Posted on 11/19/2011 11:20:06 AM PST by Any Fate But Submission
Vladimir Putin is KGB through and through and considers the collapse of the USSR as the "biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the century". Since he knows Russia cannot win by competing directly with the West, I believe Putin is arranging to have the West severely crippled by proxy. Its like selling a loaded rifle to your opponents enemies who then shoot his horse while in a horse race with you. It is genius. Russia will actually win the Cold War without firing a shot.
At the end of the Cold War, we quit, they didnt. Reagan said Russia does not want war, they want the world. If they sell a rifle to terrorists and terrorists find nukes, it wont be Russia attacking us. Nonetheless, the USA and Western Europe, after nukes in major cities, would cease to be economic powers and Russia along with China would rule the economic world in the new Eurasian Union. For Russia it would be .perfect.
A Russian firm is now selling the Club-K Container Missile System to Iran, Venezuela, Syria, and pretty much anyone who wants them for $15 million ready to fire; undoubtedly under the direction and approval of Putin. This complete ready to fire system is very easy to use and allows anyone to launch 4 cruise missiles from pretty much anywhere.
Club-K is a standard 40 shipping container indistinguishable from millions of others. Inside are 4 cruise missiles with a range of about 275 miles. The missiles are the Soviet RK-55 cruise missile, which was designed to carry a 200-kiloton nuclear warhead (NATO refers to them as the SS-N-27 Sizzler). Launch can be from a ship, train, truck or storage yard.
The control room for two men is operational on delivery. Targeting utilizes the same GPS satellites used by your car. The conventional warheads included can be replaced with nukes (That is the part that requires some sophistication). To fire the missiles the 4 tubes are simply raised as a unit to vertical at the push of a button. All 4 missiles could be launched in a matter of minutes; each with a different target. The missiles then fly at 50 above the ocean or follow the terrain on land and are, for all practical purposes, immune from our defenses.
Imagine if you will six small ships still 25 miles at sea each launching their 4 missiles. One target package could be NY, DC, Philly & Boston. Another could be SF, LA, SD and LV, or how about Portland, Tacoma, Seattle and Vancouver BC or even Houston, Dallas, Baton Rouge and New Orleans. In Europe one package could be London, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam while another could be Berlin, Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm. A total of 6 containers and the evil west is toast. We could not prevent it.
Putin is using the Club-K system to enable our enemies to make any small ship an attack vessel that can nuke USA interests and homeland anytime and anywhere. Once hit with even one nuke our economy will collapse like a house of cards. Martial law would be declared and onerous restrictions would be placed on citizens. There would be massive food shortages, seizing of supplies by the military (for the common good), it would be a nightmare.
What cities in Russia could be hit in that 275 mile range? None, they are too far from the oceans so Russia would be pretty much immune if they could stop the import via truck and train. But Russia is not hated by Muslim terrorists or terrorist states, the West is. Further, Ahmadinejad has said repeatedly that soon the USA and Israel will no longer exist. His statements pre date the Club-K and are probably based upon Irans Space program which, with nuclear satellites that can be detonated 250 miles above Chicago, could take out the entire USA electrical grid permanently (Causing an 80% death rate). Ahmadinejad will soon have the Club-K in his hands; a weapon he could only dream of two years ago. An EMP that kills 80% would be much preferable but destroying major cities and the economies of the West is a great second choice. Remember, they had hoped to kill 50,000 at the twin towers in NY.
Where would they get the nukes? Well, Iran and North Korea are close if not there. Pakistan has over 100 and with their new Plutonium reactors coming on line they can produce about 8 per month. Putin could even allow a few dozen to be stolen to speed things along. The nuclear genie is out of the bottle and oh how we will wish we could put the cork back in.
Mutual Assured Destruction only works if your opponent has something to destroy. What if they scuttled the small ships immediately after launch? Then we could only guess. The greatest economic and nuclear power in the world would be in its death throes, unable to retaliate and unable to save itself. We will know then what Ronald Reagan knew to be our greatest threat and wish for the Star Wars defense system he envisioned. After all of that one would think it would be over and the USA would slowly pick itself up and start again. Unfortunately the nightmare is just beginning. With or without an EMP, with or without a Club-K attack, nuclear attacks will take place in the USA from time to time, at least on our coastal cities, because we failed to contain the nuclear genie when we had the chance and the worst fears of those in the Manhattan Project will be realized; nuclear weapons in the hands of radical terrorists. Keep in mind, there are millions of Muslims who, if they could press a button to kill every man, woman and child in the USA and Western Europe, they would do so in an instant. It is their mandate to convert everyone possible to Islam and kill all others. That means killing billions of people, something they are very willing to do. They will of course ransom cities in the process. They could nuke Barcelona then demand all of the gold in Spain or they will nuke Madrid, etc. It will be endless. What about the Middle East? At some point Israels threat of the retaliatory destruction of the Middle East will take a back seat to their religious fervor or out of control terrorists. They will nuke or destroy much of Israel with conventional rockets and Israel, with its 300+ nukes, will take out every major Arab city and the oil fields just to level the playing field so Israel has a chance to survive.
