Cold War, again.....
It looks as though Russian - American ties continue to fall as the US imposed sanctions on seven defense companies including two Russian, Rosoboronexport and the state-owned warplane maker Sukhoi. Analyts say this could also lead to retaliation against American companies attempting to do business in Russia with Russian media calling it a declaration of an economic war. Many also believe this may have been in response to Russia's ties with Venezuela, whose leader Hugo Chavez is an outspoken critic of the United States.
Whatever the reason for the sanctions, ties between the two former enemies are continuing to sour, their have been recent exchange of words between Cheney, Bush and Putin as was noted during the G-8 meeting press conference when Bush and Putin exchanged comments on democracy and Iraq. View Video:
Poorer relations do not help either nations as more cooperation is needed to fight nuclear proliferation and resolve the issues with Iran and North Korea. While the Bush administration has been supporting democratic leaders in former Soviet states, to the dismay of Russia, the Kremlin has been supplying arms to US enemies such as Venezuela and Iran. During the Cold War many proxy wars were fought been the US and Russia, such as India-Pakistan, Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan.
Relations so far have not soured that bad as both nations have agreed to fight against Islamic terrorists who have become serious threats to both nations citizens. Russia has been in a fight in Chechnya for years while the US is bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both leaders need to work together since in the future we will need more allies in this fight to stop terrorism, it will not be won if our focus goes back to building more arms against each other. Both Russia and China have been increasing military spending while our defense budget is already nearing the half trillion mark not including our current war expenses. Major nations need to cooperate and fight against the current threat of extremism, another arms race will only lead to more proxy disputes and out of control defense spending.
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It looks as though Russian - American ties continue to fall as the US imposed sanctions on seven defense companies including two Russian, Rosoboronexport and the state-owned warplane maker Sukhoi. Analyts say this could also lead to retaliation against American companies attempting to do business in Russia with Russian media calling it a declaration of an economic war. Many also believe this may have been in response to Russia's ties with Venezuela, whose leader Hugo Chavez is an outspoken critic of the United States.
Whatever the reason for the sanctions, ties between the two former enemies are continuing to sour, their have been recent exchange of words between Cheney, Bush and Putin as was noted during the G-8 meeting press conference when Bush and Putin exchanged comments on democracy and Iraq. View Video:
Poorer relations do not help either nations as more cooperation is needed to fight nuclear proliferation and resolve the issues with Iran and North Korea. While the Bush administration has been supporting democratic leaders in former Soviet states, to the dismay of Russia, the Kremlin has been supplying arms to US enemies such as Venezuela and Iran. During the Cold War many proxy wars were fought been the US and Russia, such as India-Pakistan, Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan.
Relations so far have not soured that bad as both nations have agreed to fight against Islamic terrorists who have become serious threats to both nations citizens. Russia has been in a fight in Chechnya for years while the US is bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both leaders need to work together since in the future we will need more allies in this fight to stop terrorism, it will not be won if our focus goes back to building more arms against each other. Both Russia and China have been increasing military spending while our defense budget is already nearing the half trillion mark not including our current war expenses. Major nations need to cooperate and fight against the current threat of extremism, another arms race will only lead to more proxy disputes and out of control defense spending.
Reference:
Link 1
Link 2
Digg
Whatever the reason for the sanctions, ties between the two former enemies are continuing to sour, their have been recent exchange of words between Cheney, Bush and Putin as was noted during the G-8 meeting press conference when Bush and Putin exchanged comments on democracy and Iraq. View Video:
Poorer relations do not help either nations as more cooperation is needed to fight nuclear proliferation and resolve the issues with Iran and North Korea. While the Bush administration has been supporting democratic leaders in former Soviet states, to the dismay of Russia, the Kremlin has been supplying arms to US enemies such as Venezuela and Iran. During the Cold War many proxy wars were fought been the US and Russia, such as India-Pakistan, Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan.
Relations so far have not soured that bad as both nations have agreed to fight against Islamic terrorists who have become serious threats to both nations citizens. Russia has been in a fight in Chechnya for years while the US is bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both leaders need to work together since in the future we will need more allies in this fight to stop terrorism, it will not be won if our focus goes back to building more arms against each other. Both Russia and China have been increasing military spending while our defense budget is already nearing the half trillion mark not including our current war expenses. Major nations need to cooperate and fight against the current threat of extremism, another arms race will only lead to more proxy disputes and out of control defense spending.
Reference:
Link 1
Link 2
Digg
posted by Amar Shah at 3:00 PM
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3 Comments:
How come you don 't talk about Putin's fall back to old soviet communist ways with control of the media and brutal suppresion of free speech. You are taking a very superficial view of this issue while steering the blame towards current arms spending. Don't forget it was that build up of arms that eventually led to the fall of communism in Russia and the Berlin wall coming down. That didn't happen through discussing things it happened through an economic war based on increasing defense spending. you need to take a deeper look at history and events unfolding in Russia so you get a wider perspective on this issue.
I agree with your comments, but my post was more focused on just the souring of relations while I did not dig deep into the reasons for it. As far as defense spending goes, it worked for us before, but it is a very large risk to take, especially if their economy gets stronger with all the oil they have, what if they are able to outspend us and make us go bankrupt? Russia is not an ideal democracy and has been going backwards, but lets not forget, democracy is not our criteria for friends, we have plenty of non-democratic allies such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Even our country has gone a few steps back lately, with protestors not being allowed into Bush speeches and reporters being dragged into prison for not giving up sources. Living in fear just means that you are letting the enemy win. Back to US-Russia relations, while we are not the best of friends, we still need the Russians to help us with Iran and Nroth Korea, if they are not with us, it will be hard for any type of sanctions or other punishments to make large differences.
http://bush2go.blogspot.com/ is a chronicle of Bush’s certain political demise, captured through published news reports. The writing is on the wall, the trend is obvious, and the arc of where Bush is headed cannot be doubted. Follow along for the trip.
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