Posted on 01/19/2008 4:24:22 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Russia Issues Pre-Emptive Nuclear Threat
By Sky News SkyNews - 27 minutes ago
Russia's military chief of staff says Moscow would use nuclear weapons in pre-emptive strike if it felt threatened.
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General Yuri Baluyevsky said there were no plans "to attack anyone" but reasserted Russia's right to defend itself.
"To defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia and its allies, military forces will be used, including preventively, including with the use of nuclear weapons," Gen Baluyevsky said.
The remarks do not represent a change in policy for Moscow.
But they do come at a time of heightened tension between Russia and the West.
Russia is embroiled in persistent disputes over US plans for missile defence facilities in former Soviet satellite states that have joined Nato.
A row has also broken out between the UK and Russia after the director of the British Council in St Petersburg was briefly arrested.
Britain closed the council's offices after accusing the Russians of harassment.
Um, you might want to go and find them all first...
The Russian form of government is now Fascist. It reminds me a lot of pre-WWII Italy under Mussolini. Some nationalism is a good thing at times such as minimizing corruption, and putting all the nation’s resources to work for itself.
The real issue is that Russia has not figured out how to gain more by engaging the West vs. creating havoc in the global market for gain. As you said, this is old Russia not the Soviet Union.
To change ways requires trust. Bush put 100% out there with Putin but Russia did some ugly behind the scenes stuff in 2003. Cheney lobbed some shots at Putin’s way then we helped fund the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. From there it’s been downhill, but we most certainly should keep trying to restore trust. It might very well be impossible considering Putin’s background and brainwashing.
Out of fairness, they had a lot to fear and were invaded constantly in that thousand years. Their culture has not absorbed the reality that having the largest nuclear stockpile of weapons in the world guarantees outside invasion is now an impossibility. That doesn’t mean that Chinese culture creep will not occur but I don’t beleive they look at that as much of a threat. It’s probably easy to see how Mexican’s creeping into the USA didn’t hurt us in the long-run (and I am not talking about the mass invasion that happened in the last few years here at home).
Yes, just posted something on this. It appears a copy of Italian Fascism under Mussolini.
How RUDE! I am NOT dingy!
I am from NH also :) You make a good point but let me define it further in my own opinion. I think Nato/EU expansion was good but Democractic momentum had gained enough ground on it’s own by early 2000’s. The time and place we should have STOPPED was Ukraine, a source of national pride for the Russians and a stated ‘line in the sand’ on Democratic nation building (even though most Ukrainians themselves HATE Russia).
How RUDE! I am NOT dingy!Can't help it. When somebody's right, the bell just goes off.
Wasn’t that quote Ezekial 38?
If we are going to do such aggressive posturing then let’s at least get something out of it, such as “Hey Putin, we WON’T do these things if you stop providing nuclear know-how to Iran AND pressure North Korea with us.” This won’t happen however as it would have to become an alliance so your idea would just add tension for no reason.
Exactly. What would help is if Russia and China stopped helping build lil’ Frankenstein monsters with nukes. Now we are now countering them with arming our own Van Helsings’s with nukes. Bad way to go and most certainly vastly increasing the chances for all out thermonuclear exchanges.
It’s back, true. But it’s alot smaller than it was! Haha! We still win.
We should make this deal with russia though...tell them we are going to build all the missile silos in eastern europe we want, but in exchange, russia can do whatever she wants with the balkins...and if we are allowed to have our way in iran without verbal abuse from russia, she can do what she wishes with asia minor as well.
Sounds fair to me.
Exchanging barbs with Putin is precisely what he wants. He is trying to cement his populist support by using the U.S. as the villain. It worked before, and it will work again.
The Russian people are unbelievably nationalistic and he is simply pushing the buttons.
I like to use the analogy of the Klingon's in the Star Trek story. They fit like a glove with Russian Nationalism, and it was not a accident that there is a direct comparison.
Quite right. Russia and China are going the same way.
Communism est mort, viva le fascisme!
This is the reference - hint (FDR, Hitler, Mussolini):
Putin's role model
Fair enough, but think about it from the perspective of a starving Chinese peasant living in a hut offered food and employment by a Chinese state mining or oil company. People in LA and NY have it a bit better than that. And, if there was natural resources exploitation going on in Alaska, there’d be a *ton* of contractors out there, as there are in Alberta, Canada. You’re thinking free people living in a prosperous economy. Chinese peasantry is something quite different. And - fact - there’s estimated 50M Chinese already living illegaly within Russian northenr borders.
Nice to get a post like this which makes me think. I didn’t know about the 50 million illegals from China in the Russian Far East, either. Thanks.
Leninist Communism was always a first cousin of German National Socialism. The latter were small-"s" socialists who added pan-German nationalism and antisemitism to their program to attract the support of the key Army officer class and lesser nobility.
Both are essentially movements of the Left. Fascism OTOH was a rightist phenomenon. Fascists and Nazis understood clearly their important doctrinal differences*, but for wartime political purposes the two were confounded in Western opinion leadership.
* Nazism was about the supremacy of "the people" -- das deutsches Volk -- whereas fascism elevated "the state" to the paramount position. Nazism, like many Left movements, was equalitarian, whereas fascism was not, seeing the old nobility as a valuable authoritarian prop of the state and public order.
Yeah, welcome to the "Cool War", or perhaps the "Somewhat Frosty War."
</Monty>
The Chinese *are* invading. They're doing the Mexican Sneak into Siberia and have been for some time. One day, when they have a choice area thoroughly colonized, they may march across the political border under the pretext of "protecting the rights" of the area's people.
They all elevate the state above the individual. I dare say everything else is academic.
Fast foward, say, six years. Replace 'Putin' with 'Hillary'...
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