After that, for the world and us, it is all downhill.
In my humble opinion.
Boy, talk about depressing, who thinks up this stuff? Lets go play some golf instead
as soon as I pack another 55 gallon drum with food.
“This is just a theory. Still, it may be next year or it may be 10 years, but it seems inevitable to me. What do you thing?”
Leave my thing out of this, Buster. I just got out of the pool.
I disagree.
I think Europe is becoming Europe again, and the Germans are going to increase their power as much as they can until they bump into the bear to the East.
Putin wants to, and will, reconstitute the Empire, starting with Belarus and Ukraine.
America is destroying herself. It’s not a major concern for Putin.
The Current FReepathon Pays For The Current Quarters Expenses?
America is destroying herself. Its not a major concern for Putin.
Exactly right.
The US SEEMINGLY won the cold war not realizing that the enemy had already infiltrated its ranks under the guise of the new democrat party.
“when your competition is drowning, hand ‘em a fire hose”
-Ray Kroc
His military is a mess with greatly reduced capabilities from the old days. His armies will not come tumbling through the Falaise Gap.
He has a declining population and health issues are pandemic.
He bought himself power by letting the oligarch's steal Russia's resources and he has not done much to promote quality of life for the common man.
Lastly, he is trying to buy off China and encourage them to tease us in the Pacific.
Come a day when China decides it needs more land and resources, they will move west toward Moscow as they have traditionally done, not across the Pacific towards us.
Putin has big, big problems.
I completely agree. I might think differently if another Reagan were on the verge of election, but this declining country won`t elect someone of Reagan`s caliber again.
I think you are right. Putin doesn't need to expend any capital on destroying the USA. Only a blind cannot see that the USA is already in big trouble. In essence, the whole country's existence hinges on the fact that it prints the world currency. It is also obvious that this can't continue forever. The USA has also huge internal demand for money to mollify the 50% of its population that doesn't work for a number of reasons. The USA lost most of the common industry, and even what remains is also in danger - from regulators, from environmentalists, and from the NIMBY/BANANA crowd.
These problems are present to some extent in Russia as well; however Russia doesn't print money, and because of that it has to swim. There is no lazy way out. Putin's problems are many, from the negative birth rate to alcoholism to aging industry base to low popularity of science and engineering to crime and corruption... If he mends these areas Russia will simply outcompete the USA without any war (but chances of that happening soon are slim.)
War is a dangerous and inpredictable affair, easy to start and very difficult to finish. War can also be a positive, cleansing thing, sometimes, if it solves internal conflicts within the society by physically separating the warring sides - either by sending them to the other world, or by drawing new borders where there were none before. If Putin unleashes a war within the US borders the completely new USA will be born; the separation line will be between people who "can do" (whatever that takes - carrying the rifle or building a computer) and those who "can't do, just give me" people. That would be actually like shooting fish in a barrel. But regardless, the new USA, with the cancerous growth of lumpenproletariat removed, will be stronger and far more dangerous to Putin. He'd rather let the USA stay as it is, rotting in place until it falls on its own. As Napoleon said once, "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." Putin knows that well.
Come a day when China decides it needs more land and resources, they will move west toward Moscow as they have traditionally done, not across the Pacific towards us.
And eventually that may happen on mutual agreement of both sides. For example, a union can be formed. How about facing an opponent that has most of the Earth's surface and most of Earth's people and most of Earth's industry? They wouldn't need a war to tell anyone, the USA included, how high to jump.
Author's concerns about the Club-K are also unfounded. These missiles aren't sold with nuclear warheads. Without them they are not very dangerous; they can be used to take out a building or two, but that's about all. The USA used lots of cruise missiles with conventional warheads in recent wars, and they haven't caused any widespread outrage or suffering. Quite opposite, they were accurate enough to hit military targets and leave civilian structures alone.
