By bolting from the relatively «measured» policy of America’s Commander-in-Chief, Obama, with regard to Ukraine, Breedlove’s public Cold War mania was only exceeded by his private treasonous behavior. Breedlove’s email to Powell stated that the NATO military chief saw the events in Ukraine as an «opportunity». In his email to Powell, Breedlove believed the 2014 anti-democratic coup against President Viktor Yanukovych and the declaration of self-government by Crimea and the regions of Lugansk and Donetsk was an opportunity for the United States and NATO to engage militarily with Russia. Breedlove described some «stalwart» allies of the United States as wishing to ratchet up tensions with Russia. It is obvious that these «stalwart» allies not only included the right-wing coup government in Kiev, but NATO members itching for a NATO-led military confrontation with Russia. It is almost certain that these «stalwarts» included Poland and the Baltic states.

Breedlove used as an interlocutor with Powell the former Pentagon consultant Harlan Ullman, the man who came up with the «shock and awe» US doctrine used against Iraq. The «shock and awe» concept borrows heavily from the Nazi German «blitzkrieg» tactics, whereby a swift «lightning» strike is used against an enemy. And like the German Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe officers who punctuated their military offenses with visits to brothels in the countries they occupied, Breedlove’s friend Ullman carried on in this most ignominious of German traditions. Ullman «shocked and awed» Washington in 2007, when it was revealed that he availed himself of the services of Pamela Martin & Associates, a Washington, DC sex escort service.

It is clear that Breedlove, Ullman, the neoconservative Potomac Foundation, former NATO Supreme Commander Wesley Clark, and Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland conspired to undertake what Ullman described as an effort to «leverage, cajole, convince or coerce the US to react» to Russia in Ukraine. By «react», these treasonous co-conspirators meant open warfare between NATO and Russia. Not since the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when President John F. Kennedy faced a treasonous Joint Chiefs of Staff, has an American president seen such blatant mutinous behavior from the senior ranks of the US military.

Breedlove and his cohorts did everything possible to stir up tensions with Russia. Breedlove overestimated by 20,000 the number of Russian troops stationed near the Ukrainian frontier. «Intelligence» photos distributed to the media purporting to be Russian tanks inside Ukraine were actually Russian tanks in South Ossetia during the 2008 war with Georgia. Breedlove also tried to convince Bulgaria, a less-than-enthusiastic member of NATO, of Russian plans to invade it next after Ukraine. The invasion plan was a mere figment of Breedlove’s imagination.

The fact that Breedlove went out of his geographical area-of-responsibility by convincing Pakistan to offer Ukraine’s coup government TOW missile launcher and missiles demonstrated that the conspiracy against Obama’s policy went far beyond NATO. The plotters would have also included US Central Command chief, General Lloyd Austin, due to the fact that the transfers of US-supplied weapons from Pakistan to Ukraine would have required Austin’s approval.

Another conspirator in Breedlove’s dangerous liaisons was the then-NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former Danish Prime Minister. Rasmussen is now a political consultant to Ukrainian coup president Petro Poroshenko. One of Rasmussen’s close friends, the CIA-installed former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, is the Poroshenko-appointed governor of Odessa in Ukraine. Ukraine has never before resembled a NATO protectorate. There was also some question about why NATO chose as a successor to Rasmussen another Scandinavian, former Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. It is clear that another Scandinavian was chosen in order to ensure NATO has the political support throughout Europe to develop a two-pronged military attack strategy against Russia: one in the south involving a planned Black Sea fleet and another in the north involving NATO members Norway, Denmark, the Baltic States, and Poland supplemented by formerly neutral/non-aligned Sweden and Finland.

It is traditionally neutral/non-aligned Sweden and Finland that NATO desperately hopes to entrap in its bowels. Although Rasmussen and Stoltenberg have had no problem in getting the commitment of the southern European flank countries of the Balkans and Ukraine to take part in operations against Russia, in northern Europe, the neutral Swedes and Finns have not been as supportive of NATO’s plans as have the Balts and the Poles.

It is now known that during the Cold War, the «neutrality» of Sweden and Finland was a smoke screen. The Finns cooperated with NATO in collecting military and signals intelligence on Soviet targets in Russian Karelia – which some Finns want to see re-incorporated into a «Greater Finland», the Kola peninsula, and Leningrad. Finland’s VKL Finnish Intelligence Research Establishment («Viestikoelaitos») provided the US National Security Agency with intercepts of Russian military and diplomatic communications. The Swedes also routinely shared aerial and maritime reconnaissance intelligence collected on the Soviet Union with the United States and NATO. Swedish signals intelligence facilities maintained by the «Försvarets radioanstalt» (National Defense Radio Establishment), including one located inside the Swedish embassy that overlooked the strategic Helsinki harbor, were connected to the network of listening stations maintained by the United States and Great Britain.

