U.S. About to Confront Russia in Afghanistan

I'm going to be quick and let the chips fall where they may on this one, but from a couple of very good sources, it seems Prez Obama is heading for a confrontation with Russia this week.

According to Stratfor's intel weekly, posted in part on this site,, the U.S. and India are trying to open a "supplemental" supply route to NATO forces in Afghanistan in regions with heavy Russian interest.

But all of those supplementary routes transit Central Asia, a region where Russia is king. Obama is going to have to have a talk — or a showdown — with the Russians. Soon. And next week there is a perfect opportunity. Jan. 26 is the first Russia-NATO Council meeting since the August 2008 Russia-Georgia war — though the U.S. is sending representatives below principal level (while the Russians want to meet at the principal level).

Plus, with Obama sending a junior to the meeting is pretty much an afront to Russian over-arching pride, and to Mr. Putin himself, who suffers from a Napoleonic complex.

There's more elaboration on this from other news sources:

That is why he tripped last Tuesday when Petraeus said while on a visit to Pakistan that the American military had secured agreements to move supplies to Afghanistan from the north, easing the heavy reliance on the transit route through Pakistan. "There have been agreements reached, and there are transit lines now and transit agreements for commercial goods and services in particular that include several countries in the Central Asian states and Russia," Petraeus said.

What's more is all this goes back to one fundamental: oil and energy. And more precisely, the theory that the U.S. is actually cementing an alternative energy route away from Georgia...

Moscow feels the US is pressing ahead with a new Caspian transit route which involves the dispatch of shipments via Georgia to Azerbaijan and thereon to the Kazakh harbor of Aktau and across the Uzbek territory to Amu Darya and northern Afghanistan.

Russian experts estimate that the proposed Caspian transit route could eventually become an energy transportation route in reverse direction, which would mean a strategic setback for Russia in the decade-long struggle for the region's hydrocarbon reserves.

Things are about to get interesting, ya'll. Hold tight.

Do you think Obama would be open to removing the missile shield in exchange for the OK on the supply routes?

Obama seems to be the type to talk rather than confront IMO.

Originally posted by jam321
Do you think Obama would be open to removing the missile shield in exchange for the OK on the supply routes?

Obama seems to be the type to talk rather than confront IMO.

Good point. And therein lies the question. That's a point Stratfor makes here as well.

The Russians are prepared to help the Americans, however — and it is clear what they will want in return.

At minimum, Moscow will want a declaration that Washington will not press for the expansion of NATO to Georgia or Ukraine, or for the deployment of military forces in non-NATO states on the Russian periphery — specifically, Ukraine and Georgia. At this point, such a declaration would be symbolic, since Germany and other European countries would block expansion anyway.

If the end game is to circumvent the Russian's energy supply line with one of our own, why would we go about this route?

In my opinion this is a build up to the inevitable.

War.

In the past the only way we got out of economy woes was to have a war. Be it hot or a cold war or even a proxy war, I really think it is the only thing that is going to save the world economy. With news like this I wonder if we have chosen to build up a war with Russia to finally get us out of the economy crises.

My gut feeling is war somewhere is near. Its the only way we will survive.

Originally posted by wiredamerican

My gut feeling is war somewhere is near. Its the only way we will survive.

You just won the Paradox award. Not sure war is the "only way we will survive," but it can certainly put a lot of people to work very quickly.

Although I ask: We've been at war for nearly seven years, and during that time our economy has peaked and collapsed independent of all we've spent on Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, I would say the deficit we've run to operate those wars has helped to usher in the credit collapse and probably will ultimately cause us to have to declare bankruptcy with a number of our obligations.

Those who argue that war contributes to economic prosperity seem to overlook this little detail.

And a war with Russia (read, WWIII) would be catastrophic for all economies of the world. Even if we could keep the conflict largely conventional, nukes would be used. It's human nature.

That would be tantamount to us reformatting our harddrive to eliviate the computer virus.

I suppose it could happen; although not be design but through a series of actions with unintended consequences.

Has anybody thought of the possibilty that the Russian and the US are trying to find a safe way of running a pipeline from Russia to warm water ports to get the fuel out.

this would help the Russian and American economies.

Just a thought



[edit on 26-1-2009 by SLAYER69]

Our top Generals and the top Generals from Russia met last year;there is a thread on here about it. It was a friendly meeting and may have well been this exact reason.
Sorry I cant remember the name of the thread but they met on neutral ground to have their talks and it went WELL. ( it was something about them meeting on the "blank"insert name islands.)

Good, i've been waiting to spank some Russian ass for to long now. Lets hope this is the war that ends the world and I can go down in some battle, right before the world blows up.

Earth is past it's due date. Screw it. As sad as it is, it probably needs to happen.

[edit on 27-1-2009 by USMC-oorah]