Understanding Russia’s Concept for Total War in Europe

This great article is well worth your time reading in full at the source. The only thing it’s missing out of the entire piece is that a ‘resurgent’ Russia is not resurgent. It has always been there biding its time.

To further explain, it had purposely laid low since it’s engineered fall, otherwise known as the Perestroika Deception, allowing for America to overplay its hand in many ways and allow for the Russians to hang it with the rope the Americans sold them. The third world war, the Cold War, never went away. It went into a new deception phase which is nearing its end now. It’s goal is to supplant the American global hegemon.

How did this happen? It’s rather simple: For decades America was fed Red Cocaine, consequently became dumbed down as a result, and easily sold New Lies for Old.

 

Russia perceives itself as surrounded by enemies, and that the strategic depth that has been its principal security must be restored. In this sense, no territory is more significant than Ukraine. Russian leadership also worries about the erosion of a zone around Russia’s borders where politically dangerous ideas can be stifled before they undermine the regime’s hold on power.

Russia’s leadership believes it can stem this erosion and achieve its objectives by combining organized military violence with economic, political, and diplomatic activity, a combination called new generation warfare (NGW). NGW is a concept for fighting total war in Europe, across all fronts—political, economic, informational, cyber—simultaneously through fear and intimidation without launching a large-scale attack. If fighting is required, it is highly networked and multi-directional. The stakes can be raised rapidly, possibly without limit.

President Vladimir Putin is confident in this approach because he sees U.S. hesitation as opportunity and believes the U.S. is overly dependent on military responses. Thus, NGW is designed to avoid giving the U.S. and other adversaries a reason to respond using military force. The U.S. needs to broaden its response portfolio to include political, diplomatic, economic, financial, cyber, covert, and other means coordinated into a comprehensive approach to counter the NGW strategy. Russia has brought total war back to Europe—in a hidden, undeclared, and ambiguous form. Failure to confront Russian opportunism will validate Putin’s approach.

Russian President Vladimir Putin trying to destroy NATO: US commander

NATO is already half destroyed. One attack on a small NATO member such as Lithuania means Article 5 is invoked, which means a risk of nuclear war. Having said that, military leaders realize this risk and with the Obama administration in the White House, expect NATO to do nothing and stand down. The most that will happen is strong condemnation on television screens and maybe an angry letter written to Putin. When this takes place, that will be the nail in the coffin for NATO.

The result would be a disaster. NATO would dissolve over night. When NATO is gone, the United States will get kicked out of an already impatient Europe that wanted to give it the boot a long time ago. That means Europe will rise on its own with its own European Army or join Russia in an alliance.

Although he’s unlikely to go as far as invading Poland, in general, this is exactly what Putin is banking on and what he’s likely to do in some shape or form.

The Soviets are prepared attack as far as Poland 30 minutes before NATO personnel can even get out of bed. NATOs own leaders admit it’s not even ready and that Putin is likely to take action in the Baltic states. It’s not difficult to see militarily who the winner might be, or politically after the fallout.

 

The commander of the United States army in Europe has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of seeking to destroy NATO, and accused Russia of having 12,000 troops inside eastern Ukraine.

Speaking to military and political leaders in Berlin, Lieutenant-General Frederick “Ben” Hodges said Russia could seek to use the sort of “hybrid warfare” seen in eastern Ukraine against a NATO member to test the alliance. “I am sure Putin wants to destroy our alliance, not by attacking it but by splintering it,” he said.

He warned that Mr Putin could try to destabilise a NATO member by using a rebel militia as in eastern Ukraine, or other forms of “ambiguous” warfare.

Ukraine crisis: House of Lords criticises EU and Britain for ‘sleepwalking into crisis’ as Moscow and Nato remain on diplomatic collision course

France and Germany, which had brokered the Minsk accord last week, were yesterday trying to hold together the increasingly fragile ceasefire in Ukraine amid reports that fighting was spreading once again. Kremlin-backed separatists and Cossack fighters triumphantly paraded through the shattered town of Debaltseve, a strategic point they had captured in the past 48 hours.