‘US plan to fly bombers over NATO nations is all about Russia’

The US’ plan to fly its oldest active bombers across all 30 NATO countries in a single-day mission on Friday is all about "Russia," says political analyst Mark Dankof.

According to an Air Force Global Strike release, in an operation dubbed "Allied Sky," four B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers, deployed to Royal Air Force (RAF) Fairford, UK, will fly over Europe alongside allies while two bombers from the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, fly over the US and Canada.

NATO nations scheduled to integrate with the Cold War-era bomber aircraft include Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, the UK and the US, the release said.

"US security commitments to the NATO Alliance remain ironclad," said Gen. Tod Wolters, commander of US European Command. "Today's bomber task force mission is another example of how the alliance sustains readiness, improves interoperability and demonstrates our ability to deliver on commitments from across the Atlantic."

US bombers to fly over 30 NATO nations in 'allied sky' demo

US bombers plan to fly over 30 NATO countries in

The move is about “Russia and the absolute devastation of the promises that George Herbert Walker Bush made to” former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Dankof, a former US Senate candidate, told Press TV on Monday.

“Bush promised Gorbachev that in the wake of the end of the Cold War, the end of the old Soviet Union in the coming down to the Berlin Wall, that the United States would never begin recruiting former Warsaw Pact countries to join NATO,” Dankof said, but noted, “the United States subsequently lied about that.”

Washington, according to Bush, said then “it would never engage in the encirclement policies,” but “in fact, it is now engaging it,” Dankof added.

“All you have to do is take a look at a map and recognize that it is the policy of the United States government to militarily encircle Vladimir Putin's Russia.”

Dankof also said that during the Cold War, NATO’s only mission was to “prevent the old Soviet Union from taking over Western Europe. The old Soviet Union disbanded.”

However, “there is no similar Russian threat to Western Europe today that justifies any of these actions, including this idiotic 30 Nation flyover.”

“This flies in the face and common sense not simply in terms of the fact that we need not have a war with Russia, we need not be in a position of being an aggressor against them.”

Dankof also said that “there's plenty of Russia phobia going on in both the political parties in this country.”

This fear is also “being instilled in people about the Russian threat because all of the domestic problems that exist in the United States and in Western Europe.”

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

www.presstv.ir