politics { Cold War Mk II?
Are we doomed to keep repeating the Cold War and the mistakes made, the posturing, the waste of resources? It feels, much like it has since 2000, that we're regressing back in time rapidly. Its felt like there are forces trying to drag the world back to the 1950s. I can't shake the feeling that in a few years the Iron Curtain will be back, and we'll have a new Warsaw Pact vs NATO, US vs USSR global stand-off.
Evil Bobby has some interesting thoughts on the subject.
(titles are mine)
Germany Cock Blocks NATO for Russian Oil
Ukraine hears something knocking next door
2 comments:
So long as nations try to limit the influence of other nations in order to maintain control and power, yes, we will. Geopolitics will likely continue to be the major factor in any foreign policy, especially as it relates to the pumping and transportation of petroleum. Our whole world runs on oil, and as a enormous source of energy now in decline, the lines are being drawn to control the last somewhat reliable supplies of oil. The United States pushed for the oil pipeline to Europe to go through Georgia instead of Russia as a way to limit the power and influence of Russia over petroluem (and you'll notice that Europe is pretty silent over the warfare becuase if Russia secures the oil pipeline, Europe becomes dependent on not pissing off the Russians who might cut them off). Our invitation of Georgia into NATO, as well as other countries, was an attempt to ring in the Russians and limit their power. Since NATO is little more than a proxy of the United States military interests, this looks a lot like Cold War. NATO probably should have been disbanded 5 minutes after the Warsaw Pact fell, but you know, instruments take on lives of their own if you let them.
Russia has not only the US and its allies to worry about, but China as well. The United States invasion of Afghanistan probably has more to do with keeping the Chinese from building an oil pipeline directly to the Middle East as it had to do with revenge for 9/11.
Still, cold war is better than actual war. If the major powers of the world get into a real pissing match over the last energy resources, what you have is WWIII.
I know a retired submarine captain who lives in Texas nowadays. His route was between Britain and Iceland during the cold war.
What he said was that there probably were at least ten incidents that he knew of where somebody with an itchy trigger finger on one side or the other actually fired. They all were hushed up as ultimately neither side really wanted to fight.
Let's see if Georgia is occupied longterm by the Russian army. Kind of puts a damper on some plans of ours ultimately...
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