Topic: War is in the Air!!!! - page 2. (Read 2556 times)

I'm not sure if Ukrainians should be happy to either be part of EU nor Russia.  Cyprus is part of the European Union, but.. we all know how that went. Anyway, as for trade between Russia and Europe.

The European Union and Russia have a strong trade relationship.  EU imports from Russia are dominated by raw materials, in particular, oil (crude and refined) and gas. For these products, as well as for other important raw materials, Russia has committed in the WTO to freeze or reduce  its export duties.
The EU is the most important investor in Russia. It is estimated that up to 75% of Foreign Direct Investment stocks in Russia come from EU Member States (including Cyprus).

Source:
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/countries/russia/

Crimea is done; over.  When/if he starts seriously encroaching on Ukraine the shit's going to hit the fan, and will require some serious decision-making from the west.

yeah, not sure though that the proper sanctions will get off the ground - but yeah, a military solution would probably only make it worse.  Especially given that so many in Crimea seem actually glad to join Russia.  Maybe half of the people there, it seems, or more.

Europe seems depending on natural gas from Russia - but Russia also seems dependent on Europe - so as far as sanctions, not sure who would blink first.

The whole of Europe and the west needs to apply sanctions that will really hurt this sob and his minions.  Putin is trying to reconstitute the Soviet Union, piece by piece, with him installed as grand poobah for life. 

  Intervene militarily and it will be a bloodbath, all sides, including nuclear war with every crazy unstable country that has nukes...everyone will be drawn in, including Iran, Israel, and the rest of the ME.    Sanctions work if they're done right; look at S. Africa and the demise of apartheid. That took unity from the rest of the world, isolating and scorning them.  They got hit in the pocketbook and couldn't survive it.

If you mean by 'move' military wise directly at us, I don't see that.  Obama may surprise you - and them.

And even with other targets, the time may not be quite right there.  That is another reason to resolve our debt  issue - it is a huge security risk, among all the other  problems we have.

China gets money/resources from both Russia and the US, war may not be in their interest. Full list of Chinese war involvement here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China  (not a lot since 1980)

US is fighting too many countries at the same time.

Whoever advising the President should be shot.

Russia, China, Iran.etc are not stupid enough to attack the US. An initial attack will come from the US only. But I don't think that Obama will initiate such an adventure. Let's wait for Hillary.

Who cares about the president? Do not be so gullible. Obama could act much smarter, but he simply can't do this due to absence of real power. His party membership, persona or even name doesn't matter, because he's nothing more than avatar of corporate interests... Just like all of them since JFK's death.

This may be the very BEST moment for Russia, China, Iran, etc., to move against the USA while we have a VERY weak president that Americans despise. LOL, time will tell.

It is NOT as though we would fight for such a slime.

 One would hope we not find out - but again, this is not just about Russia.


China has been confrontational with its various neighbors.  The latest:

http://news.yahoo.com/china-warns-philippine-against-occupation-disputed-shoal-103341189--finance.html

China warned the Philippines on Monday to abandon a disputed shoal in the South China Sea after Manila said it planned to challenge a Chinese naval blockade of the area by sending supplies to its troops stationed there.

Last week, a senior Philippines military official said his country would send civilian supply ships to its soldiers deployed on a vessel that ran aground on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in 1999. The shoal is known in China as the Ren'ai reef and in the Philippines as Ayungin




I wonder if Iran will be more cautious about any promises made to her about getting rid of any nuclear material, etc.

But it does appear it may use the Crimean crisis to its advantage.  Unfortunately, the cartoon referred to is not in the article.

http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-ukraine-casts-pall-over-iran-nuke-talks-131541285.html

Tehran may have a new ally when Iran nuclear talks reconvene Tuesday — the Ukraine crisis. U.S.-Russian tensions over Ukraine could fray the search for consensus on what Iran needs to do to ease fears it could make atomic arms.....

Iran's Fars news agency, meanwhile, appeared to take a dig at veiled U.S. threats of military strikes if negotiations fail and Washington believes that Tehran is working on a bomb. It republished a cartoon showing President Barack Obama peering into an empty paint can marked "Red Line."

The cartoon shows a grinning Russian President Vladimir Putin walking away, with the caption: "I think you used it all on Syria."

Direct war between the superpowers is a thing of the past. All of them has realized that war by proxy is the best method. Reduces their casualty figures, as well as does less harm to their economy. 

Agreed, a nuclear war would be neither beneficial for the US nor Russia. There is no profit in it, both economies would have severe damage.
In addition, the cost is much higher than the benefit. This is mainly used a fear tactic to get support for war amongst citizens.

I even question whether Russia could carry through on his threat. Russian nuclear capabilities are not necessarily as high as the US, they lost a lot of warheads when the other Republics declared sovereignty, and while I'm sure they could wreck a dozen or so cities, I don't really think that they could reduce us to radioactive ash. There are no winners, but I think we are in a position where we could survive as a nation, if not as a power.

It is not interesting it is moronic.  It is meant to provoke fear in people who are afraid of their own shadows and will go off the deep end.

Not saying Putin would go nuclear (comment did not come from him, at least directly), but that such talk is even raised, in response to concerns from the West, is rather interesting.  It was from a journalist (ironically, chose to portray Russia in the best possible light).


http://news.yahoo.com/russia-turn-u-radioactive-ash-kremlin-backed-journalist-223608042--sector.html

A Kremlin-backed journalist issued a stark warning to the United States about Moscow's nuclear capabilities on Sunday as the White House threatened sanctions over Crimea's referendum on union with Russia.

"Russia is the only country in the world that is realistically capable of turning the United States into radioactive ash," television presenter Dmitry Kiselyov said on his weekly current affairs show.

Behind him was a backdrop of a mushroom cloud following a nuclear blast.

Kiselyov was named by President Vladimir Putin in December as the head of a new state news agency whose task will be to portray Russia in the best possible light.

The notion that Putin would go "nuclear" even if we were to do something to restrain him in the Crimea is silly. Not that we are.

That said, it is possible that we are simply in one of those phases when we've got to get the heebie-jeebies out of us. It's the thing about carnivores, we have to let out aggression. As a species we've restrained ourselves pretty well over the past fifty years or so, but, the reality is that we're pressing in each other too much, resources are too few, and something's gonna give.

Lately, I see alot more articles in the news about various hot spots.  May just be simply just more folk writing articles - but it does seem to be more than simply that.

There was an article I read Friday where a Russian personality (TV or radio, don't remember) noted that Russia was the one country that could still wipe out the US with nuclear weapons.  Made in context of the Crimean crisis.

Not sure how far the crisis in Crimea will go - or how far Russia will go with the Ukraine.  The other eastern European nations are quite concerned also about Russia.


The Middle east, of course, is standard fare.

And Iran is accusing the US of sabatoge.  Not sure what might come of that.  I don't think Israel strking Iran is off the table yet.


And China is making threatening noise in the east Pacific.

Anything left out?

Global war on privacy, terror, drugs.

There are tons of wars going on since 2000s and before:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_2003%E2%80%932010
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_2011%E2%80%93present
 
Also you left out the US secret wars. (and secret wars of other countries)