Russia: The Stroock Plan

It is with great sadness that we told our KGB handler in the Kremlin that our relationship is over. We loved colluding with Russia. We did love it so. So much so that by our count we've published 100 articles with Inforos/Infobrics. Click here to see them all. In fact, click here to see our very first piece at Inforos:

With the USSR long gone pushing NATO even further east is a pointless provocation. Those advocating for expanding to Russia’s border forget NATO’s mission, stated clearly in the alliance’s name, North Atlantic Treaty Organization; North Atlantic. NATO links western Europe to North America with Great Britain as the physical and cultural bridge between the two. From Nord Kapp, to the North Sea and down to the Greenland, Iceland United Kingdom Gap NATO protects the Atlantic crossings. The Baltics, Ukraine and Georgia have nothing to do with the Atlantic and should have nothing to do with NATO. Today most American troops are gone from Europe and NATO’s once fine, professional militaries have shriveled. Why poke the Bear?

We knew what we were doing, da. We wrote something we believed. We wrote something that we thought we could get in print with those recidivist commies. Ninety-nine articles later we stand by what we wrote in 2019. Why poke the bear? Look closely at the first vowel in NATO. A is for Atlantic. To be clear, America has no national interest in Ukraine. None whatsoever. We won't die for Donbass.

What should the West have done? The West should have realized that Russia has interests too. Russia has red lines. Russia has pride. The West should have told Putin, 'Fine. You promise not to invade Ukraine, we'll promise not to expand NATO further.' Da? Da.

And the West should have been tougher and clearer. That is, the West should have said to Putin, 'Here are every one of the sanctions we will impose if you invade Ukraine. Here's every one of the weapons we'll send to Ukraine if you do invade. Here's a rundown of the massive NATO fleet exercise we'll hold in the Barents Sea just to piss you off.'* 

What should the West do now? Sanction the Russians all you want. Cutoff Moscow's ability to finance its debt. Kick the Ruskis out of SWIFT. Throw them out of the Olympics and any other international sports org you can think of. Move to expel them from the UN**. Invite Sweden and Finland to join NATO. But remember one thing. Russians don't think like us in the West. As an Indian neighbor who lived in Moscow for several years once told us, 'Russians look like Europeans but think like Asians.' They don't care. 

*NATO used to do that in the 80's.

**Putin chairs the Security Council right now, which is a sick joke.

Will's Latest from Moscow

Over at Inforos:

Founded in 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is the most successful alliance in European history. NATO kept the Americans in, the Soviets out, and the Germans down. NATO had a fourth, grim purpose. Just the across Iron Curtain lay a massive Soviet army prepared to roll across the border and fight its way to the Rhine, with nuclear weapons if need be. Brussels thought the threat so serious that, in the 1950s, West Germany was allowed to rearm. NATO’s well trained and high-tech armies would fight the Soviets from the Iron Curtain to the Rhine, with nuclear weapons if need be. America maintained an army of a quarter of a million men in West Germany, the bulk of its combat power.

Click on over... 

Will Colludes with Russia once Again

Here's a piece I wrote for Inforos about the folly of NATO expansion:

With the USSR long gone pushing NATO even further east is a pointless provocation. Those advocating for expanding to Russia’s border forget NATO’s mission, stated clearly in the alliance’s name, North Atlantic Treaty Organization; North Atlantic. NATO links western Europe to North America with Great Britain as the physical and cultural bridge between the two. From Nord Kapp, to the North Sea and down to the Greenland, Iceland United Kingdom Gap NATO protects the Atlantic crossings. The Baltics, Ukraine and Georgia have nothing to do with the Atlantic and should have nothing to do with NATO.

Actually, inviting Poland, Hungary, the Slovakians and the Czechs into NATO was a good idea, but other then that, this blog says nyet!.

The Weak Lot Wakes Up

'They're a weak lot in Europe some of them...weak...feeble.'- Margaret Thatcher

The LA Times tells us that Europe is panicking:

Deeply alarmed at President Trump’s attacks on NATO and the transatlantic relationship, European governments are rethinking their reliance on the United States as a strategic ally against Russia, but they are unlikely to make regional security arrangements independent of Washington.

Europe lives under the umbrella of protection we provide and question the way we provide it.

But European allies bewildered by Trump’s seeming hostility for NATO must confront a sobering reality: They have few good alternatives for protecting themselves against Russia or other potential adversaries.

Europe is 'bewildered'. But, but, defence has always been provided by Les Americans...

Europe could try taking national defence commitments seriously.

Europe needs America far more than it ever realized.

What's European diplomacy accomplished the last century? Versailles? Munich?

So righteous about their soft power, only American intervention ended the Yugoslav crisis. How's European 'soft power' standing against Putin's tanks?

Europe congratulates itself for 70 years of peace, but forgets that peace was imposed by the United States and the Soviet Union and guaranteed by the United States after the Cold War. 

