“President Donald Trump warned Wednesday that he would walk away from his upcoming summit with Kim Jong Un if it wasn’t going to be ‘fruitful.’ “
He will not go unless the deal has already been done. If Trump goes it is a win.
Oddly Reagan did the same with Gorbachev at Rejivek in Iceland. It did not turn out as anticipated and Regan just went home and instead destroyed the Soviet Union via economic dominance and a military that none would challenge. He destroyed the Soviet Union and Bush, Clinton , the second Bush and then the appeaser Obama screwed up their demise.
Today Russia is a very potent enemy militarily. It is a basket case economically. Their GDP is about the same as Italy. I welcome an arms race as they can not compete. A true arms race is their demise. The economy of the West will prevail and they will collapse economical as they did in the last arms race.
China is the one to fear. China has a vibrant free market economy, they just pretend to be communist but use free enterprise to fund an imperialistic dictatorial expansionists nation.
Outside of their nuclear arsenal, the Russian military is a mere shadow of its Cold War self. They have some shiny weapon systems, but what we are never told is the stark truth that they have very few of the platforms - very few. The majority of their military remains several generations behind our current force. They have no counter to our latest weapons and we have a huge numerical advantage in modern weapons.
They are a gas station with nukes. There are states here in the US that have a bigger economy than their entire nation. Putin and his friends are becoming extremely rich, but the rest of their country and their “tax base” is falling further behind us every year.
Forgot to add this: Russia’s economy is totally dependent on the export of oil and gas of which they have much. The Saudis turned on their oil production to the maximum which drove down oil prices and was a short term negative to Saudi but destroyed the economics of the Soviet Union which at the time was the number one producer of oil in the world.
The Soviet Union then collapsed, due to the fact they became an economic disaster. When they collapsed the Western Nations in their extreme ignorance did not embrace the Soviet Union but ignored them as no longer relevant. They are very relevant today militarily and economically of little importance.
“China is the one to fear. China has a vibrant free market economy, they just pretend to be communist but use free enterprise to fund an imperialistic dictatorial expansionists nation.”
Russia doesn’t really need to beat us in an arms race, which Putin has already ceded they can’t and won’t. It is far cheaper to field the innovative nuclear weapons he showcased, which could be far more dangerous if that becomes their go to for defense. I honestly don’t think Russia wants a war, but rightly fears a CIA backed coup attempt and further interference with their internal politics and allies.