{"id":161293,"date":"2015-06-23T12:15:07","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T12:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=161293"},"modified":"2015-06-23T12:15:07","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T12:15:07","slug":"nato-russia-collision-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/nato-russia-collision-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"NATO-Russia Collision Ahead?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>&#8220;U.S. Poised to Put Heavy Weaponry in East Europe: A Message to Russia,&#8221;<br \/>\nran the headline in <i>The New York Times<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In a significant move to deter possible Russian aggression in Europe,<br \/>\nthe Pentagon is poised to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and<br \/>\nother heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 American troops in several Baltic and<br \/>\nEastern European countries,&#8221; said the Times. The sources cited were &#8220;American<br \/>\nand allied officials.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Pentagon\u2019s message received a reply June 16. Russian Gen. Yuri Yakubov<br \/>\ncalled the U.S. move &#8220;the most aggressive step by the Pentagon and NATO<br \/>\nsince the Cold War.&#8221; When Moscow detects U.S. heavy weapons moving into<br \/>\nthe Baltic, said Yakubov, Russia will &#8220;bolster its forces and resources<br \/>\non the western strategic theater of operations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, Moscow will outfit its missile brigade in Kaliningrad, bordering<br \/>\nLithuania and Poland, &#8220;with new Iskander tactical missile systems.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe Iskander can fire nuclear warheads.<\/p>\n<p>The Pentagon and Congress apparently think Vladimir Putin is a bluffer and,<br \/>\nfaced by U.S. toughness, will back down.<\/p>\n<p>For the House has passed and Sen. John McCain is moving a bill to provide Ukraine<br \/>\nwith anti-armor weapons, mortars, grenade launchers and ammunition. The administration<br \/>\ncould not spend more than half of the $300 million budgeted, unless 20 percent<br \/>\nis earmarked for offensive weapons.<\/p>\n<p>Congress is voting to give Kiev a green light and the weaponry to attempt a<br \/>\nrecapture of Donetsk and Luhansk from pro-Russian rebels, who have split off<br \/>\nfrom Ukraine, and Crimea, annexed by Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>If the Pentagon is indeed moving U.S. troops and heavy weapons into Poland<br \/>\nand the Baltic States, and is about to provide arms to Kiev to attack the rebels<br \/>\nin East Ukraine, we are headed for a U.S.-Russian confrontation unlike any seen<br \/>\nsince the Cold War.<\/p>\n<p>And reconsider the outcome of those confrontations.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/original.antiwar.com\/buchanan\/2015\/06\/22\/nato-russia-collision-ahead\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;U.S. Poised to Put Heavy Weaponry in East Europe: A Message to Russia,&#8221; ran the headline in The New York Times. &#8220;In a significant move to deter possible Russian aggression in Europe, the Pentagon is poised to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 American troops in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-161293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}