NATO’s manic desire for Sweden and Finland to become part of NATO’s anti-Russian drive matches completely with that of Adolf Hitler’s «Drang nach Osten», the «drive to the East». Not only did Hitler manage to convince the Finns to join his Axis alliance but Sweden permitted German troops trains to routinely cross from Finland to Norway and vice versa. Sweden also gladly sold the Nazis war supplies, including iron ore critical for steel production.

Breedlove, Rasmussen, Stoltenberg, and their neo-Cold War confederates all pine for the «good old days» of military confrontation with Russia. These Cold War aficionados have their allies in US military commands in Hawaii, Japan, and South Korea who hope for a similar military confrontation with China. To say that these individuals are «madmen» would be a disservice to actual madmen.

American military officials are fond of saying they are given the responsibility to «keep the peace». Nothing could be further from the truth. The destabilization of a half dozen countries in the Middle East, from Libya and Syria to Iraq and Yemen, is proof that the Pentagon has perpetuated strife. The confrontations with Russia over South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk, and Transnistria demonstrate that the Pentagon sees these as potential flash points with Russia and not as regions requiring diplomatic negotiations.

NATO also sees Finland as an important ally in stoking up irredentist and nationalistic fervor among the Finno-Ugric ethnic groups from Karelia and the Baltic eastward through the increasingly-important geopolitical prize of Russia Arctic north. For that reason, the Finnish Military Intelligence Service has maintained, for at least thirty years, a small top secret branch responsible for outreach to Finno-Ugric groups, which routinely sends Finno-Ugric linguist agents deep into the Russian north to conduct liaison with groups that would assist Finland and NATO in the event of a war with Russia.

With the leak of a few Gmail messages, Breedlove’s and his colleagues’ plans for a war with Russia have been laid bare. The danger is that unlike Breedlove’s fictional almost-namesake, Dr Strangelove, the war that could result from such treason would not be a Hollywood comedy but a real one with perhaps billions of real victims.

Climate-controlled caves in Norway now house a new stock of Marine military gear and vehicles. On August 10, USS Dewayne T. Williams, a maritime prepositioning force ship, dropped anchor in Namdalseid, Norway’s Trøndelag region, to unload some 400 vehicles and 350 containers of equipment to be stored in Norwegian caves. The US Marine Corps has stashed weapons and equipment in the Norwegian countryside since the 1980s. Now the US military is updating its stockpile with M1A1 main battle tanks, tank retrievers, armored breaching vehicles, amphibious assault vehicles, expanded capacity vehicle gun trucks, and a few variants of 7½ ton trucks. 

This is the first time main battle tanks and Assault Breacher Vehicles, heavily armored tracks designed to blow up minefields and push through other obstacles, are to be stored in the bunkers. 

The US military expects to finish moving the new materiel under the mountains by the end of the month. The military storehouses in Norway will have all basic equipment to enable a US Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) to join the fray upon landing. A MEB is 14,000 to 18,000 men strong and includes tanks, helicopters and fighter jets. As the new equipment is added, some of the older gear will head back to CONUS. The operation gave Marines and Norwegian allies a chance to test a newly constructed pier built to guarantee rapid and smoothly running offload. The pre-positioning allows saving money by not having to keep a large force in Norway year-round and say that formally there is no permanent presence in the country and there is no violation of Russia-NATO Founding Act of 1997. 

Gen. Philip Breedlove told CNNTürk and the Hürriyet Daily News during a visit to U.S. troops based in Gaziantep on August 4 that the alliance was looking into a broad set of measures to counter Russia. In particular he stressed the importance of setting headquarters to coordinate anti-Russia activities, «It may be that we may need HQ in the north, in the center and in the south, these will all be looked at. But the most important thing is we will all look into measures to make NATO more responsive to crisis such as the ones in Crimea, in Ukraine, et cetera». NATO’s headquarters in Szczecin, Poland — which was established only in 1999 — is likely to be expanded as part of war preparatory effort. 

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron put the NATO’s relationship with Russia at the top of the agenda for the summit. He sent a letter to the leaders of NATO countries to outline proposals for military exercises, an improved joint response force and the stationing of equipment and supplies in Eastern Europe. «Six months into the Russia-Ukraine crisis we must agree on long-term measures to strengthen our ability to respond quickly to any threat, to reassure those allies who fear for their own country’s security and to deter any Russian aggression», Cameron wrote. 

The PM also backed Mr. Breedlove’s call for reinvigorating the NATO Response Force, a several thousand strong crisis response unit. Announced in 2002, it has conducted training exercises and peacekeeping missions, but has not functioned as a true emergency force.

What is important – the PM said the Russia-NATO Founding Act should be effective, «All NATO allies have already contributed to the alliance's response to this crisis and we should agree how we can sustain a robust presence in Eastern Europe, consistent with the NATO Russia Founding Act, to make clear to Russia that neither NATO nor its members will be intimidated», the letter added. Here is the trick. NATO will have boots on the ground as a result of never ending exercises and the pre-positioned stockpiling formally adhering to the agreement which prevents «destabilizing eastward shift in NATO's military capabilities». New HQ, large-scale round the clock exercises and stockpiles in Norway are added by the request of Poland urging NATO to base troops on its territory permanently. 

