Trump buys Lithuania, EU cannot stop it
Adomas Abromaitis
Stock photo: C-17 transport plane at an airfield in Lithuania
The US President Donald Trump is no doubt a successful businessman who rules his country as if it is a huge enterprise. And this kind of management, to his mind, should lead to success. And very often it really works. As a wise leader he uses different tools to reach his goals. Thus, the most cunning one, which the US exploits in Europe – is indirect influence on the EU countries to gain the desired aim. The EU just becomes a tool in “capable hands” of the US.
Let us give the simple example. Last week the Ministry of National Defence of Lithuania announced that the Lithuanian Air Force Base in Šiauliai would get de-icing equipment for the aircraft. It would be acquired according to an agreement signed by the Ministry of National Defence and the AF Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate (AFSACD) on behalf of the Government of the United States of America.
It is known that the new equipment is capable of removing ice from aircraft at the necessary height which allows the Šiauliai Air Base to support bigger aircraft of the Alliance, such as C-17 – one of the largest transport aircraft capable of moving a large number of soldiers and large amounts of cargo.
It is said that “the procurement for the Lithuanian Air Force Base will fill a critical capability gap and allow the Base personnel to carry out cold weather operations, as well as support the NATO Air Policing Mission. The equipment will also be used for providing servicing for the aircraft of the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battle Group-contributing countries and other NATO allies at the Air Base.”
But according to data from Flight Global, only three C-17s belongs to NATO. The US, in its turn, has 222 C-17s in service as of Jan. 2018. Among EU member states the only country that has C-17A ERs is the United Kingdom with 8 C-17A ERs in use. But The United Kingdom is in the process of leaving the organization. So, it is logical to assume that the most interested country in deploying C-17 in Lithuania is the US, not the EU or even NATO. And of course Lithuania cannot even dream of having such planes.
The second issue which is even more important is the fact that the agreement of approximate value of USD 1.03 million is financed from the European Security Assistance Fund (ESAF). Lithuania is not able to share the burden.
So, nothing depends on Lithuania in this issue. It only gives permission.
In the recent years Lithuania’s procurement from the US has grown significantly. The ministry of National Defence is currently in negotiations with the US department of Defence for procuring JLTV all-terrain vehicles.
Unfortunately, being a member of the EU, Lithuania so hardly depends on the US in military and security spheres that it often mixes up its real needs, responsibilities to the EU with the US interests in the region. Such approach could seriously complicate the relations with neighbouring Russia and Belarus which Lithuania borders. These two countries are interested in Lithuania as an economic partner. But if Lithuania will pose military threat to them, deploying US military equipment, these states could terminate any economic cooperation.
Is it a cooperation or manipulation and who will benefit?
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Thanks for the article, this is very interesting information for consideration.
The UK is not leaving NATO any time soon. They are supposed to leave the EU in March (I doubt it), but there are NATO countries which are not members of the EU, such as Norway and Turkey.
you forgot Canada and the United States.
Nationalism, patriotism and jingoism.
They can bring out the animal in us.
This article is complete shit. It is not true. Lithuania was independent for a long time nad it was a rich country. It was bright and educated until Russians and Germans took it apart in 177*, afterwards normal people were made slaves, until after WW1, when we we freed and again, a lot of progress was made and people were getting rich and educated. We have old universities.. After WW2, half of the countries educated people were killed by Russians. Only in 1990 we were freed again. And afterwards – life in this country is improving at a alarming rate. We are free to speak, to move abroad, get educacion, make money, travel. We loose some young people, but a lot are coming back after we get rich. We have best climate, 4 seasons, nice people and culture. We would never ever want to be in Russia again. It sucks.… Read more »
There’s a massive amount of anti Russian propaganda in the past 5-10 years and outright lies, However, i fully recognise and agree what you say about many Russians, particularly in Soviet times.
Other European countries were let down at Yalta by Roosevelt and Churchill and left to Stalin to subjugate them.
Rightly or not, that’s the reason why so many Eastern European fear even hate Russia and the Neoconservatives are exploiting these fears.
“Other European countries were let down at Yalta by Roosevelt and Churchill and left to Stalin to subjugate them.” This is ludicrously unhistorical: Lithuania, a major base for the siege of Leningrad, in which more people died than the in the US Armed Forces, around the world in the entire World War was occupied by the Red Army in order to prevent it from being used to renew hostilities on the USSR. That this was entirely logical is demonstrated by the way in which it now uses every opportunity to initiate hostilities with Russia. As this article point out it is now preparing itself to serve as a base for the heaviest troop carrying planes in the US Air Force. What other purpose can there be for that than to facilitate an invasion of Russia? That the post Nazi fantasies being pursued by the grandchildren of Hitler’s most enthusiastic executioners… Read more »
Sorry but Lithuania just lost 12% of its population in the last decade. It doesn’t look like paradise. Neoliberal politics seem to be the main culprit, and perhaps the extreme eagerness of the Lithuanian rulers to please American interests and to stand first in line when it comes to agitate against the Russian ghost have also played a part in creating this future-less environment. It is a pity because you do have a long and rich history, dating back to at least the 1250s.
Having just left Lithuania to live and work in UK, I can’t say that I agree with your post. As a Lithuanian I honestly think we are still as bad as Russia. Yes, we are ahead of them, but only by 5-8 years. I earn £32,000 more doing same, albeit less stressful job in UK (Lead programmer)
Don’t worry, there’s a lot of ideological zealots posting comments here, looking at the world from their Soviet Politburo eyes.
The amusing part is that they never had to live in Russia at that time and queue up for essential goods or wait ten years for the Lada car they bought to be delivered.
The same ideologues support the economic disaster of Maduro in Venezuela (but US interference is not the answer).
Thankfully Russia is a much better place today but sadly the Yanks want to grab its $100 trillion of natural resources, so i do support Russia to defend themselves against NATO’s aggression and expansion.
Apparently, you are from Lithuania? Well, I must say you have a very peculiar vision of both history and the current situation of Lithuania (its “successes”). 1) You start with what you say to the author of the article: “It is not true”. But… What is not true? You don’t argue your objection in any way, but begin to tell your vision of the history of Lithuania. But why the history? The article merely states that the United States has carried out certain military deals in/with Lithuania. Are you saying that it is not so? 2) Then you claim that Russia and Germany “took Lithuania apart in 177*”. They did it just like that? Mean, they had nothing to do, and they suddenly decided that it was time to take Lithuania apart? You must be kiddin’. Maybe it’s better to not dissemble and spread dubious propaganda, but tell the truth?… Read more »
Thank you for this full and eloquent reply. ‘Frankly Speaking’ ‘s answer is eagerly awaited.
In 1991, the Soviet Union “gave away” 2 million square miles of territory and nearly 50% of its population, to create 14 new countries, including crappy Lithuania. These areas were a drain on the Russian Federation and Russia was glad to get rid of them. Doesn’t sound to me like a dangerous expansionist power trying to grab territory. Though the US dual national neocon clowns in the Baltics have such a high opinion of their shitty little Nazi countries that they have convinced themselves Putin is constantly scheming to invade and seize the beautiful Lithuanian peat bogs and the famous Estonian lap dancing bars. Many people of Russian heritage were born in these areas and have lived there all their lives. They were part of Russia for hundreds of years. But they are not allowed to vote, obtain a passport, or work in any government job. But of course these… Read more »
@ Mark : Good comment apart from the disappointing last couple of words. Check out these two links for the right direction:
https://grayfalcon.blogspot.com/2013/01/on-great-war-again.html
http://original.antiwar.com/malic/2012/09/28/the-enduring-schism/
For an in-depth, meticulously referenced book that will change your perceptions on the subject of WW1, read: “Folly and Malice: The Hapsburg Empire, the Balkans, and the Start of World War One” by John Zametica; Shepheard-Walwyn, London, 2017.
Yes, you’re right, there’s plenty of blame to go round for the start of the war. Austria, Germany, France, Russia as well. But this was state sponsored terrorism by Serbia. Austria was more justified in invading Serbia than the US was in invading Afghanistan. If it had just been left to those two countries, Serbia would have routed the Austrian invasion, followed by some kind of messy uneasy peace. But it would have been localised and not a global war.
Bismarck predicted this. He thought a general war would break out “because of some damn foolish business in the Balkans”, and the whole of the Balkan countries “were not worth the bones of one German soldier.” If he had been around he wouldn’t have let it happen.
A Laff Creator, you forgot to mention that during Lithuania’s Golden Age of Independence after WW1 ended in 1918 up until 1940, the Poles nicked Vilnius in April 1919 and tried to destabilise Lithuania in August of the same year. The Soviets returned Vilnius to Lithuania in 1920, in less than glorious circumstances to themselves. Polish forces later detached Vilnius from the rest of Lithuania by declaring a “republic”, paving the way for Warsaw to annex Vilnius and the surrounding region in 1923.
Vilnius didn’t return to Lithuania until after the Soviets occupied the country and returned the city again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius
He lost me at Trump being successful businessman and great leader
He lost me at Trump being ‘successful businessman’ and great leader
… I thought he was joking.
It was bad writing at the least.
The Baltic (not in the same territorial arrangements the three Republics occupy today) was a part of Imperial Russia, the Bolsheviks let it free in 1919, all three States turned dictatorships before WW2. The USSR took them over after the war, the populace suffered as much as that of Russia, the only positive was that the Kremlin communist thugs located the USSR manufacture of ‘advanced electronic gear’ (if the Soviet radios, fridges and stuff could be labelled ‘advanced’) in the Baltic. Most of that capacity (almost all) was shipped back to mainland Russia after 1990, or it closed down, it was the main source of employment (except for agriculture). Today, the countries are empty of the young, only those who cannot leave remain, or the Russians who live mainly in the cities, they are either Russian passport holders or stateless (that goes roughly for all the Baltic Republics), the Russians… Read more »
Way off topic, but thanks for the link. Fine, solid houses, well-fed and clothed people, who thrive without outside interference.
Interesting to see Dykanka included; the village which gave us Gogol, and who based his best early stories from the village of the same name.
Baron cannot but tip his hat to you, eddie, not many know about it, the short stories in Gogol’s ‘Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka’ are a delight mixing the humorous with the macabre.
Another thing, eddie:
The pictures are indeed charming, but they show neither the hard slog, nor the poverty of the place, they were intended for the tourists and travellers, one wouldn’t expect them to buy if they showed the other side of life. One of Baron’s ancestor’s served in the military in that part of today’s Ukraine that was under the governance of the pre-WW2 Czechoslovakia. “Awful’ was his verdict.
If you’re familiar with Gogol’s ‘The Overcoat’, the plight of the low ranking state employee who’s laughed at because of his old coat, buys a new one, gets mugged …. you would figure that others who were not on a guaranteed income were worse off than him.
Baron’s favourite are the stories by a Czech satirical writer J Hasek who travelled the region. Unfortunately, these are not available in English.
Kind sir, I beg to differ, I have read Jaroslav Hasek’s stories under the title “The Good Soldier Svejk” in print in English translation and some of them are available online as well.
They are available in English, have been so for a long time. I read them nearly 20 years ago. They were published in print under the title “The Good Soldier Svejk”. Some are available in PDF online.
Good Soldier Svejk is a full novel, Hasek wrote a lot more, it’s his stories from old Hungary, Eastern Ukraine, Russia Baron’s talking about. Priceless. Are these available in English?
Lmao haven’t read such bs in a while. The majority of youth that is going to UK or any nordic country are the most uneducated retards there are. Most of them get employed at some fish factory etc. Because they can’t work anyother job with that 10year of school knowledge.
Huge problem with them in Ireland. Look at any Irish newspaper and see how many Lithuanians are involved in horrific, violent crimes – especially against their own countryfolk.
Absolutely useless article, the result of sick mind, of writer. You where grow up on cheap Porn movies and never seen Lithuania at all. And you imagine it as part of post sovietic Russia with dancing Bear and drunk russian guys around singing soviet pop songs. “First of all”, as you british m***********r like to say, it is not post sovietic country anymore. This is country with such a deepest history, one of or maybe, or just the oldest language in Europe. Yes, apart of english language, it is a lot of other languages around you, just you are too lazy to find this out. So economicly and defence industry Lithuania depend of NATO and EU, but this is in theory, everybody, know, what if any military conflict would be, NATO would pretend they didn’t hear anf didn’t see anything. So it is not important at all, US give us… Read more »
Lithuania was part of Russia for hundreds of years, ever since the Swedes invaded the area and got their butts kicked by Peter the Great. It was created as an artificial new country in 1919 for geopolitical reasons. This was rectified in 1939. German Memel went back to Germany. Russia reclaimed its lost territory from the western powers who had robbed it when it was weak and defenceless after 1917. I’m not surprised there’s plenty of room to walk in the countryside. There’s nobody there. Nobody wants to live there. A million have voted with their feet and left since 1991. In a few years time the only people left will be a few rabid Neocon US dual nationals desperately trying to stir up trouble in the area. Why would Putin invade it? He doesn’t want it, not even if you offered him free wine glasses to take it. Even… Read more »
Actually Lithuania was part of the joint Polish-Lithuanian kingdom from 1386 onwards until the dismemberment of the kingdom (by then a commonwealth under an elected monarch, after the Jogaila / Jagiellonian dynasty died out in the 1500s) in the 1795.
Just give the damn place back to the Teutonic Knights.
Jen, thanks for correcting Mark
@Robertas: “Lithuania is the most beautiful country in Europe, with oldest old town, with beautiful nature places, Baltic seaside the most beautiful human bodies, the tasty beer, and real organic food. This is the place with clear water lakes, where you can swim, fishing, and boating, not like in UK. This the place where the most beautiful woman, act as woman, not geting drunk, not screaming and peeing on the street, not act as drunk cow. This is the place, where everybody would like to live, if only to open their deep closed eyes …”
Thank you, Robertas, for your confirmation of what I myself was thinking when I looked at Baron’s postcards (above). I was thinking, what a beautiful countryside, what neat well built houses, what sturdy people, I would like to live there — except I might have to work hard and miss my creature comforts.
I strongly disagree with you in one point!The most beautiful country in Europe is (put a name of your country instead of bracketed text)!
“First of all”, as you british m***********r like to say, it is not post sovietic country anymore.
WTF are you talking about? What is “m***********r” and why are you attacking my country? Trump is an American and we are leaving the EU.
(And why has this m***n been given so many “likes” for this gibberish?)
@John2020
England has sadly become the obedient poodle of the US neoliberals and neocons. Brexit is their project, pushed through their right wing media in Britain.
Post Brexit, English politicians will be licking US arses even more, just look at the revolting Williamson and Fox for starters. Johnson is a dual British US national too.
The Brexiteers appalling behaviour and comments is rightly pissing off normally placid people elsewhere, hence the comments you complain about.
Yes its so good there,but then you yourself just said 75% öf the people left !!
Wow, what a piece of shit is this article. It’s so misleading and inaccurate. How fucked your mind has to be to write this.
Great response. Care to tell us why, or you’re just trolling? No need to suggest any kind of mental instability, either.. it just makes you look like a twat
So, nothing depends on Lithuania in this issue. It only gives permission
Geography does
The title of this article is so misleading. Another writer trying to grab attention for a sake of reactions….
what, pray, should the title of this article be, oh sub-editor in the cloud?
Is not Lithuania one of the key hubs for the Institute for Statecraft’s II operations, organising clusters in neighbouring countries? with links to various other US gongos, as well as Brigade 77…
“. . . Organising cluster flux in neighbouring countries?”
Maybe sounds even more accurate , David 😉
Mega MAGA Magma 🙂 Hot lava flows of propaganda, streaming & steaming to de-ice and thaw the cold war , in the ‘Corridor’ , which nobody in NATO ever respected , or intended to . . . >>>
Not NATO , surely ? ! 🙂
The same demographic time-bomb is also taking place in Estonia and Latvia. In the space of one generation these micro states will cease to exist. Given their nazi past when they joined in with the Nazi SS Einsatzgruppen death squads in an orgy of mass extermination this will be no bad thing. What goes around, comes around. No more SS reunions in Riga, Vilnius and Tallin.
Unfortunately that’s what happens when small countries are surrounded by aggressive animal states. Nazis from the west and Communist nazis from the east. War is now over but damage done to lithuanian by nazis and bolshevik scum bags can still be felt. Nazis from the west have been defeted but Russian with all the xenophobia, rasism, homophobia and antisemitism is still out there lead by Adolf Putin. It’s weird how Soviets fought against nazis to become nazi state themselves.
Bullshit Mark,read my reply to Francis Lee-
This is a troll using my name. He does this occasionally. He normally spouts hasbara garbage under the name Antonym. – Mark
I’m not an uncritical admirer of Putin, but I would never call him a Nazi. Without him, Russia would have been destroyed by the Jewish oligarchs and western parasitic finance capital. It would be like Ukraine is today, or maybe Iraq or Libya.
Too bad “Mark” that the admins can see our IP addresses and can see who is lying, or who is acting…they can also see from which area we are posting (US, UK or South Asia for example)
IF not using VPN etc. like state paid trolls.
@Antonym , once again you make zero sense and blow your cover, as Troll , with a particular vendetta against Mark, it would seem. I feel obligated to mention that we are not idiots , (like you , LMAO 🙂 Thanx for the entertainment and confirmation again, that all your comments are effectively worthless, with an agenda, like when you were commenting on Pakistan & Afghanistan last week, when you ridiculously copy/pasted from one article to the next , the identical text full of mistakes, projection & transference (like listing countries, but never ISRAEL, again here above) … Son, you are not only firkin’ useless @Trollin’, but a complete AshkeNazi aS-Swipe, direct to next comment, coz’ nobody with a brain would take your contributions seriously. I’m just amazed that your account is not already erased and / or phased with control methodology for yer’ next pathetic future attempts , in… Read more »
Don’t be too hard on the poor guy. He has to earn his shekel a line or the troll factory manager will be on his back.
Mark, are you Mark.1 or Mark.2? Only asking because noted a change in Avatar from Mark below.
The fake Mark (Antonym) has a different avatar. You can always tell us apart because the fake Mark is always spouting complete BS.
That makes two of you ;o)
Idiot! What a demented load of delusional nonsense.
Doushbag, you don’t know what you are talking about!
Wrong,they all fought to preserve a Christian Europe, when the reds came in 1919 and again in 1939 which ethnic group led the commies to commit massacres against the educated,intellectuals and business classes ?? Just like they did in Katyn with the Polish Officer class.
The problem today is that these minor nations and Poland still blame todays Russia rather than seeing who really ran the show in communist Soviet Union.
These are very proud nations sadly exploited by the US now.
The Petrograd coup was actually in carried out by Latvian troops. the nonsense that Latvia fought to preserve “Christian Europe” is true only in the sense that the Baltic barons, of German and Swedish origin, fought to preserve the estates accumulated during the long wars against the slavs, whose christianity was of a more antique variety than that of the Westerners. Their position on the Baltic made it possible for their troops, much reinforced by foreigners (including Field Marshal to be Alexander) to resist local attempts to form a socialist republic. It should be recalled that these Baltic nations had all been part of the Russian Empire and benefited from the Bolshevik policy-formulated by Stalin- of opening the doors of the Tsarist Prison House of Nations. Where the idea came from that “Reds” carried out massacres of educated people and intellectuals (it is good to see that someone recognises the… Read more »
Your Soviet revisionist claptrap belongs to the previous century.
“” shitty little Nazi country” is a really unnecessary insult” – maybe but sadly it seems to be true. I’m old enough to remember the south of this planet being forced to allow a swathe of ‘shitty little Nazis’ in as refugees. They came from Poland, Hungary, Croatia, the Ukraine plus Lithuania & Estonia. Much better educated than your average ‘reffo’ who had lost what little they had and who had taken to getting a reasonable go in their new countries like a duck to water; for some reason these types tended to eschew the support groups for emigres set up to assist people from eastern & central european cultures. Judging by their current foreign minister, Canada probably copped a chunk as well. The other weird thing was that these bourgeois refugees didn’t arrive until a few years after the original ww2 refugees hsd turned up from europe. Post teaching… Read more »
Why put Trump in this title about Lithuania? Bill Clinton was Deep state’s front man in 1998 when the “Charter of Partnership with Baltic States was created, where defense was prominent. https://clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov/WH/New/html/19980120-1169.html
Imagine Russia acting similar with Cuba and Canada!
Trump says he wants a much more isolationist US.
Sad to see Lithuania turning itself into one giant military base for the US. What’s going to happen if and when the US economy finally collapses and the money spigot stops running?
Lithuania is just a shitty little Nazi country like the rest of the Baltics. The population has fallen since independence from 3.7 to 2.7 million. Everyone who can has left. The country is run by rabid US dual nationals parachuted in by the State Department. If it just had normal relations with Russia, it could earn a fortune as a transit hub and gas pipeline route. But it has forfeited this as a US satellite. It is just too unreliable. In a few years time there won’t be anybody left. The economy was destroyed by financialisation and speculative bubbles.
” shitty little Nazi country” is a really unnecessary insult.
That said, Lithuania, or rather its corrupt leaders, signed on to the EU / NATO – which are the “gloves” of Washington – and the country pays the price. It’s gambling that war will never come….or: as long as its misleaders have offshore accounts and hideaways, they don’t care. It hates Russia reflexively and its leaders didn’t have the wisdom or patriotism to be cautious with the uni-power. Thus it allows itself to be transformed into a forward base for US aggression.
Most of Europe is sorry for these decision, because the Baltic countries plus Poland endanger us all….unlike Finland.
@elenits: “Lithuania, or rather its corrupt leaders, signed on to the EU / NATO – which are the “gloves” of Washington – and the country pays the price. It’s gambling that war will never come….or: as long as its misleaders have offshore accounts and hideaways, they don’t care. It hates Russia reflexively and its leaders didn’t have the wisdom or patriotism to be cautious with the uni-power. Thus it allows itself to be transformed into a forward base for US aggression.” Replace “Lithuania” in the above para by England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden or Norway — it will still be true. Why single out Lithuania? Trump may have “bought Lithuania” but Rotschild has bought the entire EU. Money is no object; if the US economy crashes, Rothschild banks will simply move cash from some other ledger to pay for their relentless wars against the few independent countries left… Read more »
Another opinionated idiot, who has no real insight into politics. Propaganda marrionette.
Mark,this time you are correct apart from calling them shitty little nazi countries.
Okay, then, I withdraw little. There’s nothing wrong with being little.
They are not shitty and never Nazi,just patriotic.But they are little ! 🙂
gas pipe line :))) Like Belarus or Ukraine :))
Like Germany !!