"Quadibloc" wrote in message
...

What Russia _has_ been considerably improving and beefing up have been
its *nuclear* forces.

But nuclear weapons have no credibility in the industrialized world.
They are only credible in the hands of some dictator trying
to fend us off.


It is true that nuclear forces are essentially _defensive_ in nature,
while it would be only conventional forces that are used to _project_
power. So, if their conventional forces are small, they will not yet
be going on a rampage or causing a ruckus. But what little they do,
they can do with impunity if their nuclear forces are in place.

Hence, Russia's invasion of Georgia didn't result in Russia being
blasted off the face of the Earth, or at least Russia tendering its
unconditional surrender to the United States as Medvedev and Putin
were handed over to Georgian authorities for trial and execution for
the war crime of aggression.


I can't think of any realistic situation where a nuclear exchange
was possible between the US and Russia. And it would be
a David and Goliath situation militarily in the remote chance
it would go that far. The US military isn't just an order of
magnitude larger, but more importantly its has no glaring
weaknesses, we have far more complete capabilities.
Our technology has moved ahead at a breathtaking pace
while the rest of the world stagnates at best.
Even in the waning days of WW2, the disparity between our
military and the rest of the world has never been greater
than today.

We've almost finished doing what most in the world considered
absolutely impossible. Which is to plant the flag in the heart
of Islam, and take head-on all the terrorists the world
has to offer, and win. We were the only one that thought
that possible, the rest of the world thought we were insane.


To me, that simple fact is enough to show that we are in a crisis,
having returned to the unhappy conditions of the Cold War, where the
United States has to tolerate injustice in the world instead of ending
the injustice and bringing its perpetrators to justice.


That's the great thing about the end of the cold war, no more fear
of nuclear annihilation. Only the rogue state. So with few exceptions
our military can now be far more assertive and act as it should.

For instance, remember when Myanmar had that hurricane but
wouldn't let in foreign aid workers? We placed four of those
amphibious assault ships, with some 6000 marines, within
site of their coast, and they quickly changed their minds.

There is a clear boundary between good and evil, and it takes
the form of democracy vs dictatorship. Natural vs man-made
control systems.

One creates, the other destroys.


John Savard