There is more to it. The Obama administration has notified Congress of its plans to train and arm the Ukrainian National Guard next year. «The Defense Department and State Department have notified Congress of our intent to use $19 million in global security contingency fund authority to train and equip four companies and one tactical headquarters of the Ukrainian national guard as part of their efforts to build their capacity for internal defense», Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters. The training, which requires congressional approval, would occur at a location within Ukraine that hosts multilateral exercises. The trainers would be provided by U.S. Army Europe and by the California National Guard. (2) Sending instructors is a start of US military presence in Ukraine, a Russia neighboring state. The need to protect the lives of US advisors in Kurdistan served as a justification for striking the Islamic State in Iraq. 

NATO has also reinforced air patrol of the Baltic States, with radar-equipped planes making regular flights over the territory of Poland and Romania.

Some NATO members, however, are already raising objections. With one eye on its energy ties with Russia, Italy has voiced concern that the permanent forward-basing of NATO troops would be seen as a provocation and run counter to the Founding Act of the NATO-Russia Council. Turkey and other Mediterranean states argue that resources should not be deployed in the east at the expense of NATO's southern flank. 

Moscow has repeatedly expressed concern over Western pressure. Russian President Vladimir Putin told a meeting of Russia’s Security Council on July 22 that Russia must complete boosting its defense capabilities timely and in full amid the increased NATO military presence near Russian borders, «In fact, NATO is demonstratively reinforcing its grouping on the territory of East European states, including in the areas of the Black and Baltic Seas».

Currently Russia is implementing an ambitious $640 billion rearmament program planned to run up until 2020. The program will see the share of modern weaponry in Russia’s armed forces reach 30 percent by 2015 and 70 percent by 2020. The Russian military is to assign an additional three air assault brigades to the Airborne Forces in order to boost its rapid reaction capability in future conflicts. At present the service numbers about 35,000 men deployed in four divisions and a brigade. Despite their elite status, less than 30 percent are currently professionals. It is planned to have about 80 percent professional soldiers and only 20 percent conscripts in its ranks by 2015. The airborne troops inventory is going to receive several advanced BMD-4M airborne fighting vehicles and Rakushka armored personnel carriers for testing in field conditions by 2015.

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Besides the peril of military stand-off there is an economic aspect of the matter. Evidently a confrontation with Russia would prove far too costly. 

According to Economist, the euro-zone's feeble recovery since the spring of 2013 came to a halt in the second quarter of 2014, when GDP stagnated. The euro area was held back by poor performances in its three biggest economies. GDP fell in Germany, the biggest, and Italy, the third largest, by 0.2%; France, the second largest economy, stagnated. The weakness in the euro zone is arousing fears that the 18-country currency club may fall into deflation. Inflation fell to just 0.4% in July, well below the European Central Bank's target of almost 2 %.

The US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) feels rather gloomy about the U.S economic outlook in 2014. The CBO expects the U.S. economy in 2014 to remain moribund and for unemployment to remain near eight percent. The extra dollars pumped into the economy were supposed to spur economic growth. It had the reverse effect, shrinking the buying power of each dollar, the driving force of inflation. As the U.S. dollar continues to decline in value against other world currencies, goods imported into the U.S. become more expensive. Unemployment rates in the US rose in 30 states in July last month, even as employers in two-thirds of the states stepped up hiring.

Russia hit back in response to West’s sanctions. The Russian retaliatory measures, combined with other import bans imposed earlier this year, cover Western imports that were worth $8.7 billion in 2013, according to Russian customs data. Among the main victims are Dutch cheese, Norwegian salmon, and Spanish fruit and vegetables. Besides Europe, the Russian ban also covers produce from the U.S., Canada and Australia, which have all imposed sanctions on Moscow. Switzerland was spared, having indicated this week that it won't follow other Western nations in imposing economic sanctions. 

Russia already banned the main agricultural import from the U.S., poultry, early this year. But the U.S. also sold $231 million of fruit to Russia last year, which will now be embargoed along with Canadian seafood and Australian beef. 

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Perhaps the situation demands quite a different approach. According to Dimitri K. Simes, President of the Center for the National Interest and publisher of the National Interest magazine «Efforts to isolate and punish Moscow will push it into seeking closer ties with China. Supplying Ukraine or the Baltics with a blank check would only encourage the kind of behavior that may cost them dearly if Russia disregards NATO’s red lines. The appropriate response to Russia is to consider how we can convince it to choose restraint and, when possible, cooperation. Such an approach must be based on an analytical assessment of how Russia defines its interests and objectives rather than the way American policy makers would define them in Moscow’s shoes».

It’s a good thing that there are voices within NATO calling for efforts to reach mutual understanding and start a constructive negotiation process instead of sabre rattling and economic warfare. There is also a hope for better days to come.