Is America preparing for war? In a daring stunt, the United States Air Force flaunted their power by staging a mock dogfight between an F-16 and a Russian-built fighter jet. “The images were captured by air traffic controller Phil Drake in the skies above Area 51 in Nevada, one of the world’s most secret military bases, on the day Donald Trump was elected President,” writes the Daily Mail.

Drake believes that the images he shot are the first of its kind, “…the Russian jet was a Su-27P Flanker-B – which has never been officially imported into the United States.”

The pictures show the jets swooping and tumbling over each other in the sky.

 

President Obama’s behavior towards Russia has become increasingly antagonistic. He continues to stoke tension between the two countries. Donald Trump has indicated numerous times that his administration will seek a warmer relationship with the Kremlin.

Obama’s playing a dangerous game. According to its chief, General David Goldfein, the Air Force would be decimated if faced with a real war with Russia and China. The situation is so dire that the general believes only a multi-billion dollar budget increase would solve the problem.

There are too many threats in the world. The Obama administration’s taste for conflict spread the military too thin.

“We just got too small too fast and we’ve got to grow. We’re at a risk level I’m not comfortable with,” Goldfein warned.

Trump will be immediately thrust into a tense situation the moment he takes office. Obama spent the last few weeks starting as many political fires as he could. Trump’s job will be to put them out.

According to Drake: “Initially, during the mission, the aircraft were just outside of Area 51 airspace. The Americans practice air to air combat with Russian aircraft to give them an advantage in combat. They also try out new weapons systems on aircraft to test their effectiveness against a bona fide Russian-built target.”

“The Flanker is rumored to have been flying from Groom Lake for nearly 20 years…This sequence of photos is the first proof that the Americans are flying this aircraft, which is the premier Air Defence Fighter in use with the Russian and Chinese Air Forces.”

The possibility of war with Russia looms larger every day. Trump may be too late when he finally assumes office. Vladimir Putin is clearly fed up with Obama’s antics.

Obama’s administration sought to cast doubt on Trump’s legitimacy by framing Russia as the bogeyman haunting the election. He used the accusation as the basis for inflicting sweeping punishments.

Current relations between Russia and NATO are more volatile than even the Cold War at its height. “During the Cold War there was a military balance between NATO and the Warsaw Pact that lent itself to stability…not only is there a danger of a skirmish breaking out between NATO and Russia in Eastern Europe, it is very likely that such a conflict would quickly escalate into an all out nuclear war.”

Western Europe, while economically thriving, is militarily weak. That weakness encourages Moscow to test boundaries. Obama failed to put a firm check to Putin’s probing, and he also failed to align himself with the country.

Gen. Sir Richard Shirreff, former deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said that while he “applauded the Baltic States ascension into the NATO Alliance and the West, it was probably not the best idea for the West to have promised the Ukraine and Georgia membership into the alliance in 2008.”

“That promise prompted much of Russia’s belligerent behavior…Russia already believes itself to be at war with the United States.”

After the last election Obama imposed harsh sanctions on Russia in an attempt to punish Putin. The damage inflicted by the move has already been accomplished. The most that Trump can do is to rescind the sanctions.

War with Russia would be devastating. The body count would be sky-high. The US gains nothing by angering Putin.

Shirreff isn’t the only uniformed official who’s expressed fears over America’s falling military prowess. We’ve becoming increasingly vulnerable as Russia and China both begin to assert themselves more aggressively.

It’s unclear what our next move should be. Trump needs to rectify Obama’s mistakes, but he needs to do so without making America appear weak. Imposing tough sanctions and then yanking them back weeks later sends the wrong message. Yet continuing Obama’s spat with Putin might also prove to be ruinous.

Russia is giving Donald Trump the kind of fawning television coverage usually reserved for Vladimir Putin,” Bloomberg reports.

“But inside the Kremlin, the initial euphoria over having a Putin admirer in the White House is giving way to skepticism that any meaningful detente with the U.S. can be achieved.”

Obama laid so many landmines that it will be difficult for Trump to navigate the US to a better relationship with Russia.