When I was in The Air Force in the Early 80's. Our whole base and probally 10 more had 1 sole mission we trained for our part of The Rapid Deployment Force.

The straight of Hormus if thier was a blockage of oil we could fly to Saudi Arabia and set up shop and be flying sorties within 72 hours.

Our govt. considered the disruption of oil through this Straight an Act of War.

Our energy we would not let stop.

What Russia is doing to the EU could be considered an Act of War before Long.

Energy is a High Security Issue This is NO JOKE what is Happening I assure YOU.



KIEV, Ukraine – Russia shut off all gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine on Wednesday, forcing countries to scramble for alternative sources of energy during a winter cold snap. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin endorsed the move, even as factories shut down in eastern Europe, schools closed and tens of thousands of people were left without heat or electricity.

As Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for the crisis, the effects of the gas cutoff reverberated across the continent.

Bulgaria, the EU's poorest member, was among the worst hit. Croatia declared a state of emergency and Hungary instituted gas rationing for industries. The situation in Bosnia was so dire that woodcutters revved up their chain saws to cut wood for fireplaces.

"It is a shame that in the last two decades our rulers did not look for alternative sources of energy supplies. It's again up to Moscow," retired teacher Anelia Petrova said in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital.

Hundreds stormed shops in Sofia looking for electric heaters. Tsvyatko Peev got the last one in a downtown shop.

"I'm glad I got one, although I fear that the additional electricity costs will ruin the family budget," Peev said.

The Hungarian subsidiary of Japanese carmaker Suzuki Motor Corp. suspended production at its plant in the northern city of Esztergom on Wednesday because of the gas rationing.

The EU accused both nations of using consumers as pawns in their quarrel.

"It is unacceptable that the EU gas supply security is taken hostage to negotiations between Russia and Ukraine," EU spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen said, demanding an immediate resumption of gas supplies.

In Washington, U.S. officials criticized Russia for Europe's energy crisis.

"Cutting off these supplies during winter to a vulnerable population is just something that is unacceptable to us," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.

U.S. national security adviser Stephen Hadley warned Moscow that using energy exports to threaten its neighbors will undermine its international standing.

Russia supplies one-quarter of Europe's natural gas, and about 80 percent of that is shipped through pipelines crossing Ukraine. Other smaller pipelines run through Belarus and Turkey.

Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom stopped all gas shipments to Ukraine on Jan. 1 after the two countries failed to agree on prices and transit fees for 2009, but kept supplies flowing to Europe over Ukraine's pipelines. By Wednesday, Putin ordered Gazprom to stop all shipments through Ukraine,

"This should be done publicly and in the presence of international observers," he told Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller.

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso pressed Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko for a quick resolution to the standoff.

"If this matter is not solved, it will raise very serious doubts about the reliability of Russia as a supplier of gas to Europe and Ukraine as a transit country," Barroso said.

He said both countries agreed Wednesday to accept international monitors that could verify the flow of gas. Russia has made this a condition for resuming gas shipments once a deal is reached.

Russia has accused Ukraine of stealing gas supplies meant for Europe, while Ukraine says Russia has not sent enough gas for it to pump the natural gas east to Europe.

As of Wednesday, nations including Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey all reported a halt in Russian gas shipments. Others — including Austria, France, Germany, Hungary and Poland — reported substantial drops in supplies.

In the Balkans, people celebrating Orthodox Christmas scrambled to find other sources of heat for their homes as authorities cut off some gas to conserve supplies. Schools in Bulgaria closed down as authorities tried to find alternative heating.

Romania and Bulgaria held national security meetings to address the issue, while Hungary and Slovakia, which receives all of its gas from Russia, began reducing natural gas deliveries to big industrial customers.

Norway, another big gas supplier to Europe, said it cannot do much to offset the Russian shortfalls because it was operating at near maximum production and pipeline capacity for exports.

On Thursday in Brussels, Belgium, Ukraine and Russia will hold their first face-to-face talks since negotiations broke down Dec. 31.

In 2008, Russia charged Ukraine about half what it charged its European customers for gas — a practice it has long sought to change. Ukraine, however, says if it pays more for natural gas, Russia should pay more for shipping that gas across Ukraine.

Ukraine, which has about 16 billion cubic meters of gas in a vast underground storage system, says it can weather the dispute until early April.

Gazprom, however, is losing substantial income during a peak season for gas consumption. It also will soon see an excess of gas in its system, which will create a costly storage problem.

Notice the wording Washington is using.


"Cutting off these supplies during winter to a vulnerable population is just something that is unacceptable to us," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.

U.S. national security adviser Stephen Hadley warned Moscow that using energy exports to threaten its neighbors will undermine its international standing.

Unacceptable and Threaten its Nieghbors.

That is strong language to Russia

Eastern Europe Countries have lived so long in the shadows of Moscow, they have learned how to make do.
They will not look for war, they will talk.
And I consider it none of Americans business.

They should keep their nose well out of it

Where are you at in Europe? I guess that is where you are.

What are you hearing?

You are right the US should stay out.

They have a history of pushing thier wieght around.

Russia I would guess knows the US is stretched thin with it's military and may be pushing us to see what are reaction is.

Thier is a lot of.. lack of news.. right now i c on this issue.

Which I believe is a precautionary measure before they know more about our responce.

Europe though is very important to us and we have told Russia we were going to put missilles over thier and Russia basically threaten the US that they better not.

Thier is a lot of tention between us and russia as they are also blaming us for the recession.

We will see I hope the US can stay clear for everybody's sake

Thing is, America will place their missiles in NATO member states, and they will be the first ones to go down.
And again America will fight a war that isn't her own on ground far away.
American citizens will be save, and f**k everyone else.

\
Sad but true..Hopefully things will get better. Bush is finally gone and Obama has said he want's to renew our relationships with foriegn govt.s

The last 8 years the people have refused to see what the White House has been doing.

GWB just did whatever he wanted. Some are starting to finally see that we were lied to about Iraq and powerful men had other agenda's that had nothing to do with our security.