Obama's Charm Offensive Produces Nothing From NATO

The story still pathetically tells us how dazzled and awestruck Europeans are by this bumbling neophyte. Now weren't we told how much the world hated us while Bush was president and how loved we'd be once the glorious Age of Obamalot began?

Well it sure looks like we're getting less than ever from Europe. This would be considered a humiliating failure if it were anyone but Obama and the media just can't come out and tell the stark truth.

Barack Obama made an impassioned plea to America’s allies to send more troops to Afghanistan, warning that failure to do so would leave Europe vulnerable to more terrorist atrocities.

But though he continued to dazzle Europeans on his debut international tour, the Continent’s leaders turned their backs on the US President.

Gordon Brown was the only one to offer substantial help. He offered to send several hundred extra British soldiers to provide security during the August election, but even that fell short of the thousands of combat troops that the US was hoping to prise from the Prime Minister.

Just two other allies made firm offers of troops. Belgium offered to send 35 military trainers and Spain offered 12. Mr Obama’s host, Nicolas Sarkozy, refused his request.

The derisory response threatened to tarnish Mr Obama’s European tour, which yesterday included a spellbinding performance in Strasbourg in which he offered the world a vision of a future free of nuclear weapons.

Mr Obama – who has pledged 21,000 more troops to combat the growing insurgency and is under pressure from generals to supply up to 10,000 more – used the eve of Nato’s 60th anniversary summit to declare bluntly that it was time for allies to do their share. “Europe should not simply expect the United States to shoulder that burden alone,” he said. “This is a joint problem it requires a joint effort.”

So glad to see we're back in the good graces of Spain. That support of 12 troops is sure to be a fantastic help.

Funny thing, but when we went went into Iraq we had the support of 37 nations, but were constantly told it was a unilateral invasion. Now this bumpkin can hardly scare up a couple hundred troops, all the while still dazzling the Eurotrash.

What a joke.

Obama Humiliated: Key Kyrgyzstan Base To Be Shut Down

All that love the world was allegedly going to have for us has apparently disappeared after 17 days of glorious Hopenchange. While Barack Obama is busy releasing terrorists, our former allies are sticking a thumb in his eye by dealing us a key strategic blow in Asia.

Kyrgyzstan will not reverse its decision to close a U.S. air base on its territory that is key to American and NATO operations in Afghanistan, a top Kyrgyz security official said Friday.

The statement by Kyrgyzstan's National Security Council chief Adakhan Madumarov appeared to dash any U.S. hopes of securing a last-minute reprieve for the Manas air base, which is located just outside the capital of Bishkek.

"The fate of the air base has been sealed; there is no doubt the bill to revoke the basing agreement will be ratified," Madumarov told a news conference.

Parliament is due to consider a government-sponsored bill to close the base next week.

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev stunned Washington when he announced the closure of the base earlier this week after securing more than $2 billion in financial aid and credit from Russia.

Losing Manas now would pose a serious challenge to President Barack Obama's plan to send up to 30,000 more U.S. forces to fight surging Taliban and Al Qaeda violence in Afghanistan.

Good to see that Obama charm offensive paying dividens.

Stoking Putin's Paranoia

Heh. This should cause some lefty pointy-heads to explode.

U.S. warship in Russian-patrolled Georgian port
POTI, Georgia (Reuters) - The flagship of the U.S. Navy's Sixth Fleet dropped anchor off Georgia's Black Sea port of Poti on Friday, where Russian troops have been patrolling since last month's war with Georgia.

The USS Mount Whitney, a sophisticated command warship based in Italy, is the third U.S. vessel to arrive on the Georgian coast with humanitarian aid for tens of thousands displaced by the conflict over Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia.

The oil and dry grain shipment port of Poti is patrolled by Russian troops, who Moscow says are carrying out peacekeeping duties. Georgia and its Western allies say their presence is part of an illegal occupation.

The USS McFaul and a U.S. Coast Guard vessel delivered aid last month at Batumi, Georgia's largest port south of Poti, prompting Russian accusations of a military buildup.

Russian forces say they will carry out regular checks of cargo coming in and out of Poti. They man at least two positions close to access roads on the outskirts of the town.

The delivery of humanitarian aid by a U.S. warship has angered Russia, which has its own Black Sea fleet based in the Ukrainain port of Sevastapol.

