Obama was hopelessly outmaneuvered in Syria, which he still dumps money into today. He is even more so outdone in the Ukraine now. Still, a Naval battle group is deploying to the region.
AFGHANISTAN
Here's a bit from the Bilateral
Security Agreement hold-up between US and Afghanistan that you won't
likely see or hear in the news. President Karzai has stated that
those same forces which were welcomed into his country to fight the
taliban have been bombarding the civilians. That is to say, there
have been a large number of drone strikes into civilian populations
to take out a few terrorist targets for the Obama administration.
Karzai wants to be reassured, and
rightly so, that the bases he provides to the US in Afghanistan, will
not be used to launch attacks against the law abiding citizens of his
country.
The fall back and punt option that is
being relied on, as the decision that has been made without being
made, is Operation Resolute Support 2015. In short, this is where US
and NATO forces stay on bases and train and advise Afghan forces in
security operations so that they can have their country completely
under their command. US forces are still there, at minimum numbers,
and on bases.
THE UKRAINE
Meanwhile, in the Ukraine –
translates to The Borderlands – Russian President Putin is afraid
of revolt taking place across Soviet bloc countries. Particularly in
the Ukraine which is the cradle of Russian civilization. Putin, who
literally grew up inside the KGB fighting against the West, will not
stand for this region falling to the Western ideals.
If the Ukraine should want to become
part of the European Union and have closer ties to the West and
espouse more freedom. This will be seen as a direct threat to the
ideals that Putin has spent his life fighting to uphold. He has
reacted in the only logical way he could. He has sent in SPETSNAZ
forces to increase the public turmoil, to take over high visibility
public administration buildings, to surround military bases, and to
form the foundation upon which the main forces may be sent in on.
In response to a Russian invasion, the
United States has sent an aircraft carrier strike group toward the
Black Sea to be able to respond to developments on the Crimean
peninsula of Ukraine. The super-carrier USS George H.W. Bush plus
seventeen other ships and three submarines passed through the Aegean
sea this afternoon. The George H.W. Bush is carrying 90 aircraft
including helicopters of various types, and several squadron's of
F/A-18 Hornets, some of the most advanced combat aircraft in the
world. The submarines each have twenty four missile silos, with each
silo housing a missile armed with eight separate nuclear warheads
which operate as MIRV's (Multiple Independent Re-Entry Vehicles) that
can be independently targeted.
The George H.W. Bush is the first and only aircraft carrier in the world that has successfully sea-launched and landed an unmanned X-47b Stealth Drone which can be used for long term surveillance or for offensive attacks.
The number of ships accompanying the George H.W. Bush in this strike group is significant: 17 ships and 3 submarines.
Aircraft carrier Strike Groups are assembled as-needed so there is no particular number of accompanying vessels. However, the graphic below gives readers a sense of the types of vessels that accompany a U.S. Carrier which is being sent into battle.
The arrival of the USS George H.W. Bush increases the military might facing the Russians by an order of magnitude. This one strike group has more firepower than the entire Ukrainian air force and, in fact, more total fire power than all the countries bordering the Black Sea combined, with the exception of Russia itself.
