll build them, they'll pay for them, etc., for us to cycle through on a rotational basis. So you get the effect of permanent presence of forces, but the actual individual soldiers, sailors, airmen or Marines are not permanently stationed there for 2-3 years."
Austin said that NATO was still discussing how it should bolster its permanent presence in eastern Europe. "If NATO deems that it's appropriate to change its footprint, then certainly we'll be a part of that," Austin said.
Interessante vraag:
heeft de VS gefaald bij het proberen afhouden van Putin? Natuurlijk valt de man de strategie niet af die sinds Obama is ingezet, maar interessant is wat men denkt bij het hypothetische scenario dat de VS wel in UA gestationeerd zou zijn:
Several Republicans asked Milley and Austin whether the US failed in its efforts to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from attacking Ukraine. Milley responded that he did not think Putin could have been deterred unless US forces had deployed from Ukraine -- a scenario he would have advised against had it been proposed.
"Candidly, short of the commitment of US military forces into Ukraine proper, I'm not sure he was deterrable. This has been a long-term objective of his that goes back years," Milley said. "I think the idea of deterring Putin from invading Ukraine, deterring him by the United States, would have required the commitment of US military forces, and I think that would have risked armed conflict with Russia, which I certainly wouldn't have advised."
Over sancties:
Milley noted that sanctions "have a very poor track record of deterring aggression," but said they have succeeded in imposing significant costs to Russia for its aggression.
"The objective of the sanctions is to impose significant costs if he invaded, those significant costs, the sanctions in combination with the export controls, are breaking the back of the Russian economy as we speak," he said.
Terugkomend op het vraagstuk van VS boots in Oekraïne:
Austin later added that had the US "put forces into Ukraine to fight Putin, this would be a different story."
"But we made a decision that we weren't going to do that and we made the decision for the right reasons, and I support those decisions," Austin said, adding he did not want to speculate on what Chinese leaders might extrapolate from what's transpired in Ukraine as it related to Taiwan.
In ander nieuws: Orban krijgt de duimschroeven aangedraaid, naast bevriezen coronabudget nu ook reguliere EU-budget bevroren. Europese gelden verdwijnen in zakken van zijn vriendjes (die onder andere alle media beheren voor Orban).
Benieuwd aan wie hij zijn
ziel land gaat verkopen, het is in veel opzichten een leerling van Putin.