Pentagon alarmed by Turkey’s plan to buy Russian S-400 air defense system

Russian S-400 air defense system

 

The United States has raised concerns over NATO ally Turkey’s plan to purchase an advanced air defense system from Russia.

Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis told a press briefing in Washington on July 31 that the S-400 system Turkey plans to buy may have inconsistencies with other equipment used by NATO.

NATO’s new SACEUR issues Russia warning

NATO’s new military commander warned on 28 July that Russia’s increasing military transformation meant NATO nations need to modernise and invest in defence.

Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, General Mike Scaparrotti, Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), described Russia’s military as impressive. He said Moscow had managed to overcome problems and seriously strengthen its military in just a few years.

U.S. Intel: Turkey’s purge of military has undercut U.S. operations against ISIL

U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says Turkey’s purge of military leaders is hurting efforts to defeat the Islamic State militant group.

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Clapper and U.S. Central Command chief General Joseph Votel said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on July 28 that the purge had swept aside many Turkish officers who assisted the United States in its efforts to defeat IS, and landed some of them in jail.

US National Intelligence Chief: Russia Could ‘Drive Wedge’ Between Turkey, NATO

As the United States suicides itself into the dustbin of history, the Turks would indeed enjoy the safeguards of the Sino-Soviet axis over the American-NATO umbrella protectorate. He’s also late to the party in realizing that Russia has already driven a wedge between NATO and Turkey.

 

US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper claims that Russia may use the aftermath of the failed coup attempt in Turkey to come between Turkey and its NATO allies.

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“I think Putin, being the opportunist that he is, if he can see a way to drive a wedge between Turkey and the west, specifically Turkey and NATO, he will,” Clapper stated at the Aspen Security Forum.

Passivity in the Face of Big-Power Aggression

• The West has developed reasonable-sounding rationales for not acting in the face of what is clearly aggression by big powers. That inaction has bought peace, but the peace has never been more than temporary.
• Officials in Beijing and Moscow believe their countries should be bigger than they are today. Faced with little or no resistance, China and Russia are succeeding in redrawing their borders by force.
• Should we be concerned by a nuclear-armed, hostile state falling apart? Of course, but we should be more worried by a hostile state launching nuclear attacks on the Baltics, as the Kremlin has repeatedly threatened to do.
• The Chinese and Russians may be villains, but it is we, through inaction, who have permitted them to be villainous. The choice is no longer risk versus no risk. The choice is which awful risk to assume.

Speaking in April at the Aspen Security Forum in London, Douglas Lute, Washington’s permanent representative to NATO, said:

“So essentially there is a sense that, yes, there is a new more assertive, maybe even more aggressive Russia, but that fundamentally Russia is a state in decline. We have conversations in NATO headquarters about states in decline and arrive at two fundamental models: states in rapid decline which typically lead to chaos and breakdown, and states in gradual decline. Then we ask ourselves: Which of these two tracks would we rather have our nearest, most militarily capable neighbor, with thousands of nuclear weapons, move along? To many, trying to manage Russia’s decline seems more attractive than a failed state of that size and magnitude right on the border of NATO.”

Veteran Marine Corps General: U.S. in a ‘Stalemate’ with Islamic State Terrorists

The veteran general nominated to lead the Marine Corps characterized the U.S. campaign against Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria as a “stalemate,” contradicting previous assertions from the Obama administration.

Fox News reported that, while undergoing questioning from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R., Ariz.), Lt. Gen. Robert Neller said of the U.S.-led air campaign against IS (also known as ISIL or ISIS) in the region, “I believe they are in a stalemate right now.”

Indeed, the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies concluded last week that the administration’s bomb campaign to scale back IS launched last year yielded no perceivable degradation of the terrorist organization’s forces. An unnamed defense official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said that U.S. intelligence has “seen no meaningful degradation in their numbers.”

China’s New Islands Are Clearly Military, U.S. Pacific Chief Says

Adm. Harry Harris, head of U.S. Pacific Command, says the vastly expanded reefs now look exactly like combat bases for fighters, bombers, ships, and surveillance.

ASPEN, Colo. – The top U.S. military officer in the Pacific sternly warned China on Friday to immediately cease its “aggressive coercive island building” in the South China Sea, which he argued was intended clearly for China’s military use as forward operating bases in combat against their regional neighbors.

Adm. Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, said the U.S. would use military force to defend its interests and its allies against any threats from the islands.

Chinese Missile Forces Pose Threat to U.S. in Future Conflict

ASPEN, Colo.—China’s advanced cruise and ballistic missiles pose a significant threat in future conflict with the United States, the chief of naval operations (CNO) warned last week.

Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the CNO, also said during a security conference Friday that China is building a second aircraft carrier that could be deployed in the not too distant future.

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Asked what Chinese weapons systems he is most concerned about if the United States went to war with China, Greenert noted Beijing’s growing arsenal of cruise and ballistic missiles.

“They have an extraordinary selection of cruise missiles, and a ballistic missile force that they developed,” Greenert told the Aspen Security Forum.

If the conflict were close to China, the missile forces would pose the most serious threat, he said.

“If it’s in their backyard, I’m a little worried about their ballistic missile [force] because of its reach,” Greenert said.

DHS Anticipated 60,000 Illegal Child Border Crossers in January

ASPEN, Colo.—DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson confirmed Thursday that the Obama administration in January anticipated a surge of some 60,000 illegal children crossing the Southwest Border.

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“It was apparent to me then that the Rio Grand valley sector of the Southwest border needed to be an area of particular concern,” Johnson said during remarks at the Aspen Security Forum.

“In January, in our budget process, we estimated that we were going to have 60,000 unaccompanied kids coming in,” he said, noting that resources for the influx were “ramped up.”

The border crisis grew worse during the period between March, April, and May when “unprecedented levels” of children crossed the border, he said. The surge peaked with thousands of illegals reaching the U.S. border in early June.

American, European Jihadists in Syria Raise New Domestic Terror Fears

We’ve been warned time and time again that thousands upon thousands are already here.

Wave of terror could result from training, expertise gained in fighting with al Qaeda rebels

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Several thousand foreign terrorists, as well as Americans, are joining the Islamist faction of the now-divided Syrian rebels battling the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.