Archived The Pentagon starts planning to base more troops in Europe (militarytimes.com)
submitted ago by FrogMantra
Posted by: FrogMantra
Posting time: 4.8 years ago on
Last edit time: never edited.
Archived on: 2/12/2017 1:51:00 AM
Views: 151
SCP: 8
8 upvotes, 0 downvotes (100% upvoted it)
Archived The Pentagon starts planning to base more troops in Europe (militarytimes.com)
submitted ago by FrogMantra
Sort: Top
[–] Owlchemy 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
As is normal ... the military is always fighting the last war. We should be talking about moving troops out of Europe ... WWII ended how many years ago ... the cold war was over how many years ago? The EU should be quite capable of handling it's own affairs.
[–] forgetmyname ago
South korea / Japan too. Why should 20,000 americans die just so they can take over the north korean dirt farmers?
[–] AlkaiserSoze ago
Actually, NK is a pivotal point in the Asiatic area. I have researched it quite a bit and this is how I interpret the situation:
So, while SK and Japan are allies, NK is effectively a better strategic position for the US as it's right on Chinas backdoor. While we currently maintain acceptable ties to China, it's still a case of if war were to occur then it would be preferable to have troops stationed right there on their Eastern front. This is why US and China have gone back and forth with tolerating NK as they're hoping for it to collapse and then claim it.
In the case for the US, it would reunify Korea and we would have a valuable ally against China. If China were to obtain NK first then this would give them the ability to take SK. Granted, America and SK would wage a long range ballistics/artillery engagement against the forces but the people of SK would suffer and increase strains between Asian countries and America.
You're also assuming America would immediately throw the stationed personnel directly into a fight with NK. This is incorrect. In the event of an NK/SK showdown, most of the engagement would be over quickly as NK would simply rain down with artillery which is already positioned to fire upon SK. In response, SK/US would fire back with artillery from naval vessels. While everyone is a little unsure of NKs weapons technology, it isn't likely that NK would be able to sink those vessels.
With that being said, however, everyone kind of wants to avoid a confrontation with NK, even China. If NK attacked SK, China would likely back NK with the hope that they could secure the land after Korea as a whole falls. The second Pyongyang falls, Chinese forces would move in to occupy the territory and SK would be in ruins which means American forces would face a situation where they may have to face off against China in a military confrontation. Sure, we could continue to rain down with naval long-range, we'd also have to deal with the fact that China has much better long-range capabilities than NK does. This would also upset economic ties with China. While that could be seen as a good thing as America would be forced to produce a lot of their own goods (resulting in more jobs, perhaps), the risk of a World War with China as the enemy would not be worth it.
In summary, the whole NK thing isn't just about reunification of Korea and making up for the US fuckup made all those decades ago but it's really about maintaining geo-political and economic stability in that region. Were NK to collapse on its own, we'd stand a better chance of avoiding a military confrontation with China without resulting in a large economic loss vis a vis manufacturing/trade in/with China.
[–] Trust_No_One ago
Well I always wanted to go on a lenthy road trip through Europe. Let's get the lottery a roll'n and get the bugaloo over with
[–] The_Only_Other ago (edited ago)
Fucking seriously.
What urgent threat? The fucking Russians can't do shit to us. Their military is geared primary for short-range combat and it's tied down in the middle-east. Putin could only conceivably attack Eastern Europe, but he won't because he knows NATO would collectively bitch-slap him back into Siberia if he tried.
This all must come down to the fact that, instead of sucking the dick of the West 24/7, Putin decided to have a mind of his own and prop up Assad in order to stabilize Syria and protect his people from continuing terrorist attacks. In response, we decide to cry like little babies and start WW3 over it.
Well, maybe they should build their own fucking army then instead of relying on Daddy US to come and pull them out of trouble every time they get fucking attacked. Europe isn't the fucking child of the US. It's not our job or responsibility to protect them beyond any scope of treaties that we've entered. And I don't understand why we keep sucking money out of the American taxpayer's pocket to do it when they look down on us like we're a bunch of uneducated fucking hill-billies.
Well, maybe Europe should learn to better allocate their tax money. And who fucking cares? Let me play this out for you:
Russia attacks eastern Europe, it falls as in the simulation.
Russia continues it's attack, slowing as it enters mainland Europe due to extended supply lines and facing the bulk of European resistance
The US concentrates the whole of it's technologically and numerical superior armed forces on repelling the attack and turns western Russia into fucking rubble within a month.
Putin isn't an idiot, he won't attack eastern Europe. I'm sure he knows that's EXACTLY what the neo-con I'm-still-stuck-in-the-cold-war hawks want, and they'll use it as an excuse to turn Russia into a US-controlled territory. And I'm sure he knows it would be completely suicidal.
But you know what WILL provoke Putin? Stationing a bunch of troops along his border and claiming they're for "defense". A scared, cornered rat is a dangerous creature.
Why am I not fucking surprised. Yeah, this is all about defense.
Who fucking cares? It's a geo-political area that really shouldn't concern us. We're just butt-hurt because we've been trying to shove the dick of our US-led democratic ideology down Russia's throat since the Cold War and they coughed it out and bloodied our nose a little bit in the process. We may not have used military force, but our diplomatic actions in eastern Europe are far from innocent. And that's not even to account for our actions in the Middle East.
Maybe if we left Russia alone in it's part of the world, and tried to enter into peaceful trade agreements, etc (like, gasp Putin tried to do right after he took power) we wouldn't have this problem.
Seriously, imagine if every time we interfered in a South American country's political affairs Russia labeled the West a "aggressive" and "dangerous" and started stationing troops along the eastern European border to ward off a potential attack.
This is bullshit.
TL;DR - Someone is really trying to start another World War