CIA claims Russia helped rig U.S. election

Assange has apparently said he's going to take down Merkel next. But no, it's silly to think Russia is involved in any way.

The Russians are not helping out Assad out of the goodness of Putin's heart. Syria is their only Mediterranean base. It's currently just a small supply harbor at Tartus. But when they're done? The Russians won't just walk away with a thanks and a handshake. They're there to stay. Which in turn gets interesting when you look at Syria's northern neighbor, Turkey. Also, the eastern one, Iraq, which is currently in a state of disintegration. A corridor via Mosul and Erbil and the Russians in Syria are linked up with their Iranian buddies. Farther to the north you have Georgia and Armenia.

Relationships between Armenia and Turkey are... cool, to say the least. Georgia is a clear case for hybrid warfare with Adjara along the Turkish border and two other provinces in a constant state of rebellion.

Now look at a map. See Turkey? With the above scenario, it's surrounded by Russia, Iran, a puppet Syria, a puppet province and one enemy state from three sides. Leaves Europe - Greece, Bulgaria and half-occupied Cyprus over the sea to the south. Now Erdogan does pretty much everything to piss off the EU by acting more and more authoritarian with every passing day. With the European members being less than forthcoming and a President Trump in Washington, NATO doesn't seem like an option for Turkey. The Russians won't attack directly of course. But seeding instability, supporting uprisings, creating chaos and then offering a 'helping hand'? Article 5 does not cover those cases, especially when nobody else wants it to apply.

From their point of view, Turkey will be surrounded when the dust settles in Syria. With the Kurds within their borders and that situation outside, we just don't know what will happen. Needless to say, it's a bloody explosive mix. I can even go so far and say Turkey might seek nuclear armament. They can't use NATO nukes stored at Incirlik without US authorization codes but they certainly can obtain the technology and know-how to build a few of their own in no time.

For Putin, this scenario might be the ultimate prize. Make it official in Transnistria followed by all of Moldova too and we'll have a nightmare right out of a Tom Clancy novel on the EU's borders.

Ass - handed to!

I guess that will be the last we see of @Dayton3 in this thread......

Assange hasn't been seen since October.

Yeah I hear you! I did 22+ years - tell me about politics! But I think I see what Dayton is getting at - whether the US is under a Republican or Democrat regime, the military marches to the beat of it's own drum. To that point he is right! A presidential election changes ZERO about how we operate on a day-to-day basis. Our pay cannot change, our standards cannot change, our tactics cannot change. We are indeed our own entity in our own world no matter whose picture we hang up on the wall. Now within the military OH HELL YES politics play a heavy hand in everything we do.
In effect the military has two faces: what the outside sees and what really goes down. And within the actual military there are two faces: what your boss sees and what really goes down. It's a fucking world record blue ribbon winning onion with 500 layers of politics and truth. But seeing as you served I don't have to tell you - unless you actually served, you don't have a clue.

Precisely what I meant.

And I think that Sean forgot my families background.

There are so many veterans and active members of the military in it that if they wore their uniforms to a family reunion it would look like a damned invasion.

but what changes is how, why and where tactics are applied. trump's plan to boost military spending and retreat at the same time doesn't make much sense, does it. uhhhh more toys... at home!

of course i'm talking from a strategic position. whatchagonnaboost?

You must be an even bigger disappointment in your family than I had previously thought.

Why? Neither of my parents wanted me to join the military.

In general, my parents had a fair amount of disdain for anyone who actually volunteered to join the military.

Buy more tanks that the Army doesn't want/need.

I think the Army is wrong in this case and that it ties in to their bias against fighting another major land war in Asia.

Well, to quote you on the subject of "thinking:"

So, call yourself back when you've written a position paper on the subject.

better toys and keeping them at home makes a lot of sense. The US is huge, remember? We have almost unlimited training areas & opportunities to develop and test tactics with these toys. Of course we can let NATO/western europe do more heavy lifting with defending themselves/fighting occasional sandbox flare-ups. If they get in over their head we cab bail them out, since we will be trained by a holy-shit level of effectiveness from training our asses off.

Don't NATO troops and aircrew frequently come to the U.S. to train anyway?

Yes they do but not extensively (as far as training with their own equipment) because obviously the logistics are an enormous expense. Of course when we are overseas (Korea, Germany, England, etc) we train as much as we can because we already have our assets stationed there. But that training benefits them (especially joint training exercises) because it boots their local economy and the better trained we are the better we can protect their asses.

But if we yanked everything back to within our borders we could train just as effectively and their own military could take over the training real estate that we currently use in those countries.

That's not what I mean. The disinterested are always among us, the ones I mean are these:

Voter: "Fuck yeah, President God-damned in your FACE TRUMP!
bystander: "You realize the KKK backed Trump?"
Voter"So fucking hat? He's gonna make America Grate again!! Woo hooo!!!"
bystander" How do you feel about the Russians?"
Voter "Hate those motherfuckin godless commie bastards!"
bystander: "Trump only won because the Russians interfered with the Democrats"
Voter"I don't FUCKING CARE! Donald god-damn TRUMP BABY!!!"

for a certain segment of the votership, Lucifer himself could appear in the sky 40 stories high and say "Donald Trump is my anointed messiah" and they'd still handwave it away.

Coming from the side of the aisle that has little problem with idea that "Killary" had hit squads taking out her political enemies, the irony is unspeakable.

That's not a denial.

How so? I can anticipate maybe 3 talking points, or 4.

it's really quite entertaining to watch the less logical on the right just completely switch scripts when it becomes convenient to them.

The sort of snooping that was going on prior to 2015 was routine stuff everyone was doing, an extension of the spy game that's gone on since ever. Moving from that to actually affecting the outcome of a transition of power is something that both had done to pawn countries, but not to each other. Even so, the complaint here is not the Putin tried, the complaint is that so many Americans are willing to shrug it off and accept Putin's choice as their rightful leader.

Mmm.

Shoe on the other foot and all that.