Posted in Russia on Aug 27th, 2007
Magda raised an interesting question. How can Israel oppose Russian interests?
The answer is that she doesn’t. Not directly.
It’s that ‘not directly’ part that’s the problem. You see, Russia wants to rebuild a power base. It can’t have its old power base, ‘cuz Europe has most of it. So, it needs to look elsewhere for client states.
Unfortunately, the only client states that are free at the moment are in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa.
Magda raised an interesting question. How can Israel oppose Russian interests?
The answer is that she doesn’t. Not directly.
It’s that ‘not directly’ part that’s the problem. You see, Russia wants to rebuild a power base. It can’t have its old power base, ‘cuz Europe has most of it. So, it needs to look elsewhere for client states.
Unfortunately, the only client states that are free at the moment are in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa.
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Posted in Russia on Aug 24th, 2007
I remember the Cold War – a war that was all about defeating Communism wherever it existed. There were books printed that said things like, “You can trust a Communist to be a Communist”. And, we bought the books and heard the speeches, waved the flag and utterly missed the point.
The point should never have been about political ideology, but about the character of the people brandishing the ideology. In our rush to defeat Communism, we forgot that the Russians have always been makers-of-empire. Always.
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This is a preview of
Like Something Straight Out of the Bible
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Read the full post (428 words, 19 images, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)I remember the Cold War – a war that was all about defeating Communism wherever it existed. There were books printed that said things like, “You can trust a Communist to be a Communist”. And, we bought the books and heard the speeches, waved the flag and utterly missed the point.
The point should never have been about political ideology, but about the character of the people brandishing the ideology. In our rush to defeat Communism, we forgot that the Russians have always been makers-of-empire. Always.
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This is a preview of
Like Something Straight Out of the Bible
.
Read the full post (428 words, 19 images, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)Read Full Post »
Posted in Russia on Aug 23rd, 2007
In response to my blog article on the 17th, ‘Here We Go Again‘, Tedders made a good point. Russian military technology lags far behind that of the US. In a direct confrontation, Russia can’t really win.
But, Russia isn’t stupid; they know that they don’t have to be able to win. They just need to be able to make any confrontation too painful for the US to get involved.
Those few Tupolev bombers that venture out over the Atlantic and Pacific aren’t a threat to the existence of the US. Their missile payloads could wipe out a few major cities, but not much more than that.
In response to my blog article on the 17th, ‘Here We Go Again‘, Tedders made a good point. Russian military technology lags far behind that of the US. In a direct confrontation, Russia can’t really win.
But, Russia isn’t stupid; they know that they don’t have to be able to win. They just need to be able to make any confrontation too painful for the US to get involved.
Those few Tupolev bombers that venture out over the Atlantic and Pacific aren’t a threat to the existence of the US. Their missile payloads could wipe out a few major cities, but not much more than that.
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Posted in Iran, Russia, Turkey, War fighting on Aug 17th, 2007
The Associated Press is reporting that nuclear bombers of the Russian Air Force have been ordered into the air again. It has been 15 years since Russia had nuclear bombers on an active nuclear patrol.
Why the change now?
What threat has arisen that would cause Russia to take this expensive step?
With the price of aviation fuel at such high levels, those bombers are going to be expensive to fly. And, that’s not adding in the cost of maintenance of the planes and the nuclear missiles in those planes.
The Associated Press is reporting that nuclear bombers of the Russian Air Force have been ordered into the air again. It has been 15 years since Russia had nuclear bombers on an active nuclear patrol.
Why the change now?
What threat has arisen that would cause Russia to take this expensive step?
With the price of aviation fuel at such high levels, those bombers are going to be expensive to fly. And, that’s not adding in the cost of maintenance of the planes and the nuclear missiles in those planes.
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I tend to be the collector of obscure facts.
Such as the five percent rule for drug smuggling. The rule is that you only catch five percent of all the drugs smuggled across your border. Sometimes you get more. Sometimes you get less, but generally you only get five percent.
In other countries, like Russia, it’s actually worse.
What prompted this Little stream of consciousness is a bit of BBC reporting on the IAEA’s (International Atomic Energy Agency) attempts to secure radioactive materials and suppress the smuggling of those materials.
I tend to be the collector of obscure facts.
Such as the five percent rule for drug smuggling. The rule is that you only catch five percent of all the drugs smuggled across your border. Sometimes you get more. Sometimes you get less, but generally you only get five percent.
In other countries, like Russia, it’s actually worse.
What prompted this Little stream of consciousness is a bit of BBC reporting on the IAEA’s (International Atomic Energy Agency) attempts to secure radioactive materials and suppress the smuggling of those materials.
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