A U.S. Navy statement said Mount Whitney would deliver more than 17 tons of aid, including blankets, juice, powdered milk and hygiene products.

Given the vast amount of cargo that can be transported, it would be ironic - and quite fitting - if the Pentagon dispatched the USS Ronald Reagan to assist in the humanitarian mission in Georgia.

Via Reuters

NATO's Aboard

Bush wins NATO nod on missile defense
President Bush won NATO's endorsement Thursday for his plan to build a missile defense system in Europe over Russian objections. The proposal also advanced with Czech officials announcing an agreement to install a missile tracking site for the system in their country.

Despite a setback in his drive to see NATO expanded further eastward to include Ukraine and Georgia, Bush vowed not to drop the issue.

"NATO's door must remain open to other nations in Europe that share our love for liberty and demonstrate a commitment to reform and seek to strengthen their ties with the trans-Atlantic community," Bush said in brief remarks at an alliance meeting. "We must give other nations seeking membership a full and fair hearing."

Fellow NATO leaders, fearing a clash with Moscow, rejected Bush's appeal to allow the former Soviet republics to get on a path toward membership. But Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said the president plans to make a new pitch before he leaves office in January. The United States expects to raise the matter at a meeting of NATO foreign minister in December, Hadley said.

The president expressed regret that NATO also declined to offer full membership at this meeting to Macedonia. The invitation was blocked by Greece, which says the country's name implies a territorial claim to a northern region of Greece, also called Macedonia.

"Macedonia's made difficult reforms at home," Bush said. "It is making major contributions to NATO missions abroad. The name issue needs to be resolved quickly so that Macedonia can be welcomed into NATO as soon as possible."

Albania and Croatia were invited to join the alliance, now currently at 26 members.

Progress on missile defense represented perhaps the biggest boon to Bush from the summit. Russia has strongly opposed the plan.

NATO leaders were adopting a communique stating that "ballistic missile proliferation poses an increasing threat to allied forces, territory and populations." It also will recognize "the substantial contribution to the protection of allies ... to be provided by the U.S.-led system," according to senior American officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the statement's release.

The statement calls on all NATO members to explore ways in which the planned U.S. project, to be based in Poland and the Czech Republic, can be linked with future missile shields elsewhere. It says leaders should come up with recommendations to be considered at their next meeting in 2009, the officials said.

Significantly, the document also calls on Russia to drop its objections to the system and to accept U.S. and NATO offers to cooperate on building it, the officials said.

The plan calls for 10 interceptor missiles based in Poland and a tracking radar site in the Czech Republic.

At a news conference in Bucharest on the sidelines of the NATO summit, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwartzenberg announced that negotiations with the Americans have been successfully completed and that a deal would be signed in early May. No U.S. official was in attendance, but the Czechs distributed a joint U.S.-Czech statement that said, "This agreement is an important step in our efforts to protect our nations and our NATO allies from the growing threat posed by the proliferation of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction."

The Poles have yet to agree to the plan. But in Warsaw on Thursday, talks picked up between Polish and U.S. officials about Bush's plan to put 10 interceptor missiles in Poland. As part of any deal, Poland wants aid from the United States in modernizing the Polish military.

The backing from NATO and the announcement with the Czechs provides Bush with a powerful leg up in his negotiations with Moscow over the issue.

Russia charges the intent of the system would be to weaken its nuclear deterrent capabilities and upset the balance of power in Europe. Bush has repeatedly denied that, saying the facilities are designed to protect Europe against a potential missile attack — or even just nuclear blackmail — by Iran. The dispute has become heated at times, with confrontational, Cold War-style rhetoric from Moscow.

Bush is seeing Russian President Vladimir Putin twice this week — during the NATO summit and in one-on-one meetings planned for this weekend in Sochi, Russia. White House officials have talked optimistically in recent days that the weekend meeting could break the missile defense logjam.

Bush has essentially rejected Russia's suggestion that the U.S. substitute an early warning radar in Azerbaijan for the Europe-based system. But U.S. officials have been working to come up with a list of concessions and assurances that could resolve Moscow's fears, such as offering to let Russia share in the information the system collects and promising not to activate it without a verifiable threat.

[....]

EU appeasement monkeys are seething.


Read it all at The AP/Yahoo!

Previously: Talking Down The NATO summit

Talking Down The NATO Summit

Take some European pacifism, add some aversion to the concept of national defense; stir well.

