Sign up with GoogleAre you serious about the anti-matter bombs? The reason I am asking is because last I read they can produce minute amounts of anti matter per year - to the scale of a couple of atoms(or anti atoms). I suppose the nature of anti matter means they don't need a lot of it - I'll be interested to have a read on the developent side of using it as weapons. Of to google a bit...
-
Ask a question and get free supportUnlock new privileges and see hidden discussionsWin prizes and earn reputation
-
Question of the day ~ Do you queue to fill up your car before the fuel price increase every month?
-
Afristay giveaway.Win a 2-night stay for two people at an establishment of your choice with R1,000 in spending money. Enter here.
We are now heading back into the cold war
- Thread starter marine1
- Start date
It's been Russian/Soviet Policy to pull various stunts after each new US Presidential inauguration. It's to test the new president. See what he does.
I'm not making this up, this is from various analisys sites.
If one looks at each step the Soviets/Russians do when each new president is elected, you can see how from Kennedy onwards right down to Obama each president is tested to see what his response will be. Russia already believes that Obama will be weak on foreign policy.
The act of meddling in the US sphere of influence is further action by the Russians - to give one to the Yanks. However with oil going so cheap and Russia unable to cut production (it's oil fields would freeze up) maybe it's not the smartest thing for the Sovie... Russia to do right now. Hopefully, Obama teaches them a quick lesson they won't forget in a hurry.
I always hated how in movies, not matter what type of disaster we face, Russia has something to do with it.
Seems the movies were 'onto something'
You also notice how it changes every decade?
First was the Germans, then Chinese/japs, then the Russians and now the Middle East? Bloody Americans!
Yes, the amount they produce per year may be insignificant right now, but the advantages are worth it, stealth, precision, and it being completely clean, even if the first uses would yield a relatively small explosion, compared to a nuke, it could be save a lot of cash and lives.
This weaponry is so small, it could have been built into a insect sized UAV, and directed to perfectly target an individual or small group, without making a big scene. So even if it may be very expensive to produce, the use would be well worth it, and could spare the need to start an entire war.
As with everything, the more research, the better and more efficient to produce it becomes.
NASA and the US Airforce are researching into the field. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/04/MNGM393GPK1.DTL
You also notice how it changes every decade?
First was the Germans, then Chinese/japs, then the Russians and now the Middle East? Bloody Americans!
So you're saying fighting Hitler who ATTACKED Europe first was wrong.
You're saying fighting the Soviet Union which enslaved half of Europe and killed 100-200 million people is wrong.
You're saying declaring war on Japan for attacking a US installation on US territory without declaring war is wrong.
I don't get what you're trying to say. The US is not perfect but pre-1945 Germany and Japan, the Soviet Union and belligerent Russia under ex-KGB Putin I think were (or are) much worse.
/dons Russel Crowe accent (he has the perfect voice for a conspiracy theory documentary )
Some very interesting ideas there BTTB. I do think you're off the mark on some though:
)Some very interesting ideas there BTTB. I do think you're off the mark on some though:
I think the world's concern with Russia may be somewhat misplaced - my belief is we should be concerned with China.
Apart from the last 6 months, the British Pound has been performing stronger than the Euro and the Dollar. The Euro's strength against the dollar was more thanks to the weakening of the dollar.
This is where I disagree with you most. The US dollar, though it is weakening, will remain the defacto international currency for at least another decade. Every country in the world has the ability to trade dollars. Our very own country (who incidentally sees Europe as its main trading partner) shores up FOREX in the form of dollars. Gold is traded in Dollars, as well as Oil. The US has already (according to many commentators) gone to war to defend the Dollar as the de facto oil currency. But even more importantly, there is more dollars in circulation than any other real world currency. Dollars are accepted in most parts of the world - even in Zimbabwe.
There is none more singular than the dollar.
I don't think they want it - they already have it. The US Fed pretty much owns the major banks in the US now. How does that saying go again? "He who controls the money controls everything"
The only possible influence South Africa may have is with gold. But production is declining annually so that may be the end of that. Russia and China are the big ifs. I think any kind of offensive on the West in the next 30 years or so will come from the Chinese. I think they will be supported by the Russians militarily and financially. In such a war, SA will no doubt bow to their chinese overlords.