Now Russia is resurgent and Europe finds America not necessarily willing to fight for Frankfurt, liberate Liege, or die for Dusseldorf.

Europe Steyned

Yesterday the esteemed M Steyn republished one of his classic post 9/11 pieces. Like most Americans we only became Steyn-aware after 9/11*. The above linked piece is one of the reasons why.

Of NATO's post 9/11 commitments Steyn wrote:

The Nato declaration was impressive, but, even as the press release was coming off the photocopier, a big chunk of America's 18 allies were backsliding. Norway, Germany and Italy said they had no intention of contributing planes, ships or men. Even as purely political support, the first ever invocation of Article Five was written in disappearing ink. The Italian Foreign Minister – speaking for Europe's most conservative government – said "the term 'war' is inappropriate". "We are not at war," said Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, his nation's signature on that Nato document notwithstanding. Belgium holds the current Presidency of the EU and was last seen apologizing for slavery, colonialism, etc at Durban's recent UN Conference Against Whitey, Hymie And Capitalism. 

It was during this time that we realized NATO was useless. European shrugs, Token contributions,  'Oui mon General. Perhaps a company of gendarmes?'

European smug indifference kind of made one feel unappreciated. Do they not know about the huge American military cemeteries across Western Europe?

The French should have said, 'The people of Les Republique are outraged, Mr. President. the Foreign Legion is at your service. And sorry about not letting your F-111s flyover in '86.'

*Turns out our intro to Steyn was his 1999 review of The Phantom Menace in NR. As with all things, Steyn was right. He hated it.

Wither OTAN

Trump is in Europe and really socking it to our OTAN*allies.

After rebuking the Krauts for relying on Russia for energy, the President declared, “We’re paying a lot of money to protect, this has been going on for decades… it’s very unfair to our country, it’s very unfair to our taxpayers… these countries need to step it up, not over a ten year period, but immediately.”

Back during the Cold War every NATO member had a serious military. West Germany fielded two army corps, the Brits, Dutch, Danes and Belgians one each, and all had several squadrons of sophisticated combat aircraft.

Today the Luftwaffe is all but grounded, the Kriegsmarine's newest ship can't sail straight, and Bundeswehr troops in Afghanistan are too fat to fight.** 

Since the end of the Cold War Western Europe has lived in a fantasy world were history has ended, Fukayama style, and defence budgets don't really matter, all while expanding east. We always supported including parts of Eastern Europe in NATO, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czechs, but expanding into the Baltics was just spitting in the Bear's eye.

Berlin, Brussels, Paris, they want to believe that European soft power of diplomacy and trade can stop rogue regimes and bring peace. Recall that 25 years ago, OTAN's soft power couldn't prevent the Serbs from doing whatever they wanted to the people of Croatia and Bosnia. The Yugoslav War didn't end until the grownups (America) arrived with actual power like carrier battle groups.

By the way, did you know that today marks the 24th anniversary of the Serbs massacre in Srebrenica? They rolled right over passive Dutch troops and murdered 8,000 men.

So much for soft power.

*Yeah, French, look at me.
**Just google it.

Europe gets one Right...

...But not on purpose.

Via Breitbart:

NATO is not obliged to come to the aid of partner Israel if Iran attacks, secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg revealed, amid rising tensions between the Middle East rivals.

Mr. Stoltenberg told Der Spiegel magazine Saturday that while Israel is an active partner of the U.S.-led alliance, it is not a full member and NATO’s “security guarantee” therefore doesn’t apply to the Jewish state.

Herr Stotlenberg* is absolutely right. Besides, how would NATO defend Israel? Sponsor a condemnatory resolution at Strasbourg? Send it's overweight, out of shape soldiers to observe?

Israel joining NATO is one of those ideas that gets floated around by professional diplomatic jetsetters. Did Tom Friedman propose this? We bet Tom Friedman proposed this.

We can't find any proof he suggested this but since we mentioned Tom Freidman lets bash him.

Tom Freidman the 'Imperial Messenger' believed:

-Yasser Arafat wanted piece
-That after two years filled with war and terror Israel and the PA could go back to negotiating as if nothing had happened
-The US should deploy peacekeepers to the West Bank
-Israel should return to the pre-Six Day War Auschwitz borders in exchange for Arab diplomatic recognition.

So lets just assume Tom Friedman suggested Israel join NATO. To put it another way, Tom Friedman suggested the Jews rely on France, Spain, and oh yes, the Germans to protect them.

This is a point we made in Israel Strikes. The very idea is a sick joke.

*We could not write a more pretentious sounding name.

Write This?

As has been noted before, and as is to be expected, World War 1990: Anzacs is doing great in Australia. Right now it's number one in the alt-hist category and in the top 100 of kindle books over all.