Now add some BDS . . . .

Europe Waits Out the Bush Administration
[....]

'Foundation of the Alliance'

Beginning this Wednesday, leaders of NATO states will meet in the Romanian capital Bucharest, where they will air differences that, in the assessment of the Berlin-based German Institute for International and Security Affairs, have long torn at the very "foundation of the alliance."

The agenda includes Afghanistan, a perpetual bone of contention, the expansion of the alliance eastward and the controversial plans for an American missile defense system. NATO is deeply divided on most issues. It appears former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was right after all, when he divided the continent into an "old" Western and a "new" Eastern Europe.

The Eastern Europeans valiantly defend American positions, while Western allies have long since written off US President George W. Bush, for whom the Bucharest NATO summit will be his last. "The Europeans are in a wait-and-see mood," says Stephen Larrabee of the Rand Corporation, an influential American think tank. "They want to wait out the Bush administration."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, of all people, stands at the head of those seeking to slow down NATO's plans. If Bush has his way, the alliance will be expanded to include more than just Croatia, Albania and Macedonia. A "membership action plan" has even been put in place to facilitate rapid entry into the alliance for Ukraine and Georgia.

Another Sensitive Project

Secretary General Scheffer and the Eastern Europeans support the plan, which has encountered bitter resistance in Moscow. "No Russian president can ever accept the NATO membership of Ukraine," says current President Vladimir Putin. Merkel supports his position, although for different official reasons.

As in not wanting to offend Vladimir Paranoid, Angie?

"Many Western European partners agree completely," said German defense expert and Green Party member Alexander Bonde after a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels. Bonde is convinced that they are hiding behind the Germans and are "confident that Ms. Merkel will remain resolute."

The Germans are also expected to try to delay another sensitive project: the Americans' controversial missile defense plan. Berlin diplomats have stated that the summit will "generally" support the Bush project to station 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar facility in the Czech Republic, the goal being to defend against Iranian missiles, if need be. But at Berlin's urging the triumphant announcements Washington wants will not happen.

So, other than fearing Putie, why are the Heinies lukewarm to the idea?

Because the American missiles cannot protect Europe completely, the United States wants to develop a second missile defense system -- at its partners' expense. This system would protect Turkey and Norway to the north against a nuclear threat from Iran, but it would also cost enormous sums of money. Experts estimate that it would require an increase in the German defense budget of at least €1 billion ($1.58 billion), leading to a total of more than €30 billion ($47.4 billion). Officials at the Chancellery say that this would not be politically feasible, prompting Berlin to postpone a decision on the second system.

And avoid 'offending' Vladimir Paranoid.

'German Combat Battalion in Kandahar'

These delaying tactics reflect the hope that a new US administration under Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton would not support the costly missile defense system as adamantly as Republican President Bush.

Given the Bolshevik Revolution within the New Democrat party, neither Obama nor Hillary will be the next White House occupant.

But even a new US president will not make things easier for Germany in Afghanistan. One thing that Bush and all of his potential successors have in common is the call for more German troops. They agree that what Obama calls the "dirty work" in the embattled south and east should no longer be left entirely to the Americans, Canadians, British and Dutch.

"The Americans," says a member of the staff of German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, a Christian Democrat, "are still dreaming of a German combat battalion in Kandahar." Scheffer, who shares their dreams, wants the remaining Europeans to deploy troops to the combat zones "in solidarity." According to Scheffer, there can be "no division of labor in which some specialize in fighting while others handle the cleanup work."

This is another area where Merkel is applying the brakes. She repeatedly insists that she is opposed to a "contest of dangerousness," and that Germany will stick to its deployment in the quieter north, even though, as she adds, "isolated assistance" elsewhere, "when friends are in need," is a matter of course.

The north can also be dangerous, as the German military, the Bundeswehr, experienced only last week near Kunduz. Three soldiers were injured, two seriously, when the force from the explosion of a Taliban explosive device swept their "Dingo" armored vehicle off the road.

The French Show

In response to pressure from the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), government experts' deliberations on whether to significantly expand Germany's Afghanistan mandate have been placed on ice for the time being. The Bavaria-based sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) is anxious not to enter into such a politically risky proposition before its state parliamentary elections in September. Even Bush understands the domestic political pressures faced by the Merkel administration, a relieved German diplomat reported from Washington. "We will not be pilloried in Bucharest," the diplomat said.