/kill Russel Crowe.
Just like the Americans, you're living in the past. The Soviet Union is no longer, but Nato is still alive and carrying on as before. There is no need for leaders of the superpowers to measure genital size any more.
It all points once again to the US striving for domination and getting the reactions they wanted. If you want to know how they provoke things, read up on Afghanistan. The US induced the Soviet military intervention in that country.
What do you mean living in the past? It's Russia which does not want the ABM shield -- which is aimed at Teheran and North Korea anyway.
It is Russia which still considers the Great Patriotic War started in 1941 when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union and not 1939 like the rest of Europe. Russia does not acknowledge it's aggression in 1939 against Poland or Finland.
It is Putin and his cronies who want to revive the old 'greatness' of the Soviet Union and are now bullying Ukraine (Google it).
It is Russia which is exporting their best military tech to states which sponsor terrorism - Syria and Iran and other states like Venezuela.
It is Russia which has been oppressing Chechnya and comitting war crimes there.
It is Russia which has made an energy deal with Germany to bypass Poland and the Baltic Republics
to spite them and drive a rift between EU/NATO countries.
It is Russia which is holding Ukraine hostage with their gas and oil pipelines.
Russia has for hundreds of years been upset over Central European countries like Poland and the Czech republic's lack of acceptance of Russian culture - the said countries follow a West European form of writing (Roman vs Cyrillic), religion (Catholic vs Russian Orthodox), Calendar (Gregorian vs Julian), and many other things. You don't understand this because you don't know about these things, you can pick up any book about this subject or contact your nearest University and find the Russian/Central European/Slavic Affairs/History division and you'll see.
Russia under the Soviet Union was a superpower. Now it's just a remnant of what it once was. Many of its republics have split away and Russia is upset. It wants its hegemony back.
Have you read about the corruption and organised crime in Russia?
Have you read about Putin and how he created the office of Prime Minister to stay in power
and how many speculate he will return as President when the current one's term ends?
How about all the journos killed there?
When is Russia going to return illegaly occupied Japanese islands?
When is Russia going to apologise for the murders of Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Jewish, Latvian, Estonia, Polish,
Czech, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian and other minority civilians? Russia does not even want to
acknowledge the genocidal crimes of it's Soviet Union, in fact whenever someone brings those up,
they get upset and go in denial.
Putin himself has called the collapse of the Soviet Union the 'greatest disaster for mankind'.
I know why you feel this way -- you hate America and you feel that Russia can stand up to them. Well Russia has been doing that all along, and the Eastern Europe I come from has been occupied by Russia since the 1750s - that was Tsarist Russia, then we had to fight for our freedom in 1918 to rid ourselves of Russian troops (Red this time) and we were occupied until 1989 by Russian troops. Now a ressurgent Russia wants her Empire back either through annexation of territory (Ukraine, Georgia and Baltics)
or economic and military subservience (European countries bordering Russia).
The Russian people are mostly good but their view of history is twisted (eg Great Patriotic War) and Russian politicians exploit this.
Last edited:
Very good post.
Are there any downsides?
Iran getting nukes?
Good means of deterring any US and Israeli aggression.
Nanfeishen
Executive Member
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2006
- Messages
- 8,937
Well, there is no need for them to acknowledge it, as they also invaded Poland although on Sep 17 1939 , and subsequently with Germany divided Poland up in two.
It was only Germany's actions that broke the truce between the 2 powers, that brought the Soviet Union into the war.
So rightly so they only did begin the Great Patriotic War in 1941.
No other nation has recieved so little credit for their effort to defeat Nazi Germany and no other country payed a bigger price in casualties, than the Soviet Union.
There are so many factual errors here - where to start?!
Leaving out some ancient history ...
Firstly, Ukraine has a financial contract with Russia to supply gas. They also have a contract to berth ships at Savastopol.
Ukraine is trying to frustrate both. Far from holding anyone 'hostage', Ukraine are refusing to pay the more than $1BILLION energy bill for the umpteenth time. They already pay very low preferential (Soviet) rates, so who is in the past here? They also want the Russian navy to leave their ports (which would break an agreement) and to get permission before weighing anchor (how daft). Ukraine also gave arms to Georgia, as did Poland by the way. So are you surprised Russia is not affectionate towards them? Russian speakers are heavily marginalised in Ukraine and Poland, Estonia, Latvia etc etc. Are you really looking at both sides of this dispute or are you speaking from an anti-Russian perspective?
