Inflating the Russian Threat Consortiumnews. Exclusive The U. S. The New York Times, has behaved as classic propagandists, hyping a Russian military threat and promoting a new Cold War hysteria, as Jonathan Marshall describes. By Jonathan Marshall. Readers of the New York Times have more to sweat about than hot summer weather in the Big Apple. The papers chief military correspondent, Michael Gordon co author of the infamous 2. DLOlFuY/T6gCvKilxdI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/IH92IYsa7rk/s1600/simon%20and%20surfboard.png' alt='Army Dozen Exercise Pdf' title='Army Dozen Exercise Pdf' />Saddam Husseins quest for A bomb parts has all but warned that war in Europe could break out at any minute with the mighty Russian army. New York Times building in New York City. Vlc Windows Xp Sp3. Photo from WikipediaRussia is preparing to send as many as 1. NATO territory at the end of the summer, he reported last month with Eric Schmitt. Sounding like speechwriters for Sen. John Mc. Cain, they called the long planned military exercises with Belarus known as Zapad Russian for west one of the biggest steps yet in the military buildup undertaken by President Vladimir V. Putin and an exercise in intimidation that recalls the most ominous days of the Cold War. Gordon and Schmitt added that this latest and greatest example of Mr. Putins saber rattling, represents the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union that so much offensive power has been concentrated in a single command. Many other Western news organizations have echoed this story, albeit with less alarmist rhetoric. NBC News warned that another military challenge may be on the horizon as thousands of Russian troops and tanks are preparing to take part in what may be the countrys largest military exercise since the Cold War. Reciting the same talking points almost verbatim, the London Guardianreported days ago that Russia is preparing to mount what could be one of its biggest military exercises since the Cold War. Like the Times, it cited estimates by Western officials and analysts that up to 1. Meanwhile, the Defense Minister of Estonia predicted that Russia may use large scale military exercises to move thousands of troops permanently into Belarus later this year in a warning to NATO. Two Polish military officials speculated darkly that Having created such a military build up under the pretext of such exercise, Russia could launch a limited or provocative military hybrid operation to see what happens and further test the waters on NATOs eastern flank, or in Ukraine, where the Russo Ukrainian conflict remains in full swing. The Missing Context. The average reader would never know that U. S. and NATO forces themselves engaged this summer in their largest military exercises since the end of the Cold War, to quote NPR. Nor would they know that NATO collectively spends 1. After capturing a 2116 victory over Duke on Saturday afternoon at Michie Stadium, the Army West Point football team completed its quest to go undefeated. How Much Exercise Needed To Lose Weight How Body Burns Fat How Much Exercise Needed To Lose Weight Workout To Burn Stomach Fat Top 10 Foods That Burn Stomach Fat. Grammar Bytes Grammar Instruction with Attitude. Includes detailed terms, interactive exercises, handouts, and moreRussia on its military, or that its European members alone field nearly 7. Russia. Couple walking along the Kremlin, Dec. Photo by Robert ParryAnd only the most attentive reader, reaching the bottom of the long New York Times story, would have learned that Russian officials have told NATO that the maneuvers will be far smaller than Western officials are anticipating and will involve fewer than 1. LONGMAN COMMUNICATION 3000 1. Longman Communication 3000 The Longman Communication 3000 is a list of These frequency markers added to. Issuu is a digital publishing platform that makes it simple to publish magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and more online. Easily share your publications and get. The anti Putin director of the Centre for Strategic and Foreign Policy Studies in Minsk points out that only 3,0. Russian military personnel will take part in the exercises in Belarus from September 1. September 2. 0. Based on these figures, the military drills are practically the same as the previous Zapad 2. He also noted that Belarus has invited no fewer than 8. In addition to the accredited military attaches of Western embassies, special delegations from the UN, the International Red Cross. NATO will be invited. This, by the way, is the first time when NATO observers are invited to such exercises. Separately, Belarus arranged for the presence of delegations from Sweden, Norway and Estonia. NATO has complained possibly with justification that Russia and Belarus have not fully complied with their obligations under the Vienna Document of 2. NATO and Russia undertook after the Cold War to provide greater transparency about their military exercises to minimize the threat of conflict. In recent years, particularly following the Ukraine crisis, growing political tensions have put a strain on such cooperative measures. A number of reasonable analysts warn that Russia may sidestep its reporting obligations by dividing its exercises into smaller units, below the threshold of 1. Organization for Security and Co operation in Europe the right to observe. Probably ExaggeratedFor example, Russia claimed that its Western exercises four years ago kept just within that threshold. But two experts writing for the conservative Jamestown Foundation in Washington, D. C. argued that if one takes a broader view of what elements constituted a part of the Zapad 2. Belarusian territory and more than 9,5. Russian territory. NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. The Guardian quotes an expert on Russias military as saying of Zapad 1. Russians say. One hundred thousand is probably exaggerated but 1. Even if true, such numbers hardly support viewing the upcoming exercises as an ominous threat to the West. A British expert, remarking on the mythology that often accompanies such events, noted that Much of the Western coverage said that the 2. Warsaw, Poland, even though there is no evidence at all from unclassified sources to suggest this was the case. Michael Kofman, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Centers Kennan Institute, has debunked many of the unfounded estimates of Zapad 1. Europe. The Russian Ministry of Defense itself likely hopes Western media will report exaggerated figures, he says. Such headlines help validate the scale and success of the exercise to national leadership in Moscow. In this respect, the entire affair is an exercise in co dependency and is self affirming. Russia unquestionably wants to impress NATO with its military capabilities, Kofman acknowledges, but thats for deterrence. Throughout the exercise, Russian armed forces will try to signal that they have the ability to impose substantial costs on a technologically advanced adversary, i. United States, he writes. Russian thinking is founded on the belief that its military can raise costs for the West such that they will grossly outweigh the potential gains for sustaining hostilities, particularly if the fight is over Belarus. Threat Inflation Nothing New. The steady drumbeat of warnings about Russian military capabilities and intentions recalls the perennial use of threat inflation since the earliest days of the Cold War to sell bigger military budgets and a permanent warfare state. Former NATO Commander Philip M. Breedlove. One of the acknowledged masters of threat inflation was NATO Supreme Commander Gen. Philip Breedlove. Hacked emails exposed his undercover campaign to leverage, cajole, convince or coerce the U. S. to react to Russia during the Obama years. Two years ago, the West German news magazine Der Spiegel, ran a lengthy article on Breedloves reckless disregard for facts. Following the Minsk ceasefire agreement, at a time of relative quiet in Ukraine between government and pro Russian forces, Breedlove held an inflammatory press conference to announce that Vladimir Putin had sent Russian armed forces with well over a thousand combat vehicles,. Eastern Ukraine. The military situation he warned was getting worse every day. German political leaders and intelligence officials were stunned, according to the magazine.