In response to Russia firing artillery rounds on Ukraine this week in an effort to control that country, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey -- America's highest-ranking military officer -- said that the US and NATO are preparing to crush any attempt by Russia to control any nation in Eastern Europe, the Yahoo News website reports today (July 25, 2014).
Dempsey said Russia's actions in Ukraine signaled a significant "change in the relationship of the U.S. and Russia," but said America's first instinctual response to Russian aggression should be to look at NATO and the role it played against the Soviet Union a half century ago.
"That's why NATO was created... to increase stability, offset Soviet aggression at the time, but maintain a stable Europe. And we've been successful at that for 60 years," Dempsey said. "So the first step here is to have that conversation in the halls of NATO while recognizing the change and taking stock in ourselves -- in our capabilities, in our readiness, in our deterrent capabilities."
Beyond Russia's intentions in Ukraine, Dempsey said he also feared that Russian President Vladimir Putin could be in danger of "lighting a fire that he loses control of" by stoking a potentially "quite dangerous" strain of nationalism in Europe.
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