Cold War 2.0

[ORAC]

Welcome to Cold War 2.0 (http://observer.com/2016/02/welcome-to-cold-war-2-0/)

The risk of the Kremlin rolling the dice against NATO is real

[Stanwell]

Hey, ORAC,
Who is this John Schindler who's written the above piece?
He seems a bit up himself - in that he's piqued that world leaders don't seem to accord him all due deference.
They've wantonly ignored his analyses and prognostications!

Perhaps his mother once told him he was good - and he took it to heart.
I found his style to be nothing more than long-windedly stating the bleeding obvious.

I'll bet when he gets home he gets a good telling-off for not taking the garbage out on time.

[ORAC]

Click on his name and it tells you......

[Stanwell]

OK, thanks.
BTW, your links are generally much appreciated.

[A_Van]

IMHO, a very shallow representation of the situation. Thought that a much better analysis could come from a former NSA expert. Looks like it is not his area of strong expertise :-) The BBC film, already discussed in another thread, gave much more food for thought :-)
Most of paranoid cries about "Russian invasion" are eagerly supported (and often generated) by the East Europeans countries who recently joined (or yet dream to join) NATO in order to get more funding plus indirect support from deploying other troops and hardware on their territory.
As usual, those "strategists" use old paradigms relevant to previous wars. What hell the Russians would send tanks to the Baltic states? WWII ended 70 years ago...These countries are nice touristic destinations and let them remain as such. We have enormous territory yet to be developed.
Better recall Yugoslavia that was really bombed by NATO in the middle of Europe. And it was NATO to demonstrate that existing (-ed) borders in Europe did not mean much. I mean creation of a new pseudo state of Kosovo. After that, talking about Crimea is just not serious.

[NutLoose]

I will know it is getting serious when I hear the MOD has awarded new contracts for the supply of broom handles, plastic sheeting and bodge tape to build new state of the art decontam facilities...

Will you survive?

http://how-to-survive-a-nuclear-bomb.pilots.bbcconnectedstudio.co.uk/index.html#


At least on the above test I don't have to stand outside a HAS wearing a see-through plastic suit over my NBC suit scrubbing a jet down with a bucket of soapsuds and a bask broom to decontaminate it while trying to look serious..
..

[Wander00]

Aah, the joys of turning a barrack block into a nuclear shelter with plastic sheet and bodge tape. Mind you, the anti Ebola facilities I W Africa looked pretty similar

[tartare]

Despite the slightly self important tone to the story - there is a certain logic to what he suggests.
If you were Putin - when would be the ideal time to indulge in more eastern European adventures?
When your major opponent is preoccupied with a transition between administrations?

[Linedog]

No please. Don't send me back to Laarbruch. I still can't remember the last time. :p

[Lyneham Lad]

Given the way Erdogan is heading, ColdWar2.0 could all too easily unravel into HotWar3.0. :sad:

[air pig]

Was in the Hack Green bunker near Nantwich last week which is now a Cold War museum. Ex radar station then an RSG. Had this cold feeling that we may need such things agin in the future.

[NutLoose]

He might be a power crazed megalomaniac, but I don't think even Putin is that stupid..

[Chugalug2]

NL:-
I don't think even Putin is that stupid..

The danger is not so much him being stupid as his belief that we are. In that regard he shares the same myopic vision of other leaders who view their adversaries with contempt. They all find that they were wrong in the end, but at so much cost to others...

[Stitchbitch]

I hear some Tu-160s are cruising oop T'north and Q has been launched. Its like being back in the 80s again.

[ETOPS]

the Hack Green bunker near Nantwich last week which is now a Cold War museum.

Local road signs amuse me as they point the way to "The Secret Bunker" ;)