If you read history you find that heads of state always talk tough in public and negotiate in secret.jim hardy said:i read that article and it made me ask "Who's being the knot-heads in that exchange ? If two parties are flying warplanes around the same playground i sure want them talking to one another. ":
"The Russian diplomatic strategy is to be taken into account by the United States, basically," Dmitri Trenin, head of the Carnegie Endowment's Moscow office, said in a conference call with reporters. "Russia is creating facts on the ground. Russia is not asking for permission to be in Syria, or to be doing things it's doing in Syria, and that creates a position from which the Russians think they can get ... some kind of an understanding with the United States."
Worked in Afghanistan right?jim hardy said:Seems to me US ought to pitch in and help Putin help Assad stomp Isis to death.
80s when Russia had to withdrawnsaspook said:Which war? The 80's when we opposed Russia in Afghanistan or later after 9/11?
Greg Bernhardt said:80s when Russia had to withdraw
Back to the future:Just days before Xi’s trip to Washington, a Chinese fighter jet flew in front of a U.S. RC-135 reconnaissance plane east of the Shandong Peninsula in the Yellow Sea. And in August 2014, a Chinese J-11 fighter jet passed within 20 feet of a U.S. P-8 Poseidon aircraft, performing a barrel roll in a maneuver the Pentagon condemned as reckless.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which is monitoring a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, reported that its monitors had seen a mobile TOS-1 'Buratino' weapons system for the first time.
The Buratino is equipped with thermobaric warheads which spread a flammable liquid around a target and then ignite it. It can destroy several city blocks in one strike and cause indiscriminate damage.
nsaspook said:Russia had to withdraw then because we invested billions in proxy warriors and weapons to drag them into a 'Vietnam' that many believe (and I agree) started the end of the Cold War. I would hope our relationship with the Taliban then has taught us a lesson
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118751/how-israel-palestine-peace-deal-diedKerry pressed on: “When I fought in Vietnam, I used to look at the faces of the local population and the looks they gave us. I’ll never forget it. It gave me clarity that we saw the situation in completely different ways.”
“This isn’t Vietnam!” Netanyahu shouted.
Just another slow tracked target for an air force with air superiority and smart weapons.nsaspook said:A very nasty weapon.
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mheslep said:Just another slow tracked target for an air force with air superiority and smart weapons.
That is true. Saddam was a US client. When he lost US support no other major power stepped in.mheslep said:The Middle East-is-Vietnam time warp theme is not uncommon, unfortunately.http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118751/how-israel-palestine-peace-deal-died
The Iraq war was many things, but it was not a Cold War proxy fight.
Did Saddam have a military built of hundreds of Soviet made tanks and MIGs and Scud missiles or not?Hornbein said:Saddam was a US client. When he lost US support no other major power stepped in.
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/The U.S. restored formal relations with Iraq in November 1984, but the U.S. had begun, several years earlier, to provide it with intelligence and military support (in secret and contrary to this country's official neutrality) in accordance with policy directives from President Ronald Reagan. These were prepared pursuant to his March 1982 National Security Study Memorandum (NSSM 4-82) asking for a review of U.S. policy toward the Middle East.
Photos of Saddam with his buddy, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.mheslep said:Did Saddam have a military built of hundreds of Soviet made tanks and MIGs and Scud missiles or not?
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/04/world/iraqis-reported-to-get-about-100-soviet-made-tanks.html
Citing public remarks by the Russian Navy chief, Adm. Viktor Chirkov, Admiral Ferguson said the intensity of Russian submarine patrols had risen by almost 50 percent over the last year. Russia has increased its operating tempo to levels not seen in over a decade. Russian Arctic bases and their $2.4 billion investment in the Black Sea Fleet expansion by 2020 demonstrate their commitment to develop their military infrastructure on the flanks, he said.
Russia is also building an undersea unmanned drone capable of carrying a small, tactical nuclear weapon to use against harbors or coastal areas, American military and intelligence analysts said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pressure on China over its claims to most of the strategic South China Sea went up a couple of notches this week. First the U.S. sent a warship, in its most direct challenge yet to Beijing's artificial island building. Then, over Chinese objections, an international tribunal ruled it had jurisdiction in a case brought by the Philippines on maritime claims.
rootone said:Yet both govts can say to their public that they are 'doing something about it',
Astronuc said:Putin Blasts Syria With New Stealth Missile—And Shows the World He Can Strike from 1,700 Miles Away
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...orld-he-can-strike-from-1-700-miles-away.html
Certainly seems Russia is taking advantage of the situation in Syria to test new systems.