This is NOT good

Russian troops are apparently moving into the Crimea, though thus far, I've only seen this on Fox News.  I don't see anything on CNN, MSNBC, CBC or the BBC, at least not yet.  If it is true, it is ominous and shows that the Russians are indeed intent on reviving their empire, and note how they waited until after the Olympics to make their move.  Unfortunately, I don't think that there's a damned thing that the West in general and the United States can do to stop them............and the Russians are fully aware of that fact.  Russia will take whatever it wants of the Ukraine, if not the entire country.  Certainly, the EU won't do anything, given that it is dependent on Russian gas to heat the continent in the winter.  Hope that the Ukrainians enjoyed their brief 20 years of independence, because I have a hunch that those are about to come to an end................

Maybe so, but.........

An Op-Ed in today's Wall Street Journal has a perfectly valid explanation for the increasingly bellicose behaviour of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez., to wit, "It's the economy, stupid.": http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122143547989234217.html?mod=djemEditorialPage. Simply put, Venezuela's economy isn't doing so well right now, despite the billions in oil revenue that the country is taking in, and its ally in Bolivia is doing even worse.

HOWEVER......that doesn't mean that we should take Mr. Chavez lightly--by cozying up with our old Cold War enemy, Russia, he has indicated unequivocally that he will be a thorn in our sides, and with that oil revenue, he can be much more of a menace than Fidel Castro ever was.

Historical ignorance is bliss

That must be what Barack Obama is thinking--how else can anyone explain his failure to attribute anything positive the American military might, including the Berlin Airlift?! How can anyone go to Berlin and deliver a speech on U.S. foreign policy which fails to mention what was arguably the most significant example of the positive use of American military force: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/07/27/missing_from_that_berlin_speech/. Then again, he talked about how the Berlin Wall was brought down without mentioning President Ronald Reagan, the man who brought it down, so I guess that this too should not surprise me.

I hate it when history repeats itself

Forty-six years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Russians are apparently at it again. There are reports that they are considering placing long range bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons in Cuba: http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=2558573&referralPlaylistId=92a703c7546a6f8e671948e4b777bc5d899d57d6&maven_referrer=staf. You have to wonder what the Russians are thinking. From a strategic standpoint, this is completely unnncessary. So, the only practical reason is that it would threaten the United States.

Hmm, President Bush, you looked into Vladimir Putin's eyes and liked what you saw. You still think that that's true?

The Six Day War revisited again

A new book is coming out which provides even more evidence of how the Soviet Union effectively engineered the 1967 Six Day War in an effort to destroy the nascent Israeli nuclear program: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1187779146277&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull.

The most fascinating aspect of this story in my mind are the emerging details of how Soviet ballistic missile submarines were poised off the Israeli shoreline and, even more stunningly, were contemplating landing troops in Israel (which undoubtedly would have turned the Cold War into a very hot one).

It really is an amazing story...............