Well, we have recently watched Venezuela and Russia participate in War Games, as a Russian Battleship and several other Russian Vessels showed off their military prowess - perhaps, in an attempt to show the US that Venezuela had strong allies and a force that must be reckoned with. This, not long after the Russians declared they would move short range missiles near their border to render a missile defense shield inadequate and now we have the Russian Navy on their way to Cuba.

So, I ask did someone just hit rewind on history - haven't we already been there and done that? Russia also said that they believe they can negotiate with the Obama Administration. Is this a show of force to serve their negotiators? After all, let's not forget that Russia is also selling weapons to Iran and Iran's President has stated that if anyone comes near, that nation will be sorry.

What does all this mean? Now, I realize you are not a conspiracy theorist, me either, and yet this is an interesting reason that someone may wish to move to a safer haven, build a bomb shelter or worry about the future of our nation. The human saga always continues into each consecutive era, even though it is indeed one's fortune to live in interesting times, perhaps, this is why it makes sense to always be thinking of a safe place to live during your life experience.

And now President Obama will be in charge, another young President faced with tough choices. I ask is this truly where we wish to be going, are we merely setting ourselves up to relive a past period? Isn't the human race smarter than this? Are we all so naïve that we buy into this bogus notion of truth or dare, cold war stand-offs and power balance acts? I'll say one thing, I don't buy this for a moment, nor should any of you.

The Russians seem to want to play hardball again, they want to feel their oats and show their strength and it appears we are all headed for another giant game of chicken, where there cannot be a winner if real conflict starts. I'd like to recommend some cold war reading material to you on this topic, perhaps you will contact me by email. There is no reason to repeat the past.

In fact, it almost looks like a set-up. President Obama tells the Russians to go home from Cuba, stop selling weapons to Iran, and help Iran with peaceful nuclear power in trade for scraping the Missile Defense Shield in Europe. This makes Obama look very good to the American People, like he negotiated peace, and it gives Russia every single thing they wanted after they used extortion tactics to get it. Who loses?

NATO, our allies and the populations of Europe, all the while Iran will still enrich uranium on the side and give a nuclear weapon to International Terrorist Proxies. Quite frankly, the Russians diplomacy games are stunningly simple, they are artful in allowing other world leaders to get their way. If President Obama trade fame and legacy over what is best for this nation and the free world, and if the media allows him to do this, we've all sold ourselves and the human race down the river.

Doomed to Repeat!

By: Lance Winslow
Lance Winslow's Bio Lance Winslow's Bio. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net.

Well, they said it would happen, that the Obama Administration would be challenged almost immediately if he was elected, still the American People somehow either did not buy into that line of thinking or considered it political posturing from the Republicans. This is rather silly considering that it was Joe Biden the Vice President Elect who made the first major media warning on the issue.

Not more than 24-hours after Obama was elected Russia announced that it was sending in the latest generation of stealthy short ranged missiles up against its borders to make the "missile defense" shield for NATO worthless. And mind you Russia is sending in 5 missile brigades, so this is no little matter, all equipped with the Iskander-M Series Short Range mini-capable stealth missiles. They also have long-range ICBMs that might be nearly impossible to shoot down if a swarm strategy is used.

Interestingly enough, it was Joe Biden who told the world prior to the election that; "Israel will have to get use to a nuclear weaponized Iran." And Iran now has enough nuclear material to make a nuclear weapon and has Chinese and Russian missile technology that would allow for missile delivery of up to 1250 miles, perhaps more. And Iran has invested heavily on a new base at the inlet to the Persian Gulf.

Meaning Iran can hit parts of Europe and Israel and the US Bases in Iraq or even annihilate the "Green Zone." The Vice President Elect says we can negotiate and use passive diplomatic solutions. Obama says he would meet with Hugo Chavez, President of Iran, North Korea, and Cuban Dictator Raul Castro, etc.