By contrast, French President Nicolas Sarkozy now plans to make a show of France's efforts in Afghanistan. Paris diplomats in Brussels have announced that the president wants to send 1,000 regular troops and 200 members of the special forces to support the US in the east and Canada in the south. There are currently about 1,500 French soldiers in Afghanistan, most of them stationed in relatively calm Kabul.

NATO will finalize two documents on Afghanistan in Bucharest. One is meant for the public and describes in general, superficial terms the goal of "self-supporting stability." The other document, a "political and military plan of action," is to remain confidential.

The secret document is based on ideas that Defense Minister Jung presented to his counterparts last fall "as part of an exit strategy." Jung spoke at length about "networked security" and reconstruction, while the "fight against the insurgents" was generally mentioned as an aside. The US's priorities, so far, have been precisely the reverse.

Precarious Situation

The secret compromise document now contains a graduated plan intended to enable NATO to eventually pull out its troops. The document specifies dates by which Kabul is to satisfy certain requirements for drug enforcement and the development of a justice system, and which regions NATO could gradually turn over to Afghan forces.

But neither the Germans nor the Americans and British are interested in setting too specific a timetable. Berlin fears that this would force it to enlarge its NATO contingent and send additional war material, like helicopters, to Afghanistan. The Americans, British and Canadians are hesitant to announce a fixed withdrawal date. Because of the precarious situation in the east and south, they would probably be the last to bring their soldiers home.

If one thing is certain, it is that the NATO Secretary General's dream of transforming the 2009 anniversary summit into a conflict-free, visionary and harmonious meeting will not come true.

The Americans would have preferred to celebrate in Berlin, but Sarkozy wants to celebrate his country's return to the military structures of NATO, from which the French armed forces removed themselves in 1966 at the behest of President Charles de Gaulle.

The anniversary summit, which is now to be held in Strasbourg and its smaller German neighbor across the Rhine River, Kehl, is unlikely to last very long in the first place. French diplomats recently insisted that the Bucharest meeting, initially planned for three full days, be shortened to no more than 48 hours. President Sarkozy's "capacity," astonished NATO diplomats were told, is "limited to two days."

Never misunderestimate a Fwenchman's delusions of grandeur.

Via Spiegel International

Czechs Thumb Their Noses At Putie -- Again

Talks on U.S. radar completed
Czech and U.S. representatives have completed the talks on the planned U.S. radar base on Czech soil that were launched a year ago, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek (Civic Democrats, ODS) said in an interview for today's issue of the daily Hospodarske noviny (HN).

Topolánek said only the venue where the treaty would be signed must yet be agreed on.

"I have information that the major problems might have been solved in the main treaty. Nothing prevents us from potentially declaring at the NATO summit in Bucharest the possibility to sign it," Topolánek told HN.

He added that the last "three words" that were not clear during his February visit to Washington have already been agreed on.

The U.S. radar base is to be located at the Brdy military district, some 90 km southwest of Prague. The radar and a planned base for ten interceptor missiles in Poland are to be elements of the U.S. missile defence shield that is to protect the United States and a large part of Europe against missiles that states like Iran might launch.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg (for Greens) told public Czech Television (CT) on Sunday that agreement has not yet been reached on one article concerning the environment in the treaty.

The Czech and U.S. delegations should go to the April NATO summit in Bucharest with agreed conditions on the radar base re-location to the Czech Republic to be able to negotiate NATO's support for the missile defence shield, HN writes.

It says such support is primarily significant for the Czech government to persuade the radar opponents in the country where the left-wing opposition as well as some 70 percent of the public are against the project.

The junior ruling Greens condition their nodding to the radar exactly by NATO's support .

Topolánek said he is sure that NATO would support the project in the summit's final resolutions.

"The discussion is only about the verb - we expect, welcome. Everything else is concealed in the NATO analyses. No one doubts that this system is necessary," Topolanek told HN.

Schwarzenberg said on Sunday the bilateral treaties on the stationing of a U.S. missile defence base in the Czech Republic might be signed in early May.

Topolánek stressed in HN that the second bilateral treaty to create a legal framework for the stay of U.S. soldiers in the Czech Republic must yet be tuned up.

Heh. The diplomacy of Vladimir Paranoid appears to be failing.

