US military using Ukraine conflict to prepare for wars against Russia and China: Report

The US military is using the Ukraine conflict to “prepare for future fights against a major adversary such as Russia or China," according to the Associated Press.

The New York-based news agency reported on Saturday that the US military is training to fight in an environment heavily shaped by the Russian military campaign against Ukraine that was launched about two months ago.

The purpose of this month’s war game in California is to prepare for future wars against Russia or China, the news agency said.

The report said the role players in the exercise at the Fort Irwin National Training Center in the Mojave Desert speak Russian. About 4,500 soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division are pitted against the fictional “Devonian’ forces – the exercise’s apparent stand-in for the Russians – who control the fictional town of Ujen.

The enemy fires rockets and missiles in the drill, all while using a sophisticated disinformation campaign to make “false accusations” against US troops. The participants “have their phones ready to film and post quickly to social media,” according to the report.

“I think right now the whole Army is really looking at what’s happening in Ukraine and trying to learn lessons,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told AP. “The Russia-Ukraine experience is a very powerful illustration for our Army of how important the information domain is going to be.”

On February 24, Russia began a “special military operation” in Ukraine’s Donbas region to defend people subjected to "genocide" there against government forces, stressing that Moscow has “no plans to occupy Ukrainian territory.”

Did US military stand down in face of the Russian nuclear alert?

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the country’s military to postpone a planned test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile after Putin put Russia’s nuclear forces on “high alert.”

US President Joe Biden called the Russian action an "unprovoked and unjustified attack," and the American media described it as the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two.

Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of spreading disinformation. Meanwhile, the US intelligence has admitted that its own information about the situation wasn’t “rock solid.”

Ukraine war a 'rehearsal-by-proxy' for US war with Russia, China 

Commenting on the AP report, American journalist Don DeBar said, "What we are looking at, in essence, is a dress rehearsal for World War 3. Perhaps, in fact, it's the opening act. It is a rehearsal-by-proxy of a US war with Russia, where the expense is paid with Ukrainian lives and infrastructure, and the income accrues to US weapons manufacturers and contractors." 

“The US doesn't do war the heroic way as portrayed by Hollywood. In reality, it is done, in playground terms, in a cowardly way,” he added. 

“The US first starves, isolates and otherwise weakens 'the enemy,’ and then attacks when resistance is nearly impossible. It uses proxies wherever possible, tries to minimize its own military casualties (in order to protect against the possible rise of domestic opposition) and maximizes the enemy's civilian casualties, in order to ‘shock and awe’ them into early submission. Thus, clearly, when a war is coming - and one is coming, if Washington has its way - having proxies make the enemy shoot and display their capacity, strategies and tactics would of course be a useful way of studying and preparing for it,” he stated.  

“The US has been steadily moving into position to pick up the invasion and conquest of Russia that Hitler detailed from his first public writing in 1924 through the peak of the advance under Operation Barbarossa at the Battle of Moscow in December 1941 - January 1942. Had the recent coup attempts in Belarus and Kazakhstan succeeded, US/NATO positions would have been very near to that point in terms of geography. In terms of strategic value, the situation would have been even more favorable to US/NATO forces, given the relative sophistication of modern weaponry over that of the Nazis in the 1940s. The people who make US policy, like Hitler before them, view Russia as the next Africa - a plum to be taken and devoured, with its people to be used to provide the labor to pluck that fruit. This is the model the US has used for its foreign policy since at least the statement of the Monroe Doctrine in the early 19th century,” he said.

“Robert Hare, the psychologist who created the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R), said that people with sociopathy may have little empathy and a habit of rationalizing their actions. But, he said, they do know the difference between right and wrong,” the analyst said.

“By contrast, for those suffering from psychopathy, according to Hare, there is no sense of morality or empathy involved,” he said.

“To the extent that a ‘knowing’ of violation of some standard of right and wrong can be gleaned, this is of little consequence to the rest of the world, which suffers the consequences of US actions,” he added.

“In any event, each of those terms could be applied to US foreign policy,” DeBar explained.

“The working definitions of sociopathy include a persistent pattern of disregard for others. For example:

Ignoring social norms and laws, or breaking rules;

Overstepping social boundaries,

Stealing, stalking and harassing others,

Destroying property

Dishonesty and deceit, including using false identities,

Manipulating others for personal gain

Difficulty controlling impulses and planning for the future,

Acting without considering the consequences,

Aggressive or aggravated behavior, including frequent fights or physical conflict with others,

Disregard for personal safety, or the safety of others,

Difficulty managing responsibilities,

Little to no guilt or remorse, or a tendency to justify actions that negatively affect others.”

DeBar concluded, "If that isn't US foreign policy summed up to a 'T' then I have been looking at something else for the last 60 years." 

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk