Meanwhile in Ukraine

Things have been fairly quiet on the Ukrainian front since the cease-fire was called. Surely we can’t have that?

General Philip Breedlove, top NATO commander in Europe doesn't think so. He went before the Washington press and told them that Russian combat forces were snarling like wolves. Again.

Breedlove has been crying wolf all along. While the Russians say what troops they have in the area are for defense and support of the separatists, Breedlove and his hawk chorus keep exaggerating numbers and equipment and telling us the Russians are hell-bent on invading Ukraine. Never mind NATO doesn’t even have its own intelligence agency.

"What is clear," Breedlove said, "is that right now, it is not getting better. It is getting worse every day."

German leaders in Berlin were stunned. They didn't understand what Breedlove was talking about. And it wasn't the first time. Once again, the German government, supported by intelligence gathered by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's foreign intelligence agency, did not share the view of NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR).

  Der Spiegel

Saceur sounds like French for sucker. They should probably change the anagram somehow.

For months, Breedlove has been commenting on Russian activities in eastern Ukraine, speaking of troop advances on the border, the amassing of munitions and alleged columns of Russian tanks. Over and over again, Breedlove's numbers have been significantly higher than those in the possession of America's NATO allies in Europe. As such, he is playing directly into the hands of the hardliners in the US Congress and in NATO.

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Sources in the Chancellery have referred to Breedlove's comments as "dangerous propaganda."

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Are the Americans trying to thwart European efforts at mediation led by Chancellor Angela Merkel?

Sounds about right to me.

Europeans have also begun to see others as hindrances in their search for a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine conflict. First and foremost among them is Victoria Nuland, head of European affairs at the US State Department.

Good old Victoria Nuland.

Indeed, US President Barack Obama seems almost isolated. He has thrown his support behind Merkel's diplomatic efforts for the time being, but he has also done little to quiet those who would seek to increase tensions with Russia and deliver weapons to Ukraine.

The Weenie strikes again.

False claims and exaggerated accounts, warned a top German official during a recent meeting on Ukraine, have put NATO -- and by extension, the entire West -- in danger of losing its credibility.

We still have some?

Breedlove sees no reason to revise his approach. "I stand by all the public statements I have made during the Ukraine crisis," he wrote to SPIEGEL in response to a request for a statement accompanied by a list of his controversial claims. He wrote that it was to be expected that assessments of NATO's intelligence center, which receives information from all 33 alliance members in addition to partner states, doesn't always match assessments made by individual nations.

Trust me. I know things that you don’t. No matter that even photographic evidence has disproven some of his claims.

He also wrote that: "As an alliance based on the fundamental values of freedom and democracy, our response to propaganda cannot be more propaganda. It can only be the truth."

Can we save a seat for this guy on the shuttle to colonize a different planet?

Even his own agency is worried about him.

On Tuesday of last week, Breedlove's public appearances were an official item on the agenda of [NATO’s] North Atlantic Council's weekly lunch meeting. Several ambassadors present criticized Breedlove and expressed their incredulity at some of the commander's statements.

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Berlin sources also say that it has become conspicuous that Breedlove's controversial statements are often made just as a step forward has been made in the difficult negotiations aimed at a political resolution. Berlin sources say that Germany should be able to depend on its allies to support its efforts at peace.

Does Berlin really think that America wants peace in the world? Surely they are not that naïve.

Although President Obama has decided for the time being to give European diplomacy a chance, hawks like Breedlove or Victoria Nuland are doing what they can to pave the way for weapons deliveries.

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[T]he German tabloid Bild reported that Nuland referred to the [German] chancellor's early February trip to Moscow for talks with Putin as "Merkel's Moscow stuff."

Does Victoria have stock in arms manufacturers?

Nuland has also been open -- at least internally -- about her contempt for European weakness and is famous for having said "Fuck the EU" during the initial days of the Ukraine crisis in February of 2014. Her husband, the neo-conservative Robert Kagan, is, after all, the originator of the idea that Americans are from Mars and Europeans, unwilling as they are to realize that true security depends on military power, are from Venus.

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Whereas the aim of the Franco-German initiative is to stabilize the situation in Ukraine, it is Russia that concerns hawks within the US administration. They want to drive back Moscow's influence in the region and destabilize Putin's power. For them, the dream outcome would be regime change in Moscow.

Wouldn’t that be a feather in an American president’s cap? Never mind we can’t keep a handle on the puppets we own now. Let’s go for the big one. ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.