China’s military bluster camouflages toothless bite | Reuters

Posted by Matt in March 9th, 2010 | 2 comments

Published in China, Bluster, China Military, China S Military, Coordination, New Technology, Parades, Reuters, Spit And Polish

Big on spit and polish and parades but short on experience, new technology and force coordination, China’s military has far to go before its bite begins to approach its increasingly loud, and for some fearsome, bark.
China’s military bluster camouflages toothless bite | Reuters

BERMAN: Russia’s real threat? Failure – Washington Times

Posted by Matt in January 29th, 2010 | no comment

Published in Demographics, Russia, Bluster, Death Spiral, Decline, Estimates, Failure, kremlin, Midcentury, Muslim, Russia, Soviet Union, Successor State, Washington Times

Decline breeds new and perplexing dangers
… But behind all of the Kremlin’s contemporary geopolitical bluster, the successor state of the once-mighty Soviet Union is caught in a demographic and socioeconomic death spiral.
… Russia, in other words, is dying.
… By midcentury, according to official estimates, Russia will be more than 50 percent Muslim – and the [...]

The Kremlin’s obsession with respect

Posted by Matt in August 29th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Russia, Ally, Billions Of Dollars, Bluster, Breakaway, Deadly Enemy, Diplomat, John Fischer, Joseph Stalin, Kiev, kremlin, Lend Lease, Line Rings, Newsweek, Newsweek International, Obsession, Political Threat, Russians, Tensions, Third World War, Upheavals

IN 1946 a young U.S. diplomat named John Fischer wrote an earnest little book called Why They Behave Like Russians. Fischer, who’d served with the United Nations in postwar Kiev and Moscow, was attempting to explain to a bewildered U.S. public why their wartime ally Joseph Stalin, recipient of billions of dollars in American Lend-Lease [...]

Lessons of Georgia – Telegraph

Posted by Matt in August 11th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Russia, 20th Century, Bluster, Catastrophe, Collapse Of The Soviet Union, Countries, Foray, Land Of Lost Content, Political Appeal, Russia, Russian Prime Minister, Soviet Empire, tanks, Telegraph, Vladimir Putin, Wake Up Call, West Georgia

When Vladimir Putin described the collapse of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century, his remarks were seen as part and parcel of the nationalist bluster that is an integral part of his domestic political appeal. When, one year ago, the Russian prime minister sent his tanks into Georgia, he [...]

Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador – What’s Going On?

Posted by Matt in July 27th, 2008 | 2 comments

Published in general, Air Force, Amazon, beijing, Beijing China, Bluster, Borders, Caribbean, Cold-War, Correa, Cuba, Defense Minister, Dominance, Ecuador, Favourably, Gestures, Izvestia, Latin-America, Manta Base, Military Bases, minerals, Missile Shield, New York Times, News Articles, Russia Moscow, Russians, Transit Port, Venezuela

A New Cold War in the Caribbean?
The significance of the Izvestia bluster isn’t that the Russians could be coming again — Moscow’s Defense Minister later said any air force arrangement in Cuba would most likely involve stops for fuel rather than actual bases — but that they’ve returned to the idea of using the Caribbean [...]

Red as in Rust

Posted by Matt in May 27th, 2008 | no comment

Published in Military, Russia, Bluster, Conventional Forces, Deck Defense, First Glimpse, Flight Deck, Geoff Morrell, Intelligence Officers, Military Hardware, Military Observers, Military Parades, New Weapon, Nuclear Attack, Nuclear Forces, Pentagon Spokesman, Red Square, Rust, Soviet Army, Steep Decline, Video Russia, Vladimir Dvorkin, Weapon System

Yes, Russia’s military is falling apart. So where do I get off claiming that America needs to worry about a nuclear attack from Russia? It is Russia’s nuclear forces that we need to worry about not their conventional forces.
Russia’s nuclear forces have problems too. They’re falling apart as well. However, these nuclear forces are still [...]