This has us wondering if we should be doing other World War 1990 novels based on the actions of a allied nations. World War 1990: Canadian Battlegroup comes to mind. What about World War 1990: Regia Marino? Or World War 1990: Bundeswehr? Actually there are already plenty of Frenchmen and Italians in The Final Storm.

There is also the issues of language and uses for foreign armies.

We were also assured by a European acquaintance that most Euros would not buy English language books, even if they were about them.

Food for thought, but not this year, or next.

Putin laughs hard, slips, hits head and goes into coma, saving NATO

Headline today:

Shaken by Trump’s Criticism of NATO, Europe Mulls Building Own Military Force

I bloody well hope so.

Ok, not really. A pan-European Army would be worse than useless. It would be a provocation. Maybe the Euros would get lucky and Putin would laugh himself to death.

It's a real shame what's happened to NATO.

Back in say, I dunno, 1990, NATO's armed forces were small, but well trained and equipped. The West German Bundeshwer was the largest and best Continental army. Being German they really couldn't help themselves. The British were more professional and better trained, but smaller and lacked some of the punch of those mighty Panzer Divisions. Both the Netherlands and Belgians could put an mechanized army corps in the field. The French had one corps on the Rhine and could send another into action. For that matter France had a fine navy as did of course the Brits. Italy was probably a near equal to France in terms of land, sea and air power.

I wanted to portray a lot these armed forces in the World War series. Just wait till the Final Storm comes out, you'll see whole sections dedicated to the French and Italian armed forces. In Arctic Storm there are references to the Dutch Army, the BAOR is a major subject. In Eastern Storm we see some major West German characters.

We've come a long way.

That's Spain's defense minister in 2008. Somehow the blue berets are appropriate. Maybe she's having a boy?

During the last 15 years of war NATO has been more or less useless. Yes I know they send these contingents to Afghanistan or Iraq. A battalion a here, a regiment there. But its very minimal. Just of the top of my head I can recal stories about Italians refusing to escort convoys, Norwegians refusing to leave the base at night, Germans being too fat....

Yes, yes the caveats apply, of course.

The most important caveat are the English speaking nations. Lookie here, alongside the Yanks in Afghanistan are the Brits, Canadians, Australians, Kiwis. All fighting the Taliban tooth and nail while the defense ministers of other NATO countries, well, do their nails:

Alt History War Game

Here is a review of a new war game, Nato Nukes and Nazis:

It’s 1990, and the Third Reich lives. Ever since World War II ended with a compromise peace between Germany and the Allies, the Cold War has been waged between the Nazis and NATO.

The game is designed by Ty Bomba and Joe Miranda of Decision Games, Modern Conflict Simulations and few other assorted outfits. I know both pretty well, having written for Decision Games for years.

As it happens I had almost the exact same idea. This was spawned of course by Robert Harris' excellent novel, Fatherland, which portrays an American-Nazi Cold War in 1964. I was going to do the a NATO-Nazi conflict in 1980. Gerald Ford is president, Enoch Powell is the British PM. I toyed with it and even wrote 10,000 words or so, but it never really went anywhere.

I was mostly interested in what America in 1980 was like. There's no WWII, no Vietnam. So we see none of the social change that happened as a result. We're closer to France than Britain. Speaking of which the Empire is thriving. India is a dominion, Africa is similar to India in say, 1900, the Jewell so to speak.  Nazi Germany is a broken down Socialist basket case, over extended and in decline.

Heck, I may still do it.

But not anytime soon.

Putin Strikes

Looks like I better write Putin Strikes while I still can, eh?

Putin puts nuclear missiles in the Baltic, orders the diplomats to send their dependents home and cancels a state visit to Paris. What a crisis.

Oh come now, this is no crisis. Obama will fold. He always folds.

Now, back in the day, I used to wonder why we were poking around Eastern Europe. Why bring the Baltic states into NATO? What's the point of that? For that matter, what's the point of NATO anymore? I mean really, the Germans are going to fight the Russians? Or the Norwegians, Belgians or Dutch? Yeah sure, Ok.

As it happens I've been reading a bio of Putin. He's pretty much what we think he is, stern, calculating, brutal when necessary and interested in restoring the greatness of Mother Russia. Mission accomplished, I'd say. In this space I have argued that Putin is securing his western flank because the eastern flank is so problematic. But I think I got it wrong. He gets on splendidly with China. He secured the eastern flank so he could make trouble on the western flank.

He's just so damn brazen about it. Georgia, Ukraine, Syria now the Baltics. I wonder what Putin has on us. He's probably reading our diplomatic correspondence word for word. Has he got a man in the White House? The State Department? He owns Barry, that's for sure.

Look, Poland, I like you a lot, I really do. My advice, talk to Putin and get the best deal you can. The man is not unreasonable.

I'm not dying for Danzig.