US European Commander chief and Supreme NATO Commander Air Force General Philip Breedlove is stepping down after enthusiastically overseeing a level of military confrontation between the US, its NATO allies and Russia unprecedented even during the darkest days of the Cold War.
Now Obama has picked Breedlove’s designated successor, Army Gen. Curt Scaparrotti, who has made clear he is determined to rush down the same fateful road toward a thermonuclear confrontation.
In testimony this month to a clearly awed and uncritical Senate Armed Services Committee, Scaparrotti made clear he was determined to maintain the forward presence of US naval vessels in the Baltic and Black Seas because of – and not despite – the close encounter between Russian combat bombers and the Aegis missile cruiser USS Donald Cook on April 12.
“From a military perspective, we should sail and fly wherever we are allowed to by international law, and we should be strong, clear and consistent in our message in that regard,” he insisted.
Scaparrotti was equally unyielding and reckless in his determination to support the chaotic, corruption-filled and Nazi-militia-supported regime of President Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine.
“I believe that we should continue both assistance and aid in the kinds of assets that they (the Ukrainians) need in order to defend their country, their sovereignty and their territorial integrity, and that we ought to continue building partnership capacity to help them do that on their own,” Scaparrotti said.
Scaparrotti openly acknowledged that the US has provided military training and assistance to Ukraine.
TRENDPOST: The fading of US Sen. Bernie Sanders and disputes tearing the Republican Party apart increase the likelihood that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, an arch hawk on European and Middle East security issues, will be the next president of the United States.