Moscow is painting over the Russian markings on its jet fighters & sending them to fight a proxy war

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

against Turkey in Libya

The Pentagon has released declassified intelligence images it says clearly prove the Russian military has transferred advanced fighter-bomber aircraft to Libya in support of the warlord Khalifa Haftar's campaign to seize control of the country.

In an unusually direct move, US Africa Command released a series of images this week depicting the transfer of advanced Russian aircraft — Mig-29 fighters and Su-24 ground attack aircraft — to Libya from Russia with a stopover at a Russian base in Syria for their identifying marks to be repainted.

"Russia is clearly trying to tip the scales in its favor in Libya. They are expanding their military footprint in Africa using government-supported mercenary groups like Wagner," said U.S. Army Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander, U.S. Africa Command. "For too long, Russia has denied the full extent of its involvement in the ongoing Libyan conflict. Well, there is no denying it now. We watched as Russia flew fourth-generation jet fighters to Libya — every step of the way. Neither the LNA nor private military companies can arm, operate and sustain these fighters without state support — support they are getting from Russia."

Link to tweet

?s=20

The Russian government has consistently denied directly intervening in the Libyan conflict. But Moscow supports Haftar and his self-styled 'Libyan National Army' (LNA) against the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), which controls the capital Tripoli. Russia, Egypt, and the UAE have heavily backed Haftar's LNA with weapons, air support and an estimated 1,500 mercenary advisors from the Wagner Group, a private military company with close ties to Russia's leadership.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/moscow-painting-over-russian-markings-155917615.html

[msongs]

1. how dare russia copy american behavior nt

[Hortensis]

7. Really, Msongs? When we abdicated our flawed but nevertheless

rather magnificent leadership (in the context of history), it activated grave threats to dozens of nations and dangerously destabilized the entire planet. In very real part because it empowered Russian, Chinese, Iranian, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera! aggression.

But that's only a fraction of what this earth-shaking disruption has meant. The lives of over 7 billion people are potentially affected with every national election here.

[Igel]

9. That's how it goes.

Some countries can do no right.

Other countries can do no wrong.

That's how it was in 2014 when Russia took over Crimea and launched the Donetsk People's Republic. The Ukrainians were all anti-gay gay Nazi Jews out to make all good Russians into Ukrainian-speaking schismatic Orthodox Christians, the children of Ukrainians fascists who wanted to be liberated from the USSR by being occupied by German troops. If it didn't make sense, it didn't need to--there just had to be a counter to justify anything the Russians did, and if it led them to that characterization of Ukraine it didn't matter because that was never put in those words all in one place. Now they'd be Jews, now fascists, now gay and now gay-bashing. Whatever was necessary, the point was to defend the Motherland. I guess.

[Hortensis]

12. That's how it goes for those who can be fooled all the time --

because they insist on it.

:

[Xolodno]

2. Oh I'm sure its fine....

....they are volunteers! Just like the Korean War.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

5. Just like Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, too. nt

[Ilsa]

3. And now warlord Khalifa Haftar will owe Putin a favor.

Putin is racking up good buddies all over, isn't he.

[Captain Zero]

4. Trump won't do nothing, unless Putin allows it.

I could see Putin allowing a Trump dog and pony show before the election. Make Trump a war president about October 20. All Kabuki theater and orchestrated and choreographed like a WWE MATCH.

[Ilsa]

6. Oh yeah. And the maggots would buy into it. nt

[Igel]

10. The problem is Turkey.

Those are the two real sides here, the UN-backed official non-government in Tripoli and Haftar's band of merry thugs.

Turkey's in favor of the Tripoli government because of a nice agreement that divvies up the eastern Mediterranean's fossil fuel rights in ways that basically screws over Israel and Greece and Egypt. In keeping with the puppet government on part of Cyprus and its de facto reliance on Turkish occupation and prior population transfers.

Russia's producing a problem for Turkish maritime imperialism.

The US is leading from behind again.

[Ilsa]

16. Thank you. That helps. nt

[Hortensis]

8. Another attack on NATO, big item among other goals.

Until now, the administration has been reluctant to intervene in a conflict that U.S. President Donald Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, has called one of his biggest policy errors and that has been largely ignored since the departure of hawkish National Security Advisor John Bolton last year.

The Pentagon “is essentially talking red line here,” Jalel Harchaoui, a research fellow at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague, told Foreign Policy. “This is really the Pentagon trying to scare the White House into taking some kind of action.”

Gen. Jeff Harrigian, the head of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa, warned in a Monday statement that Russia could seize bases on Libya’s coast, allowing them to deploy air defense batteries that could prevent American overflights. “If that day comes, it will create very real security concerns on Europe’s southern flank,” Harrigian said.

But any military response could come under a NATO flag, Harchaoui said, by mobilizing Navy assets or bulking up on efforts to deter Russian landings.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/26/pentagon-libya-russia-fighter-aircraft-rhetoric-africom/

[Igel]

13. Russia would like to roll back some of the state-overthrow actions from earlier this century.

Show that they were both costly, messy, and futile. Putin didn't like (any more than Xi and Kim and Khamenei) that the West intervened and toppled unsavory leaders that it despised.

The West should them alone to do bad things inside their borders if they're well behaved at the international level. Stalin would have had no problem with Hitler's anti-Jewish genocide. The Myanmar government wants to dispose of the Rohingya and the Karens, why should China care?

They're much more into NT-style "bear one another's burdens" and "judge not" than Cain's "Am I my brother's keeper?"

Then there are the quasi-CT folk suggesting that Putin wants to restore a Gaddafi to the throne. I doubt Haftar could be made to accept that.

[Hortensis]

15. :) I read with interest anything you post.

Certainly, often our successes inside troubled and troublesome nations come less with lofty goals of toppling regimes than with lesser ones of mediating water use to avoid wars and famine.

Thing is, of course, that Russia and other aggressively imperialistic nations are VERY FAR from well behaved at the international level, and that we have had previous important successes in stopping their aggression outside their borders. Right now, all the nations named are actively warring, not just outside their borders, but within others', including ours. To definitively make sure we and other protective nations around the globe can't stop them, and then Katie bar the planetary door.

As for Haftar, you can guess better than me what deal he might make with the devil. Poor Libya.

[11 Bravo]

14. Yeah, but Twitter labeled a couple of Lard Butt's tweets as possibly misleading!

Let's focus on the really important threats to our Democracy!