Wednesday, March 5, 2014

A Bit on Afghanistan and The Ukraine

Bottom Line Up Front: On Afghanistan, Obama is deciding to not decide by defaulting to the agreement for Operation Resolute Support for 2015. In spite of all of his talking about having all of the US forces out of the country by the end of 2014, he won't.

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.

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