Save Breedlove

The Independent has offered quite a piece of reading: "Nato commander calls for return to service of U-2 spy plane to help conduct surveillance on a resurgent Russia".

Well, I am not going to discuss the evident fact of Russia being resurgent; I'm rather into another evident fact: this is an insufferable event for some of the big guys around there, and Philip Breedlove is not an exception.

The very idea of bringing back U-2 for surveillance over Russia sounds as kind of a mental diagnosis to a formerly brave US fighter pilot and presently NATO supreme allied commander, who is to step down this spring.

56 year ago, on May 1, 1960 a U-2 did a great service in breaking US-USSR relations; Gary Powers did not commit suicide... Surely, for the US military those were good old times and bright hopes; a great war seemed to be round the corner. Luckily, then, in the sixties, big guys succeeded to overcome all crises and kept the strategic peace till now (I am not talking about local wars; those bloodsheds did not threaten the very existence of life on Earth).

Now, in 2016, the Breedlove's idea is not only desperately outdated; it puts under question the very ability of the high-ranked military to perceive reality adequately.



And there is another point in the article, that made me laugh out loud.

Analysts said the fact that Russian forces were now much closer to Nato’s borders in places like the Baltics meant there was a pressing need for early warning of any deployments in the region by Moscow...

A schoolboy can get it a bit wrong. It sounds like those evil bloodthirsty Russians (or Commies, who cares) treacherously advanced to the borders of "democratic world" bravely defended by NATO.

However, it is not the case at all; quite oppositely, it was NATO that treacherously advanced to Russian borders, breaking all spoken promises given to Gorbachev and Eltsin in late eighties and early nineties.

A delusionary idea of a "victory" in the Cold War made US leadership to lose their minds and feel the USA is an exceptional and only superpower around the globe, entitled to teach others how to behave (with rare exceptions like Saudi Arabia, which until now can freely stone subhumans, that is women, and gays). NATO's eastwards advance, combined with multiple attempts of "exporting democracy" to — you name it — Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine just blew up the world's balance and buried the European security.

It turned out that it was not the USSR or Nikita Khruschev that buried the West (by the way; quite an example of misunderstanding coming from mistranslation); the US-lead West has been successfully burying itself for decades.

And unfortunately, I expect we will see much more Mogherini's tears in the future.