The Good Neighbor Policy Of Vladimir Paranoid

Russia Could 'Point Warheads' at Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters on Tuesday that Russia could aim missiles at Ukraine if leaders in Kiev decide to join NATO and host part of the alliance's controversial anti-missile shield.

He made the warning at a news conference in Moscow after a meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko that settled a long dispute over the price of natural gas.

NATO membership has been a hot issue within Ukraine recently, and Putin waded into the debate with ambiguous language, saying the decision was Ukraine's business but might raise a "question for Russia of the need for retaliatory actions."

He went on: "It's frightening not just to talk about, but even to think about, that in response to such deployment, the possibility of such deployments -- and one can't theoretically exclude these deployments -- that Russia will have to point its warheads at Ukrainian territory."

The statement was the clearest warning so far that Russia would resist the march of NATO membership to the Black Sea.

Yushchenko countered by saying that Ukraine has the right to determine its own foreign and defense policies, adding that the Ukrainian constitution prohibits the deployment of foreign bases on its territory.

"You understand well that everything that Ukriane does in this direction is not in any way directed at any third country, including Russia," he said.

Power Games Old and New

Relations between Russia and its former Soviet satellites have been difficult since the end of the Cold War, and in recent years Russia's state-run energy monopolies, like Gazprom, have emphasized their power over its impoverished neighbors (more...) by ending a long era of cheap, subsidized oil and natural gas.

Two years ago Gazprom turned off gas supplies to Ukraine in the middle of a hard winter to insist on a steep price increase. European critics noted that the move looked political (more...), because it followed the pro-Western Orange Revolution that swept Yushchenko to power and steered Ukrainian politics away from Moscow.

It's not nice to dis kameraden Putie.

Kremlin leaders announced separately on Tuesday that Putin would accept an invitation to attend a NATO summit in Romania this April. By then he'll be out of office as president, but the missile shield idea -- a US project extended to allies in Europe under NATO auspices -- has made him prickly about western influence in Russia's former backyard. He's said the presence of missile-defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic would be a threat to Russian security.

Vladimir Paranoid is more of a threat to Russia's security than any missile-defense sites.

A Kiev-based political analyst, Oleksiy Haran, said Putin's posture was anachronistic. "This (warhead) statement was made in the spirit of the Cold War," he told the Associated Press, adding that Putin probably wanted to stoke anti-NATO sentiment within Ukraine and possibly within Russia, where voters will elect a new president on March 2.

Stoke Russian anti-NATO sentiment prior to a free and democratic election; the same election with the guaranteed outcome of Dmitry Medvedev becoming the next president?

Classic paranoia, baby.

Via Spiegel International

On Winning Friends And Influencing People

Russia rattles its depleted sabre in the Atlantic
By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow

The Kremlin has flexed its military might off the European coastline as Russian warships and nuclear bombers test fired missiles close to the Iberian peninsula during the first major military manouevres in the Atlantic since the Cold War.

The RAF and the Norwegian Air Force were forced to scramble fighter jets to shadow Russian long-range bombers headed for the Bay of Biscay where vessels from the Northern and Black Sea fleets have begun three days of exercises.

The manouevres are the latest indication of Soviet premier President Vladimir Putin's intent to project Russia's growing military prowess to the international community and to pander to growing nationalist sentiment at home.

The Russian Air Force said that two Tu160 bombers, known in the West as Blackjacks, would conduct tactical missile launches off the Spanish and Portugese coastlines. Both countries, Russia said, had been informed in advance.

Earlier, the guided missile cruiser Moskva, flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, took part in a live fire exercise that a navy spokesman said was 100 per cent successful.

Although Russia gave warning of the exercises to Nato countries last year, the operation is likely to cause an element of disquiet in the West - albeit more for political than military reasons.

As East-West relations have soured, Mr Putin responded last year by ordering a resumption of long-range bomber patrols in international airspace for the first time since the Soviet era.

He also threatened to retrain part of Russia's considerable nuclear arsenal on European targets if a proposed US missile defence shield, to be built in Poland and the Czech Republic by 2012, is not scrapped.

Yet for all the posturing, Russia still carries a small stick militarily - big enough to impress ordinary Russians at a time when Mr Putin is plotting to retain power behind the scenes after elections this March but too puny to frighten the West just yet.

While the president has sharply increased defence spending and commissioned a new generation of nuclear missiles, Russia's defence budget is a tenth of the United States' and is also smaller than Britain.

