[spetznaz]

I hope you're wrong too. I really hope you are. What worries me is not necessarily that Obama (or Putin) would consciously start trouble with the other. Obama, while dumb, is not stupid enough to do that (and Putin, while thuggish, is not thuggish enough to do that). What worries me however is 'mistakes.' In their silly games with each other, a mistake is made whereby American or Russian lives are lost, the guys on the ground retaliate on self-defense, more lives get lost, and by the time Washington and Moscow wake up to what's happening there's a live (but localised) situation at play. Hopefully Obama and Putin would have wiser heads in their cabinets to pull things back, but the problem with cowards and thugs is that both tend to have people like them surrounding them, and another problem with cowards and thugs is that they get emotional over situations and double down.

Compare that with Reagan ....a man's man, who had no problem using extreme force, but at the same time knew when not to start something that didn't really have to get started.

Contrast that with Coward Obama, angry at Russia for mucking up its plans, and Thug Putin, whose popularity in Russia stems from his spiel that he is standing up to American aggression. A coward and a thug on opposite sides of the board. Now, that's scary as both have something to prove. If it were two strong men, in the same manner two strong lions in the wild will never fight unless they absolutely have to (eg taking over a pride) since they know unnecessary fights can lead to unnecessary injuries which can mean unnecessary death, in the same way two strong alpha men wouldn't fight unless there was no other choice. But put a coward and a thug, both beta men, and the chances of something going wrong shoots up to the stratosphere.

That's my worry, and the more American and Russian assets you have operating in a small sphere the higher the likelihood of something happening.

[dp0622]

great post.

Never thought of it that way.

as long as no one sets up a no fly zone, there is some hope to avoid ‘mistakes’

[Claud]

Compare that with Reagan ....a man's man, who had no problem using extreme force, but at the same time knew when not to start something that didn't really have to get started.

That's just what Obama and most liberal CICs don't get. The military is not (save for some special OPs stuff) a precision instrument you control from a desk in DC. It's hell on earth. You unleash it as last resort only when absolutely needed, and then you get out of its way and let it do its job.