Ashton Carter: Secretary of Defense

2 defense ministers discuss
world affairs

       President Obama sent his Secretary of Defense to Europe to assure our West European allies that, despite commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, we still have plenty to share with our traditional partners.  This trip is an example of modern political maneuvering.  Russya/Putin moves into Crimea; North Korea fires a missile toward Japan; Myanmar kicks out Rahinga minorities; Sudanese President Bashir eludes arrest in South Africa; Iran continues support of international terrorism; China builds a new island military base in the South China Sea; Libya attempts to govern itself as smugglers cast refugees adrift toward Lampedusa Is.; and these are just the tip of the iceberg.
     For added spice: Chinese government sponsored hackers tap into the Office of Personnel Management computer data base and steal all the information of all federal employees, even retirees.
My, my.  Those Chinese of President Xi have been busy.  Down Hong Kong way, citizens have been upset over elections.  Seems Beijing set the list of candidates-all Communists approved by the Party.  I'd be upset ,too.   It's like elections in Russya when Putin is on the ballot: you must vote for him or else.  Funny how every Ryussyan knows Mad Vlad is a fraud: bought his position as president and stole the money to buy the votes.  Ahhh, Russya.  What would have happened to odern Russya if Napolean had a decent weather forecast?   French-speaking Slavs?
       But Ash Carter is just making the statement that the USA is putting a few antique pieces of armor somewhere in Slovakia and Slovenia in case some Ukrainians go wild and head west.  Speaking of Ukraines: who's in charge today-Putin?   Yes, as long as he has oil revenue.