The author says that a nuclear warhead can be mounted, and draws an apocalyptic picture of a salvo of those missiles fired against the USA. But just imagine how hard it is for a non-nuclear or minimally nuclear country to manufacture 20 or 30 high yield warheads that can be carried on a small cruise missile. First US nuclear bombs were huge and heavy, and it took decades of very secret research to make them small enough to be carried by cruise missiles. This requires extreme purity of components. Also don't forget that these warheads were tested, many times. Nowadays tests are banned. Members of the nuclear club don't need tests, and newcomers are not welcome.
Besides, if for example Iran develops a 200 kT warhead that is small enough, why would they need cruise missiles for the first strike? Cruise missiles are used when you shoot across the enemy territory that is denied to you. But the US territory is not denied to anyone who wants the access. I can think of many ways to conceal nukes as they are transported across the border. Clive Cussler already presented a possible scenario so I'm not going to help any fanatics in their research :-) Manual delivery of nuclear charges is safer, and it allows access to any city in the USA, not just to coastal areas. Also, once emplaced these charges are undetectable and nearly impossible to locate. Who is going to look into a privately owned garage, one out of millions?
Well, heck- look how well it (proxy) worked for them in Vietnam. Putin is nothing if not smart. HE knows that we are weakened by our choices in leadership.
The free market “doesn’t work” in places like Russia and China because they CHOOSE not to apply it correctly. In the leftist imagination- there AND here- the free market indicates too much freedom for all the wrong sorts, like a middle class. Can’t have it!
Stopped reading right there. Ever heard of Chechnya?
ANY powerful country that dreams of bringing America to it’s end would be complete fools not to do it NOW.
We are fractured, broke, we actually hate each other and we are unarmed with the leadership of Obama and the filthy democrats.
The United States is no longer united and most of those that rose as the “Sleeping Giant” ......are old or dead.
If we were hit by a nuke, it wouldn’t surprise me to see us simply sue those responsible, while our people die in the streets.
We as individuals can prepare all we want, and I have, but without competent leadership, we would be destined to fail.
Worst of all, we have at the helm a corrupt-treasonist-white hating-bastard muslin son of a communist whore.
BUT other that, we’re doing swell.
The cold war ended when the USSR surrendered to it’s own people, Soviet republics split off, and eastern European countries became independent. You may have missed the news that day.
You can call this period what you want and expose Putin all you want, but you need a new name to define the period.
Russia is in demographic collapse. They are a dying nation. Putin’s bluster is merely a show for his home audience, a vain attempt to restore pride in a nation of very sad, discouraged people. They have more abortions than live births and alcoholism is rampant among the male population. The women want to leave the country. They also made the mistake of allowing Islam in the door. Dead. Dead. Dead.
There’s a little problem with your analysis. Russia under Putin should be the envy of FReepers: low flat income tax rates, Christian education in the schools, not to mention undergoing a revival of Christian piety, a “Drill, baby, drill!” energy policy, honest climatologists, moves in the Duma to place restrictions on abortions, city governments that refuse parade permits for “Gay Pride” marches, . . .
Okay, they don’t quite have capitalism right, but then again, we don’t anymore, and moving from Communism to crony capitalism is a move in the right direction, while our move from real capitalism to the crony variety is going the wrong way. On top of that, they at least have the honesty to call their oligarchs “oligarchs”.
Yeah, I know, it’s galling that Putin thinks Russia can use Iran as a pawn in a game of balance-of-power politics vis-a-vis the U.S. (Russia unlike us only has Sunni enemies.) But the idea that because he was KGB he’s still fighting the Cold War is absurd. Everyone, except the nitwits in the OWS movement and the White House, knows that Communism doesn’t work. Russia, doing what Russia has always done since at least the 1600’s — trying to gain or maintain great power status — does not constitute a continuation of the Cold War. It’s just Russia being Russia.
The flaw -——
A shipping container can send 4 cruise missiles at US targets. OK. But to put nukes on these missiles is another matter. They have to be miniaturized nukes and few nations have that tech. Iran does not right now. Do the Pakis? I don’t think so. Norks don’t. The ChiComs and Russkies do but if they sell one to be mounted on an Iranian cruise missile...it can be traced via it’s nuclear signature which will tell what reactor the nuke material came from. So then we can accurately respond in kind and then some (unless Obongo is in charge)
That is right. In addition to demographic decline, as in the Europe, Russia proper is becoming increasingly Islamic.
The US is also in sharp decline now that the Leftists and zero have mostly destroyed the free market system. If zero wins in 2012, the decline will be irreversible and alcoholism, abortions, criminal activity will be much like it is in Russia today.
One problem with this theory. The cargo container holding the missiles can be mounted onto a truck bed. That is how they move the containers from the docks to the distribution centers. So, they can be fired from anywhere on land from the truck bed.
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