Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey said Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin's new use of Russian military force inside Ukraine harkens back to 1939 when Joseph Stalin led a Russian invasion of Poland, and Dempsey predicted Putin was far from finished.
Dempsey was speaking to the Aspen Security Forum and responding to the news that the U.S. government is accusing the Russian military of firing artillery from Russian territory into eastern Ukraine in support of separatists there. The latest development represents a dangerous escalation of the crisis on the part of Putin, and the Russia-Ukraine crisis is now a global problem, he said.
"It does change the situation. You've got a Russian government that has made a conscious decision to use its military force inside another sovereign nation to achieve its objectives. It's the first time since 1939 or so that that's been the case," Dempsey said. "They clearly are on a path to assert themselves differently not just in Eastern Europe, but Europe in the main, and towards the United States."
Comment: Since 2001 the United States has engaged in, funded and otherwise supported the mass murder against the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Palestine, and Ukraine. It has somewhere around 1,000 bases around the world (no one knows the true figure), and yet the U.S. flames Putin (without a shred of evidence) for what they themselves do.
Even if Russia did decide to fire back at Kiev forces, they would be justified since Ukraine forces have been shelling Russian territory over the past weeks.
Let's take a look at the full statement from Marie Harf from the State Department and her refusal to provide any evidence of their allegations. Even Matt Lee of the Associated Press mocks the ridiculous claims: