Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
Well I hope you are right and that the mere presence will make the Americans think twice.
But "routine military exercise" is the oldest excuse in the book, seriously. That's exactly what Britain happens to be involved in JUST as the Gibraltar issue flares up again. And it's no small exercise. I personally happen to support the UK on that, but I don't think anyone involved believes that the exercise is "long planned" as Cameron insists. It's also what triggers the annual stand-off with North Korea. Russia does have large military exercises as everyone on the Baltic coasts know. But they are always well advertised beforehand, whereas this wasn't from what I understand.

I don't care though. I think the US aggression must be stopped and if the presence of Russian ships will make them think twice they can use a white excuse as far as I'm concerned.
There's no way to know for sure, but I am going off of what is being said in Russian news and what Russian officials are saying. I believe Russia is certainly showing more forbearance than the US, at any rate, and I'm glad someone is!

As for serving as a deterrent, that may be true as well. US articles make it sound like our ships are about to start firing on each other and that alone is enough to cause some Americans to oppose the airstrikes in Syria, regardless of whether it is true.