The ex-CIA and Defense boss says somethings that are apparent…..
One…..The Crimea is gone from the Ukraine….
Two….With the US talking about Defense cuts….Russia and China are gonna make moves to grab property….
Anyone with an eye on the world would be foolish to not agree with Gates projections…..
While Americans and other countries are tired of sending soldiers out to fight far from home….The REAL world fact is there are led ears and countries that will take advantage of weakness to take what they want….Are those places in America’s security interests ?….Doubtful….
But one MUST keep an eye on the Bog picture least a surprise end up on your door like in December, 1941 and September, 2001…….
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates predicts that Russia will continue to control Crimea for the foreseeable future.
“I do not believe that Crimea will slip out of Russia’s hand,” he said in an interview aired on “Fox News Sunday.”
“You think Crimea’s gone?” host Chris Wallace asked.
“I do,” Gates replied.
Russia has bloodlessly seized control of Crimea over the past week and has moved to formally annex it. The Crimean parliament has scheduled a vote on whether to join Russia for next week.
“I think it’s part of a long-term strategy on Putin’s part to create a Russian sphere of influence, a Russian bloc,” Gates said, adding later: “I don’t think he will stop in Ukraine until there is essentially a pro-Russian government in Ukraine, in Kiev.”
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday it would be a “serious mistake” to cut the defense budget in the midst of an international standoff with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula.
Gates made his comments when asked about budget cuts enacted by Congress in 2011. Gates’s successor, Secretary Chuck Hagel, recently outlined a plan for how the Pentagon would cope with the cuts.
“I think that cutting the defense budget in significant ways right now is a serious mistake,” Gates said. “When we’ve cut the budget before at the end of the Cold War, at the end of Vietnam and other times, it’s been because we thought the world was going to be safer place.
“No one can make that case right now. You look at the situation in Ukraine and our relationship with Russia, you look at the tensions between China and Japan in the South China Sea, you look at Iran and North Korea. These guys are operating on the 20th century model of nation states, boundaries matter, strategic interests matter,” he said.
“It’s different than the way the Western Europeans and we look at it,” he added.
Gates argued the pace at which both the Europeans and the United States are cutting their defenses sends a signal that “we are not interested in protecting our global interests.”
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