BALTIC SEA – A Russian Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft makes a very-low altitude pass by the USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) April 12, 2016. Donald Cook, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, forward deployed to Rota, Spain is conducting a routine patrol in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe. (U.S. Navy photo/Released)
BALTIC

Both Russia and China are ensuring that they poke their collective fingers into the eyes of the United States, under the “leadership” of Barack Hussein Obama.

They do this, like bullies, because they know they can.  They can.

The Russian Sukhoi Su-24 is, truly, not a very good aircraft. It was nothing more than an abject attempt to duplicate the US F-111 with variable geometry wings.  In other words, it is a poor copy that Russia had to make do with for years.  Russia has copied American aircraft for decades, starting with their knockoff of our B-29 and extending to the Buran, their failed copy of our space shuttle.

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Atlantic Ocean (July 15, 2005) – The guided missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) conducts a close quarters exercise while underway in the Atlantic Ocean. Donald Cook is assigned to the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, currently conducting Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX). U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate Airman Eben Boothby (RELEASED)

In a span of two days last week, Russian aircraft, both fixed wing and rotor, buzzed the USS Donald Cook (DDG 75), an Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer built in 1996, 505 feet long and weighing 8,900 tons.

The Cook was taking part in exercises with a Polish helicopter in Baltic Sea international waters, some 70 miles from Kaliningrad.  See the map.

From CBSNews.com:

USS Donald Cook buzzed again by Russian jets in Baltic

Last Updated Apr 13, 2016 2:55 PM EDT

Yet again Russian jets made provocatively close passes to an American warship, as tensions continue between Moscow and Washington over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.

A senior defense official told CBS News that two recent incidents were “more aggressive than anything we’ve seen in some time.”

As documented here.  Over two days the USS Donald Cole was buzzed over 30 times.

Navy veterans and pilots agree that the “flybys” are in clear violation of a 1972 international agreement signed by Russia which delineates that aircraft can come no closer than 1,500 feet laterally and lower than a 1,000 foot altitude.

MORE RECENTLY:

On the heels of these flybys was the interception and rollover by a SU-27 of a US KC-`135 reconnaissance four-engined aircraft.

From the FreeBeacon.com:

Russian Jet Threatened U.S. Recon Aircraft

Barrel rolls over plane in latest Baltic Sea provocation

by Bill Gertz

A Russian fighter jet flew dangerously close to a U.S. RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft on Thursday in the latest military provocation by Moscow over the Baltic Sea, the U.S. European Command said Saturday.

“On April 14, a U.S. Air Force RC-135 aircraft flying a routine route in international airspace over the Baltic Sea was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 in an unsafe and unprofessional manner,” said Navy Capt. Danny Hernandez.

“This intercept comes shortly after the unsafe Russian encounters with USS Donald Cook,” he added. “There have been repeated incidents over the last year where Russian military aircraft have come close enough to other air and sea traffic to raise serious safety concerns, and we are very concerned with any such behavior.”

Hernandez said the U.S. aircraft, a militarized Boeing 707 jet, was operating in international airspace “and at no time crossed into Russian territory.”

This is a clear signal by Russia to Barack Hussein Obama and the rest of the planet.

That message is: “The US won’t defend itself.  It lacks the will and the courage.  So what makes you think they’ll defend you, the Baltic States?”

Truly, an excellent question.

Is Barack Hussein Obama strong, or is he weak?

In the eyes of bullies, he is astoundingly weak.  They like that.

If you remember, Syria is where Mr Obama drew his proverbial red line, and then it was crossed.  Obama did nothing.

“I use the term stunned because I was stunned by that.  It reversed a very complete and comprehensive decision that had just been made a few hours prior to that.  The president made the final decision and a few hours later we’re reversing it, we’re pulling it down.  It was all over the world. 

And our allies would ask me, ‘how can we have confidence in whatever else he says?’ “
— Chuck Hagel, Secretary of Defense, 2013 to 2015

“And so the man who presented himself as a man of peace, has actually presided over much more violence in the Muslim world than happened under his predecessor.”
— Nialil Ferguson, Professor of History, Harvard University

Meaning?  Barack Hussein Obama, “winner of the Nobel Peace Prize — itself awarded to a man for no accomplishments whatsoever solely due to his melanin count by a council of Guilty Overeducated White People (GOWPs) — is responsible for more death and carnage in the Muslim world due to his arrogance, his haughtiness, his wrong-headedness, his shockingly profound inability to understand the mind of anyone other than himself,

So.  Russia builds brand new bases across the Arctic.  And China builds islands and increases its sea and land forces, the US under Obama’s direction is considering cutting an Alaskan paratrooper brigade by 71%.

All this is clearly documented in Fox’s Bret Baier’s special program “Rising Threats, Shrinking Military.”

Niall Ferguson best summarizes:

“The lesson is that, it’s what a great power withdraws, the conflict is most likely to escalate.  That’s exactly what’s happened.  And the result is a sobering one.”

Thank you ever so kindly, Mr Barack Hussein Obama.

And now you know, ladies and gentlemen another why I have never, on this blog, placed the two words “President” and “Obama” together.

It would be an obscenity.

Lastly, think about these quotes from two individuals who served under Obama:

“We’re going to see ourselves potentially in a war that is far greater than what we have experienced in the Middle East given everything that the president of the United States has been told about the complexity and the danger that exists in the world today.  Stop the bleeding that you are causing to our armed forces.”
— retired Lt. General Mike Flynn

“If the United States doesn’t provide that leadership, nobody else will.  Nobody else will.”
— former SecDef under Obama, Leon Pannetta

BZ