Posted on 12/24/2010 5:43:26 AM PST by macquire
Hopefully McConnell has the guts to give this run!!
Not without foundation - the interview was by Pravda (though unlike NY Times, they have much more open forum for wide range of views) with the [ostensibly paranoid] Russian military expert.
However, he is correct that despite having certain successes (e.g, Sukhoi 4G/5G fighters program) overall, in the pace of their developments, Russia has lagged far behind not only the U.S. but is also being overtaken by the Chinese, who successfully clone / "shan-zhai" some of the better ideas of Russian and U.S. weapons programs.
Hell they may already have something.
They have had big problems with their delivery systems. Bulava-30 / SS-NX-32 has had only a couple of successful trials in the span of last five years and will be unreliable if / when actually deployed (with correspondingly great fanfare, I am sure) in relatively small numbers. In either case, they have no illusions about winning a direct confrontation with the [even weakened by her own government] U.S., and this is not something one supplies to the proxies (like Iran, Venezuela, formerly Cuba etc.)
All in all, it gives both sides another excuse / incentive to recycle and sell / purchase the material in the old warheads while doing nothing to preclude the U.S. developing and deploying the new missile defense systems - that's where Republicans played important role.
Ramifications here are mostly political, not defense-related - unnecessary "win" for Obama, singles out and raises importance of Russia as if they still matter as a direct and the only (by nature of bilateral agreement) military opponent while ignoring the "new world order" where rogue regimes are "independent" players.
Apparently, the Russian legislators think more of their country than ours.
Has there ever been made a survey questionnaire just among the military personnel themselves, or is it just POLITICAL social engineering for gays as usual???
Picture of Jimmy looks like Robert Kennedy's twin brother???
Russians are and always have been realists, not idealists. It’s how they’ve lasted so long, same as the Chinese. Besides, like the Chinese, the Russians are a Byzantine culture and smile in the light and dance in the dark. Their politicians play politics like chess with a mixture of Twister (do you remember that game?) and it takes a lot of work to successfully penetrate Russian culture and understand it fully, much like China.
Russians, before they agree to anything, buy time and work like fiends to create a backup plan or some sort of fail safe to go to if they change their minds or to get themselves out of it if they realize it won’t work in their favor.
Can our new pro-American congress un-ratify it before the Russians do their part?
I hope 2012 is a Senatorial blow out. I don't know how demoncrats control the senate anyhow. If most states support Republican presidents, then the majority of the Senate should be republican due to each state only having 2... even the commie heavy California and New York.
Someone should p’shop Obama’s face in the second pic.
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