Indeed, I guess the next question is can President Obama handle this or will he rely on Prozac to help keep him calm as he votes "present" as the missile fly? Please think on this, as I am voting zero confidence in this new President and believe his policies will either get us into an escalating war or render us useless as Super Power and leaving our NATO allies high and dry.

By: Lance Winslow
Lance Winslow's Bio Lance Winslow's Bio. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net.

Yelena Tregubova is the latest Russian journalist to defect to the West. She has been forced to seek asylum in the UK for the offense of criticizing the Kremlin. In her words, a return to Russia "would be suicidal for me". Ms Tregubova was at one time a member of the Kremlin press corps. In her book, Tales of a Kremlin Digger (published in 2003), she accused Vladimir Putin of attacking political and press freedoms in Russia. She was fired and blacklisted as a result. In February of 2004, a bomb exploded outside her Moscow apartment, minutes before she opened the door.

Meanwhile this week, in an interview ahead of the G8 meeting, Vladimir Putin informed journalists that ... ''I am an absolute and pure democrat. But you know what the misfortune is? Not even a misfortune but a real tragedy? It's that I am alone, there simply aren't others like this in the world.''

Anyone with even a passing acquaintance with what's been going on in Russia over the past few years can only dismiss Putin's remarks as a joke. Indeed, it appears he was indulging his cynical sense of humor because after making these remarks, the transcript notes that he laughed. His oddball humor was confirmed by the tongue-in-cheek follow up comment ... "after the death of Mahatma Gandhi, there's nobody to talk to."

Sounds very much like a man who can't even begin to defend his record and has chosen instead to resort to sarcasm. This is Putin all over. His sardonic humor is only outdone by his infinite capacity to stonewall and engage in denial. It's always somebody else's fault or somebody else's folly.

An example of this is the Litvinenko affair. After an exhaustive British investigation into the poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko, the British Crown Prosecutor's office has sufficient evidence to implicate ex-KGB man, Andrei Lugovoi. Putin described the British request for extradition as "stupidity".

The latest piece of bravado is his threat to aim missiles at Europe, in retaliation for the move by Washington to deploy missiles on turf that was once part of Warsaw Pact territory. Russian military experts know perfectly well that the US shield isn't directed at Russia. The weapons deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic are part of a defensive strategy aimed at the danger posed by Iran and N. Korea. While the feasibility of the American approach can be debated, it's not a move directed against Russia.

Putin's rhetoric is little more than grandstanding because what is of primary concern aren't the co-ordinates, but the actual missile systems themselves. Co-ordinates can be altered at short notice. This is Vladimir the bully in action, flexing his biceps yet again in order to try and force political concessions. He is even using terms like "a new arms race" to ratchet up the pressure.

Political and business leaders in the West, bedazzled by Russian oil and gas prospects have remained disturbingly silent in the face of Putin's attacks on democratic freedoms. According to Ms Tregubova, Putin is in the business of attempting to restore "a clan-like dictatorship resembling the former Soviet Politburo". She disputes the claim made by some Western observers that Putin's Soviet-style revivalism is simply an attempt to strengthen national pride. In her view, his revivalism is "full scale revenge by the secret service and the authoritarian regime with all their old methods and tricks".

In the end none of this seems to matter as far as the indulgent approach to Russia is concerned. Bush recently made a few obligatory noises about Putin's lapses on the democratic reform front, but the attitude of weary tolerance and determined myopia continues to prevail. Putin would have to stage mass murder in Red Square under the cameras of CNN for any significant protest to erupt, and even then there would be those who would downplay it. Critics of Putin such as one-time world chess champion, Gary Kasparov, are almost considered in breach of some unspoken taboo. Kasparov is delivering a message many simply refuse to hear.

Meanwhile, the 'three monkey' diplomacy continues.

By: Aidan Maconachy
Aidan Maconachy is a freelance writer and artist based in Ontario. You can visit his blog at http://aidanmaconachyblog.blogspot.com/.

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