Monday, September 18, 2017

NATO: Russia exercise resembles "preparation for a big war"

Link: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-zapad-2017-military-exercise-belarus-preparation-for-a-big-war-nato/

Summary: CBS News reports that near St. Petersburg, Russia, a NATO military leader raises a concern over Russia's massive military exercise, suspecting that the war games are "a serious preparation for a big war" even though the Russians assured they pose no threat. NATO is watching over the exercise carefully, saying that about 100,000 Russian and Belarusian troops are taking part. The Russians insist that there are under 13,000 involved, but CBS News crrespondent Elizabeth Palmer proposes that "the lack of transparency of the war games add to the threatening tone." It is stated that Russia holds these big military exercises every four years, but CBS News adds on that this one is exceptional because it extends into Belarus to the west, which places Russian troops to face the NATO forces on the other side of the border, arousing suspicion of an attack from the Russians.

Analysis: In this article, CBS News seems to be attempting to warn the public that the Russians might be planning on starting some sort of war with us prior to the "suspicious" training that they are going through with the Belarusians. Although this assumption might be reasonable, I think it's also tied to the not-so-well relationship between America and Russia due to the conflicts between the two countries (such as World War 2 and the Cold War).

3 comments:

  1. I'm so excited. When will this happen?

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  2. I don't think the Russian training is a big deal at all. If you look world wide you'll see that America has the hardest trained military yet countries don't always assume we're going to start a war (most/ some countries).

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  3. True, relations were bad in the Cold War, but they also seem to be increasing due to claims such as Russia rigging the presidential election. Although, I'm sure the military here may be doing something similar to them, seeing as we're provoking North Korea
    -David Bagley

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