About 2 years ago I read a book by John Lewis Gaddis entitled: “The Cold War: A New History“. The Cold war was, at the time, a very vague, amorphous concept; I neither knew who the players were nor the reasons why the war ended. I walked away from that book both excited and educated–excited about the tension and drama that had occurred, educated about the seriousness of the times and the unique personalities that were so dominant during that era. I recall wishing I could have lived through that era–not because it was a great time to be alive–but because of the value a perspective of the events, news coverage, and debate surrounding that era would be in understanding the world TODAY. We can’t, of course, re-live a bygone era… or maybe we can…
“We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a Cold War,” Medvedev recently stated according to the lastest article at the TimesOnline.
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, accused Washington of “battleship diplomacy” and insisted the presence of the warships “does not make the situation more stable”.
Mr Medvedev said that the port of Poti was open to shipping but accused the Americans of trying to smuggle weapons to the Georgians. “And what the Americans call humanitarian cargoes – of course, they are bringing in weapons.”
“Battleship Diplomacy???” Really! And what, may I ask, do you call rolling hundreds of tanks into Georgian territory Meddie? Aggressive negotiations? Yup, Russian tanks at Georgian ports are the epitome of stability. Spare me. Oh, and all of a sudden you don’t like weapons transfers to countries you are at odds with? Well, you should have thought about that BEFORE you sold IRAN a bunch of surface-to-air missiles! NOW YOU KNOW WHAT IF FEELS LIKE MEDDIE! Get used to it. I’m not about to have my chain yanked by a couple of corrupt dictators threatening nuclear war because they’ve got an power inferiority complex… it’s like a diagnosable condition shared by all Russian elite, i swear.
And another thing… what the hell has soft power and negotiations gotten us with respect to Russia? It’s gotten us NOWHERE… they bade their time until the moment the west let its guard down… became overly-dependant on foreign oil, cut their defense budgets, dismantled their nuclear weapons… and now Russia rears its ugly head again ! Somehow I’m not surprised.
