“From the beginning of the year we will have in our arsenal a new sea-based missile, a hypersonic one,” Mr. Putin said, referring to a weapon that travels at more than five times the speed of sound and could likely evade existing missile defenses.
In an apparent reference to the American capital, he added: “The flight time to reach those who give the orders will also be five minutes.”
That is the talk of a crazy person, a lunatic who just happens to be the Russian leader, a man who, unlike the leaders of the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s, has no experience in a major war.
Is there a single shred of doubt what the response would be if a missile from a Russian submarine nuked Washington? To even play at saying such things shows a deep irresponsibility unbecoming the leader of any nation that has a military that is larger than Costa Rica's, let alone a significant, if fading, nuclear power.
"Fading" may be what's going on. Russia, as a nation, is fading. It is losing population. The global shift toward renewable energy sources threatens to limit Russia's economic influence. Putin's shenanigans may be a evidence of the thrashing throes of a nation that he knowss full well is sliding into irrelevance. Militaristic nations, like dangerous animals, are most dangerous when they are dying.
I grew up in the shadow of a possible global nuclear war. It appears that Generation Alpha will have that same experience.
9 comments:
I must say that our government is being recklessly provocative in Ukraine right now. Like Putin or hate him, it's hard to see how Ukraine is our fight so why do so many people want to let them into NATO?
Russia is a gas station with nuclear weapons.
I had gotten use to helping win the Cold War (in a small way-1/6 Infantry 76-79 West Germany) and not worrying about global destruction of the human race.
Now, this crap with Putin.
Not fun in my supposed golden years...
Borrowed a line out of this, a much nicer way to talk about rats and maggots ...
Borepatch, we have been involved in Europe since we realized that being there is better than having to go over every 20-25 years and fight a war. That's one interest.
Another is that there has been an understanding that the borders of nations are fixed, that the old Law of Conquest has been tossed out. Russia has violated that.
In some ways, this is Obama's legacy for not more strongly responding to Russia's conquest of the Crimean Peninsula. Sort of the the Germans moving into the Rhineland (or sealing off Berlin), a stronger response might have avoided a lot more problems.
A third is that we shouldn't be turning a blind eye towards Russia proclaiming that they have a sphere of influence. If the Ukrainians want to ally with the West, that is not Russia's call. We may not have liked that the Soviets had a base in Cuba, but we learned to live with it.
I finally fail to see how any of this is in Russia's interest. If anything, it is likely to awaken the rest of Europe to a need to ramp up their defense expenditures, rebuild their armies, and get ready to rumble.
I find it amusing that Russia's downfall is baked into the whole "weaning ourselves from fossil fuels" cake. All of that landmass and an economy the size of Spain's.
The USSR was never the monster we made it out to be, but they did have working rockets and nukes, so we had to play their game, and they were assholes about it.
I remember well the coast guard intercepting their submarines and escorting them back into international waters from the coast of northern California on a weekly basis in the early eighties. We were well aware that say, three of those subs could lob enough firepower into the state within minutes to flatten all of our population centers, and even living up in Eureka where we were not a likely target, it was fucking terrifying.
When we had a seven point earthquake in 1980, we were fairly certain that Reagan had gotten us all blown up before he was even inaugurated.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
Comrade Misfit, I fail to see how anything in Ukraine is our interest (or business), and sure as shootin' ain't worth shootin' for. My opinion, anyway.
Things aren't good in Russia. They have 144 million people and an economy the size of Italy and Putin is stealing anything he can put his hands on.
It's an age old strategy to pick a fight with another country when your own people start to look to closely at how your doing. It only serves Russia's needs because Putin thinks he is Russia.
All of it is moot in the generally accepted vernacular, a waste of time, money and air; is beside the point. The thin layer of potentially toxic gasses we live in enveloping the only ball of rock we know of we can live on … does not recognize the boundaries of “nation/states”, nor their squabbles internal or ex …
Prior to WW1 and, to an extent before WW2, the U.S. removed itself from international affairs as “(not in) our interest”. Presidents promised to stay out of international affairs…how’d that work out?
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