An Inauguration Day Surprise?

• An Inauguration Day Surprise? 
  by Justin Raimondo, January 16, 2017, http://antiwar.com/
  Obama laying down landmines for Trump administration. Is the Obama administration out to provoke a military conflict with Russia in the days before Donald J. Trump takes the oath of office?
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  In July of 2014, the US announced the start of “Operation Atlantic Resolve” in response to the vote by Crimea – which took place nearly three years ago — to rejoin the Russian Federation. Now the Obama administration has announced that 6,000 more US troops will be deployed, initially in Germany and Poland, and eventually fanning out to Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, and Slovakia. Accompanying them will be 144 Bradley fighting vehicles, 87 M1A1 tanks, heavy artillery, and aircraft.
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  Europe hasn’t seen such an increase in the US troop presence since the fall of the Soviet Union. Coming as it does with mere days left in Obama’s term of office, this action invites all sorts of speculation: however, one need not speculate as to whether this is a political move. Clearly it is: the idea is to box in President-elect Trump, who has expressed his desire to improve relations with Russia.
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  The mere expression of such a view has provoked a storm of abuse from the War Party, and a relentless campaign of calumny orchestrated by the CIA to the effect that Trump is “Putin’s puppet.” The deranged Democrats, looking for some way to excuse why their weak and widely disliked candidate lost the election, have explained it all away by claiming that a Russian conspiracy “stole” the White House from Hillary Clinton by revealing truthful and embarrassing information via Wikileaks. It doesn’t matter that there’s no evidence for this contention: in alliance with anonymous “US officials,” spooks, and “journalists” who believe everything the CIA tells them, this has become the elite consensus.
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  This sets the stage for what may be Trump’s first foreign policy crisis. If President Trump, upon taking office, withdraws the troops, the anti-Russia hysterics will scream bloody murder. If he doesn’t, the risk of an “incident” occurring on the border with Russia increases – as does the risk of an all-out conflict with a nuclear-armed adversary.
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  This underscores the recklessness of the Obama administration and the NeverTrumpers: they are willing to risk World War III in order to sabotage Trump’s peace agenda. Despicable is too mild a term to describe their actions.
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