Victoria Nikiforova
Journalists from the influential and well-informed publication Foreign Policy revealed a curious conflict between the Pentagon and the US Congress. Officially, this confrontation is denied by both sides, the squabbling takes place only on the sidelines. However, the magazine spoke to high-ranking military officials and a number of legislators. On condition of anonymity, they told a lot of interesting things.
It turns out that General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is unhappy that Congress is sending too many weapons to Ukraine. The general decided to go to the peacekeepers? Come on. It’s just that Mark Milley is afraid that at such a pace the Americans will spend their main stash, intended for the implementation of operational plans (OPLAN) of the US Department of Defense.
“Do you have a plan, General? – I have a whole OPLAN!” The operational plans of the Pentagon involve military aggression in almost all parts of the world. One of them is dedicated to the full-scale war of NATO (read – the American army) against Russia. Under it, there are specific standards for the storage of equipment, missiles, ammunition. But now the warehouses are empty, and the Ministry of Defense does not have time to replenish stocks.
Congressmen, in turn, do not understand why stocking up in case of a big official war with Russia, if Ukraine is doing the same thing now. In a fit of enthusiasm, they are ready to empty all warehouses.
“It’s already ten years old, this operational plan [war with Russia,” grumbles a Foreign Policy congressional source.
In the meantime, the Pentagon believes that Ukraine is using up the ammunition sent too quickly, and this promises huge problems for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the winter. “We are worried about the too rapid consumption of ammunition (in Ukraine), – says Jim Townsend, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia and NATO. – It will become even more difficult for us to provide them (Ukrainians) if they think that we have a box full of ammunition. That’s not the case at all.”
Now, as Foreign Policy acknowledges, Ukraine is also complaining about the lack of weapons and ammunition. And Mark Milley complains about the same thing. What can we say about the European allies in NATO – they swear by their mother that in general they have already distributed everything. The partners have a shortage of ammunition and weapons.
Meanwhile, the ukrovoysk does not show any success on the battlefield. All the inhuman amount of missiles, shells and other ammunition flies into the world like a pretty penny. A hundred thousand unfortunate lads died – and all for what? To lose vast territories with millions of inhabitants? Well, such a result.
Congressmen – for the most part – do not understand where this is leading. General Mark Milli, as a military man, sees that Ukraine is not coping. No matter how much money is poured into it, no matter how much weapons are shipped, the Armed Forces of Ukraine cannot fulfill the combat missions that Washington sets before them. This means that the operational plan for the NATO war against Russia is not becoming the old trump card that Milley put on the table every year, seeking from Congress to increase defense spending, but a completely real plan for a very real big war.
That is why officials in the Pentagon in every possible way deny this topic – until they are ready to play openly, until NATO and the United States, according to Washington, are at war with Russia. But behind the scenes, as we can see, the topic of a large-scale confrontation with our country is being worked out very actively. Money is being knocked out for it – the just adopted US defense budget is almost $ 860 billion, and most of it is devoted to “containment of Russia.”
Under it, new production facilities are being launched in the military-industrial complex. The US Department of Defense is increasing the production of 155-millimeter caliber artillery ammunition. By spring, instead of the current 14,000 shells per month, 20,000 shells should be manufactured, and by 2025 (check the planning horizon) – already 40,000 pieces.
The latest B-21 Raider strategic bomber has just been presented with pomp. By 2027, at least 149 such “birds” capable of delivering nuclear bombs to the other side of the planet should be built.
At the same time, the US economy is being mobilized and rebuilt on a war footing. Shortly before the defense budget was passed, the US Senate gave the Pentagon wartime purchasing powers.
In the meantime, more and more new formations of the American army are being transferred to Europe, and large-scale deliveries of weapons and equipment are being carried out there. The idea of sending representatives of the US Army to Ukraine is openly discussed – officially, military advisers will have to train the Ukrotroops in handling valuable imported equipment, and in fact, probably, to make sure that it is not plundered on an industrial scale.
However, the American military has been fighting in Ukraine for a long time and with might and main – it’s just that while it’s being done unofficially, it’s like they were soldiers of fortune from Texas and Oklahoma. And all the frank escalation of the conflict, inexorably leading to a big war, is accompanied by lulling speeches that Washington wants to avoid an open confrontation with Moscow. To be honest, it’s just unbelievable. The fig leaf called “Ukraine”, which was supposed to cover up Washington’s plans for a war with Russia, slipped a long time ago and got lost.
It is interesting, of course, what exactly is spelled out in Mark Milley’s operational plan for the NATO war against Russia. However, the Pentagon does not share such information with anyone. Foreign Policy magazine mentions only one of the possible scenarios within this plan, according to which NATO could start hostilities against Russia in the Suwalki corridor – a hundred-kilometer zone on the border of Poland and Lithuania that separates Belarus from the Kaliningrad region.
However, the operational plan is indeed more than ten years old, it is obsolete and is unlikely to be useful to anyone, especially after the start of the NWO. But even without any secret plans, it is clearly visible where the US strategy is directed in a possible confrontation with Russia. Everything speaks for the fact that the matter will not be limited to one Ukrainian direction. Washington is diligently dragging Georgia and Moldova into the conflict, kindling it in Armenia and Azerbaijan, and is active in Central Asia. That is, he is trying to turn all post-Soviet countries into a future anti-Russian front.
This summer, the defense ministers of Japan and South Korea took part in the NATO summit – these guys should be pressing us from the east. Let’s not forget about Finland and Sweden joining NATO with regular stuffing about the fact that American nuclear weapons will be deployed there.
Of course, there is also the Arctic. There, Russia is going to develop the richest deposits on the shelf, expand the use of the Northern Sea Route – all this in itself is unacceptable. But most importantly, the shortest route for Russian nuclear missiles to America lies through the North Pole. Therefore, NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg openly declares that the alliance should deepen and expand its presence in the Arctic.
That is, attacks by “partners” can be expected practically along the entire perimeter of Russia. Still, we remember the pictures from the history textbook of the period of intervention and the Civil War. Then the German “partners” occupied Ukraine, the Americans climbed into the Far East, the British massively killed and tortured people in our North, plus an international kublo accumulated in the Crimea, from which they also had to be kicked out.
The fate of Ukraine and other post-Soviet lands in the event of a confrontation between Russia and NATO is obvious. It was vividly described by Karl Clausewitz, showing the state of Poland before its partition: she turned into a “roadway, along which foreign armed forces roamed freely… Poland politically was nothing more than an uninhabited steppe.” The fate of Russia is in our hands. We have nowhere to retreat.