It isn't helpful to announce that I don't know about these things when I do. Russia doesn't want the Soviet Union back, and they have openly said so. You misquote Putin when he made comments about the breakup of the Soviet Union. I will not discuss that point further until you backtrack and correct it. There's no point in embellishing facts.
Putin did not "create the office of PM". Please do some research.
The islands near Japan are perfectly legally held. More research required.
Nope, I do not hate America or Americans, so you can adjust your assertions.
They can call the war anything they want. After all they lost a HUGE number of people. What was WW1 called before WWII started?? Ok, you're wrong again, so time to admit it (again).
They don't acknowledge doing anything WRONG, even now.
For them, the Great Patriotic War began in 1941 but they started WW2 in 1939 and entered the war on the side of the Axis powers.
Poland lost 21% of its population in WW2. That's numerically NOT AS MANY people as Russia lost but Russia did not loose all these people to Germany.
Stalin and his commissars were brutal. The casualties caused by their actions and the mistreatment of RUssian soldiers and civilians by the Soviet authorities may never be known but many historians believe that a good percentage of those WW2 RUssian (and other Soviet citizen deaths) was due to indiscriminate and ruthless behaviour such as punitive battalions, a no retreat policy, execution or deportation to the gulags of 'rescued' captured Soviet soldiers etc.
At the end the Soviet Union perpetrated many crimes against it's own citizens and it may be that the Nazis are getting too much blame for the numerical death counts in the Soviet Union. However, as said Poland lost
21% of it's pre-War population to WW2. That's the greatest percentage of casualties out of any country in World War II. A fair number of those deaths was due to the Soviet Union. After they war the Soviet Union carried out cleansing purges against the intelligentsia, partisans and ex soldiers returning from the Western Front. They also kept many of the Nazi concentration camps for political prisoners.
The belief that the Soviet Union and it's successor Russia did nothing wrong in WW2 is what is driving many of the tensions. The Russian people do not understand the degree of murder their old government caused in both the SU and beyond. Russia and SU were Nazi collaborators in WW2 but sadly got off scott free. Not-one of the killers who handed Russian and Polish Jews to
Nazis or executed Polish citizens was ever brought to trial.
In Germany the people have realised they did a lot of bad things under Hitler. Subsequent generations feel bad over Hitler. They feel regret and feel guilty.
In Russia there is none of that. They don't feel guilty or bad because they don't even know how much suffering they caused.
I can understand the US haters liking RUssia. However they should realise that Russia does its best to oppress Muslims too, just look at Chechnya
and what they did before in Afghanistan.
Finally Russia did not win WW2 on it's own. There were other soldiers fighting alongside Russian soldiers and even more importantly, Russia received a lot
of aid from the United States. They also left the US in the lurch to fight Japan alone while they moved their Siberian troops westwards to defend against Hitler.
Russia would have been defeated if USA did not help them and the Japanese had not signed an armistice with them and instead tied their soldiers
down in the east. Hitler was very close to capturing Moscow.
Last edited:
It depends on how you look at it.
Neutrally speaking:
My post was in the context of Russia interfering in US foreign policy
and in short testing Obama Barrack.
So this is bad news for Obama. He'll have to figure out how to respond.
No other allied nation signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany and actively colluded with the Nazis in the breakup and invasion of a sovereign country. (Poland)
It wouldn't break an agreement if they just don't renew the lease, it would just be not concluding a new agreement. Its not daft to want a hostile foreign power to vacate your sovereign territory.
They may be marginalised but Russia's actions don't exactly help. Look what they did in Georgia and other disputed territories when they hand out Russian passports to Russian speakers and then act on the pretext of protecting their citizens. Russian nationalists have often called for the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol so you can't blame the Ukrainians for not embracing them with open arms.
Either way its pretty clear Medvedev is merely a puppet and Putin still controls Russia.
He called the Soviet Union's collapse "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century", which hardly sounds like an endorsement.