The Atlantic exercises - described by a Russian navy source as "the biggest exercise of its kind in the area since Soviet times" - have also shown that Russia's conventional military hardware remain in a sorry state.

For unexplained reasons, a number of ships meant to participate stayed at home and those that did sail are in poor condition. The Moskva is 30 years old, while the Admiral Kuznetzov, Russia's rickety aircraft carrier, spends much of its time in dry docks undergoing repairs.

In a token gesture of East-West co-operation, the French navy has agreed to send an anti-submarine frigate to join the exercises. The Russian flotilla had earlier docked in Toulon.

Given Toulon's status of being a major French naval installation, I'm sure the Soviet Russian high command arranged this visit for purely altruistic reasons - a cultural exchange, so to speak.

While Russia's military prowess may still be dubious, its growing status as an energy superpower is not. Russia and Serbia yesterday agreed a pipeline deal that will boost Moscow's energy control over Europe.

Last week a similar deal was agreed with Bulgaria.

Via The Telegraph

The Bush administration's Russian expert was too busy plotting the demise of Israel to comment.

Report: West Must Be Ready for Pre-emptive Nuclear Attack

Boy, the no nukes crowd is going to freak out when they get wind of this.

As I scan the names authoring this report, I don't see a single rabid, rightwing, neocon warhawk anywhere to be found.

In fact, one of them was appointed Chair of the Joint Chiefs by (gasp!) Bill Clinton.

Maybe at the next Democrat debate the moderator could ask Clinton's boss what she thinks of this.

The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists.

Calling for root-and-branch reform of Nato and a new pact drawing the US, Nato and the European Union together in a "grand strategy" to tackle the challenges of an increasingly brutal world, the former armed forces chiefs from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands insist that a "first strike" nuclear option remains an "indispensable instrument" since there is "simply no realistic prospect of a nuclear-free world".

Can you just imagine the reaction from the solons at the UN over this?

Just imagine. Their cravenly feckless approach toward Iran, the years of appeasement, could simply be washed away by the civilized Western world sobering up and taking the logical approach to the nuclear proliferation of rogue Islamic nations.

The manifesto has been written following discussions with active commanders and policymakers, many of whom are unable or unwilling to publicly air their views. It has been presented to the Pentagon in Washington and to Nato's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, over the past 10 days. The proposals are likely to be discussed at a Nato summit in Bucharest in April.

Such views and opinions--the desire to preserve mankind--are considered radical, and those who have such views are now afraid to even publicly express it.

"The risk of further [nuclear] proliferation is imminent and, with it, the danger that nuclear war fighting, albeit limited in scope, might become possible," the authors argued in the 150-page blueprint for urgent reform of western military strategy and structures. "The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction."

Read the rest.

Here are the authors:

John Shalikashvili: The US's top soldier under Bill Clinton and former Nato commander in Europe, Shalikashvili was born in Warsaw of Georgian parents and emigrated to the US at the height of Stalinism in 1952. He became the first immigrant to the US to rise to become a four-star general. He commanded Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq at the end of the first Gulf war, then became Saceur, Nato's supreme allied commander in Europe, before Clinton appointed him chairman of the joint chiefs in 1993, a position he held until his retirement in 1997.

Klaus Naumann: Viewed as one of Germany's and Nato's top military strategists in the 90s, Naumann served as his country's armed forces commander from 1991 to 1996 when he became chairman of Nato's military committee. On his watch, Germany overcame its post-WWII taboo about combat operations, with the Luftwaffe taking to the skies for the first time since 1945 in the Nato air campaign against Serbia.

Lord Inge: Field Marshal Peter Inge is one of Britain's top officers, serving as chief of the general staff in 1992-94, then chief of the defence staff in 1994-97. He also served on the Butler inquiry into Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and British intelligence.

Henk van den Breemen: An accomplished organist who has played at Westminster Abbey, Van den Breemen is the former Dutch chief of staff.

Jacques Lanxade:A French admiral and former navy chief who was also chief of the French defence staff.

Euro-Socialists: We'd Rather Die Than Accept American Help

Proving once again socialism is a mental disorder.

Central Europe Socialists reject U.S. missile shield

Central European Social Democrat parties rejected on Thursday a U.S. plan to build part of its missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying it threatened to bring about a new arms race.

