Russia 'simulates' nuclear attack on Poland

[Seraphim]

Link

This is the reason why I disagreed with Obama pulling the missile defense shield out of Poland. Although the shield would have been fairly useless in defending Poland from any sort of a nuclear attack, the presence of US military forces within the country would have acted as a fairly strong deterrent to this sort of Russian meddling in the area.

[Donald Aquilano]

The problem with Russia's leaders is they still see themselves as the mighty Soviet Union. To them it never collapsed. They want the countries that border them to still be under their influence and if the world isn't careful we could see a reemergence of the old iron curtain.

[PRED]

The problem with Russia's leaders is they still see themselves as the mighty Soviet Union. To them it never collapsed. They want the countries that border them to still be under their influence and if the world isn't careful we could see a reemergence of the old iron curtain.

i do agree with this

however having the 'missile defence' system there was pure provocation. it was nothing to do with iran , it was always about russia

bottom line is russia and the u.s are still the biggest bullies in the playground, they cant fall out and fight each other, as then its curtains for all of us, only clever and honest politicians can keep the balance

putin is very bright, hes also a midget dictator who has medvedev just stuck in there as his puppet. another midget (look out for the built up heels when he meets tall obama ), anyway back being serious putin wants to swap positions again soon, he will never give up power. there needs to be a real movement of social change and people power, not just in russia, but u.s, u.k etc too

too much shit for too long

[katherine]

On a side note, this underlines the lack of common European defense policy. It's about time Europeans take care of their own security, and not constantly rely on the American umbrella.

[draggar]

On a side note, this underlines the lack of common European defense policy. It's about time Europeans take care of their own security, and not constantly rely on the American umbrella.

The thing is that Russia is still a very powerful country with a very large military.

Until the EU is truly united Russia will be able to march in and take over most of Europe. Yes, it will be bloody and messy but I think Russia would succeed unless the other major powers intervened.

[Seraphim]

With a population of 38 million, Poland is always going to fall under someone's sphere of influence. Every Pole is well aware of that unfortunate fact, and thus far their government is playing their cards well. It's a tangled game of choosing the lesser evil, or the least destructive influence.

By fighting alongside the US in Iraq and Afghanistan in such bold numbers, Poland attempted to become a major repository of US power and influence within the region. Why, because Russia is never short on vassals, and the European Union still has a century or two to go before it's fully trusted here.

Obama seems to be taking a soft approach to Central and Eastern Europe, which is leaving Poland to begrudgingly yield more of it's own sovereignty to the ruthless and corrupt powers in Brussels, whom also have their own imperial agenda. Should it ever come to full fruition as is the goal, the reins of the European Super-state will always be contested by the UK, France, and Germany. Smaller nations like Poland, the Czech Republic, are all well aware of that fact, just look to the recent behavior of Václav Klaus for proof. These smaller nations can use US power in the region as a counterbalance attached to their EU membership, though Obama seems to have left the card table altogether.

You can only yield power, or take power in this part of the world. The fault lines of political and economic power are everywhere, and wishing them away won't make it so. Obama thus far has yielded power to Russia, and that is being displayed in good-old tried and tested Russian style by it's simulated nuclear attack on Poland. Also bear in mind that Russia now has nuclear submarines patrolling international waters off the East Coast of the United States, a first since the end of the Cold War. Russia is also making contentious resource claims in the now melted Arctic Sea. Fun times...

Barack Obama doesn't seem to understand that yielding power to Russia, doesn't mean little elves pick up the slack. What it means is the next US president is going to be forced to deal with a much stronger and more belligerent Russia.

[draggar]

BTW - these war games are nothing new. The USA does them too - just not as publicized. I had a friend in the air force and they did them once a month (he was usually vaporized within 30 minutes of the start of the war). Some are quite scary to even fathom (I think the highest estimated death toll they did was over 3 billion dead).

Russia strikes first, China strikes first, Iran develops nukes and deploys over Israel, US strikes first, terrorists detonate a nuke in NYC, and so on. the end result was always the same - millions to billions dead.

We need to really start looking at M.A.D. (mutually assured destruction - a fitting acronym) again but it's no longer two sides. We still have the US / Nato, Russia and Warsaw pact, terrorists, China has become a superpower, as well as that alliance of many smaller countries (I forget the name of it), we also have India and Pakistan each able to nuke each other overnight.

Now, we're back to playing counting coup but on a much larger scale.

[Gerry]

War games are a way of life since the close of WWII.

I recall being on a "sight & sound" post in the Italian alps when the Russian & Yugoslavian forces were having their war games on the Yugo/Italian border. Aviano was something like 13 seconds flying time from the then Soviet Empire of Yugoslavia.

We could easily count the number of tanks/troop carriers and Soviet Aircraft over the border. None of this was hidden and coincided with NATO war games taking place. Still, it was tense at times knowing an errant aircraft or missle could easily stray our way setting off WWIII.