Posted on 10/30/2014 8:40:25 PM PDT by Hojczyk
This should be a wake-up call to Europe, long accustomed to living under the U.S. defense umbrella, to take more responsibility for its own defense.
So far this year, NATO jets have had to scramble 100 times to intercept these airspace intruders just to show that the West's perimeters are still protected. That's three times as many as intercepted in 2013. It also coincides with a strange submarine incursion in Swedish waters, believed to have been Russian.
There's no doubt about it, Russia wants its Cold War empire back, and a complacent, "Finlandized" Europe. Vladimir Putin continues in his quest to become the next Czar Vladimir the Great ruling over the steppes.
Russia sees its opportunity for action as right now. The one power that can check its power? The U.S., led by an increasingly lame duck with no sense of long-term strategy, little engagement beyond parochial U.S. political concerns, and now a diminishing capacity to act even if he wanted to.
It also sees oil prices falling — the rising revolution in U.S. shale production in Texas, North Dakota and Pennsylvania, as well as Saudi Arabia's decision to boost oil output. That means Russia's money will soon run out.
Combine this with the bite of U.S. economic sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, and it's clear that Russia sees a window of opportunity before bankruptcy and a future Ronald Reagan catching up with it. No one should be more concerned about this than Europe, given this confluence of events.
Europe's economic model has always been to spend on big government and let Uncle Sam pick up the defense tab. But it's not sustainable at this late hour.
As Europe has cut back, Russia has used its energy largesse for a $755
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
A stray nuke from the middle of the ocean on Moscow would quiet their ambitions.
You REALLY want to unite all Russians behind Putin?
That would do it.
Hitler and Napoleon discovered you really don't want to piss off the Russians.
Russians aren't like namby-pamby Europeans or most present day "Americans".
Ho, “Europe’s economic model has always been to spend on big government. But it’s not sustainable at this late hour. As Europe has cut back, Russia has used its energy largesse for a $755”
Dad called this kind of pap “gobly-de-gook. Bear boomers, mock .3, spinning propeller, and all, older than dirt, wandering aimlessly about, so as Vlad the inhaler, can live out his coke dream of squandered Soviet horizons.
Kinda sad to see, when a fundamentally viscous Thug, decomposes. Kremlin jackals have long memories and longer knives. VP’s days are numbered now. the tally is under double digit at best.
Rab.
You are right! The present day amerikans, are ill-suited, to your new dreams, of working at a job- that “retires you, to a good life.” Amazingly, a simple stupidity- is our common goal. According to, the next bastard in charge.
Amen to that.
From a tactical and strategic point of view, this is really, really stupid of the Russians. One the wake up and alarm the Europeans, rather than let them continue their slumber. It gives the Euros practice in scrambling, over 100 times so far, and fine tune and train their air forces.
I read about a rumor that Putin has terminal cancer. Also, saw a report about Russian planes flying over Portugal. WTF? Portugal??? What’s the point of that?
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