Top Socialists from Germany, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia said after talks in Prague that any such system must not be built unilaterally or bilaterally.

"We are concerned about the decision to deploy the system and are at one with the large majority of our populations in rejecting it," the parties said in a joint statement, which was signed among others by Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, Germany's SPD chief Kurt Beck, and Polish Socialist leader Wojciech Olejniczak.

They called on the European Union, the NATO alliance and the NATO-Russia council to consult on missile defense.

Beck said the statement was also a message to conservative German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with whom the Socialists jointly rule.

"We agreed we are against any new arms build-up in Europe," Beck said.

The ruling Hungarian Socialists attended the meeting but refused to join in.

"The Hungarian Socialist Party believes that if Europe is exposed to a terrorist threat we have to defend ourselves," said Imre Szekeres, deputy party chief and the country's defense minister.

I'm sure the terrorists are quaking in fear of the Hungarian Socialists.

This odd mindset of leaving yourself vulnerable because you fear an arms race is something I can't quite grasp.

If you protect yourself, that should lessen the fear of an attack, since your enemies will build arms regardless of what you do.

No wonder Socialism has crept toward the dustbin of history. The shame is there are still enough idiots practicing it.

Well, There They Go Again

Although Old Europe wet its panties, New Europe is relatively unfazed by the recent bluff and bluster of Soviet Russian president Vladimir Paranoid.

Russia backs out of arms treaty
Russia’s decision to withdraw from a Cold War–era weapons treaty is directly tied to plans to host part of the U.S. missile-defense system in the Czech Republic, one analyst says.

“Russia feels threatened,” said Vít Beneš, a researcher at Prague’s Institute of International Relations. “I think the link is quite clear. … Russia is trying probably to blackmail Europe.”

The 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) agreement restricts the arms member countries can amass and was a major factor in bringing the Cold War to a close.

On July 13, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree withdrawing Russia. According to a statement released through Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry July 14, the pullout resulted from “exceptional circumstances” and will take effect in 150 days.

Exceptional circumstances such as cancelling elections, Putie?

[....]

Despite its role in Russia’s decision, the Czech Republic will not react on its own, said Defense Ministry spokesman Andrej Círtek. “We will negotiate our reaction as a member of NATO,” he said. “There won’t be any individual reaction on the part of one member country.”

[....]

[....]

Despite the symbolism of Russia’s decision, it is unlikely to threaten the Czech Republic and other NATO members, at least in the short term, Beneš said. “It’s more about rhetoric than about a real security threat.”

Pssst, Putie! Those upstart Czechs are telling you to STFU -- again.

Another Setback in Taliban's Spring Offensive

At least two dozen more subhumanoids were iced in Afghanistan. That vaunted spring offensive the Taliban promised just doesn't seem to ever materialize.

KABUL, Afghanistan — A gunbattle and airstrikes killed an estimated two dozen Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, the U.S.-led coalition said Tuesday.

The Taliban fighters attacked Afghan and coalition troops with rockets and gunfire Monday in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province, sparking a four-hour battle, a coalition statement said. Fighter aircraft bombed three enemy positions, it said.

The statement said "an estimated two dozen enemy fighters" were killed during the battle, but gave no further details on the casualty toll.

Roadside bombs, meanwhile, killed two Afghan soldiers and wounded five others in two incidents in southern Afghanistan on Monday, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

Also Monday, a roadside bomb injured two soldiers in the eastern province of Khost, said Wazir Pacha, spokesman for the provincial police chief.

Taliban Leader Killed in Airstrike

Always welcome news.

KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO-led forces killed a senior Taliban leader with a precision airstrike near a southern Afghan town overrun by militants, a spokesman for the alliance said Sunday.

Col. Tom Collins said the airstrike near Musa Qala on Sunday morning killed a senior Taliban leader riding in a car.

Musa Qala on Thursday was overrun by an estimated 200 Taliban fighters who disarmed local police, ransacked the district center and hoisted their trademark white flag.

I thought the French and the Democrats trademarked the white flag?

Collins didn't immediately name the person killed in the strike, but Mohammad Wali, a Musa Qala resident, said the airstrike killed a Taliban leader named Mullah Abdul Gafoor and some of his associates while they were riding in a truck through a small village just outside Musa Qala.

No word on whether any wedding receptions happened to be occuring in the exact location of the airstrike. But give it time.