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The Big Chill
Author: BobR
Date: 2014-04-23 10:15:26
As 2014 marches on, it seems like our long national nightmare in the Middle East is finally coming to an end. For young people, it must seem like a paraphrase from "1984": America has always been at war with Terrorism. It isn't the first time that America has been at war with an "ism", however. In the 60s and 70s, America was at war with Communism. That was the boogeyman that was on the verge of destroying The American Way, unless we used our military to strike down communism wherever it showed its face. Thus, we endured a Cuban Missile Crisis, battled in Viet Nam, and conducted a long Cold War against the Soviet Union.
It wasn't until the mid 80s and a change in leadership in the USSR when Perestroika, Glasnost, and the dissolution of the USSR into individual countries brought that Cold War to an end. We began reducing our nuke stockpiles, turning the doomsday clock backwards, and ushering in a technological and consumer renaissance in the U.S. Still - we spied on Russia, and Russia spied on us, and we continued to fight our war via proxies, as Russia and the U.S. inevitably supported opposite sides in various skirmishes around the globe.
Which brings us to where we are today. Russian leader Vladimir Putin seems to have allowed his megalomania to get the better of him. He seems intent on reconstituting the former Soviet Union, one sovereign nation at a time. The Ukraine always seems to be a sore spot for Russia, and it was their invading and annexing Crimea that has put the entire planet on edge. Former Soviet Union nations like Poland (and the remainder of Ukraine) are preparing and bracing for further incursions from Russia, as Russia amasses troops on its border with Ukraine.
Russia is claiming it's just an exercise and that they will be pulling their troops back from the border soon. After seeing the Russian troops in Crimea with no national affiliation indicated on their uniforms, one has to wonder how many have already slipped over the border. The U.S. is countering by deploying troops to other countries in the region:
Along with sending troops over, we are also demanding that Russia take concrete steps to - if not defuse, then at least - not aggravate the situation any further. Ukraine is sending troops to the eastern region where it shares a border with Russia, and where most of the pro-Russia trouble is occurring. It is in that area where an American journalist has been taken into custody by the local leadership:
This is the sort of thing that used to happen all too frequently with the USSR. Journalists would be rounded up and accused of being spies. An international crisis would unfold, with trades made for captured spies being held by the U.S. Hopefully, it's an aberration, not a harbinger of things to come.
It's not a cold war - not yet anyway... but it sure is heating up into something pretty chilly.
It wasn't until the mid 80s and a change in leadership in the USSR when Perestroika, Glasnost, and the dissolution of the USSR into individual countries brought that Cold War to an end. We began reducing our nuke stockpiles, turning the doomsday clock backwards, and ushering in a technological and consumer renaissance in the U.S. Still - we spied on Russia, and Russia spied on us, and we continued to fight our war via proxies, as Russia and the U.S. inevitably supported opposite sides in various skirmishes around the globe.
Which brings us to where we are today. Russian leader Vladimir Putin seems to have allowed his megalomania to get the better of him. He seems intent on reconstituting the former Soviet Union, one sovereign nation at a time. The Ukraine always seems to be a sore spot for Russia, and it was their invading and annexing Crimea that has put the entire planet on edge. Former Soviet Union nations like Poland (and the remainder of Ukraine) are preparing and bracing for further incursions from Russia, as Russia amasses troops on its border with Ukraine.
Russia is claiming it's just an exercise and that they will be pulling their troops back from the border soon. After seeing the Russian troops in Crimea with no national affiliation indicated on their uniforms, one has to wonder how many have already slipped over the border. The U.S. is countering by deploying troops to other countries in the region:
In a move to reassure Russia's neighbors, the United States will send some 600 paratroopers to Poland and the Baltics starting tomorrow as part of an open-ended military commitment prompted by Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.
[...]
Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will get 150 American troops each. The full deployment will be complete "by the end of this weekend, maybe Monday," Kirby said.
Even when those U.S. forces rotate back, new ones will take their place for new exercises throughout the rest of 2014, "but beyond that, it could go beyond the end of this year," Kirby said. "We just don't know. We're just going to have to see how it goes."
And the exercises "very well could" expand to other NATO allies, Kirby said. "But right now it's going to start with those four countries."
Along with sending troops over, we are also demanding that Russia take concrete steps to - if not defuse, then at least - not aggravate the situation any further. Ukraine is sending troops to the eastern region where it shares a border with Russia, and where most of the pro-Russia trouble is occurring. It is in that area where an American journalist has been taken into custody by the local leadership:
Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine said on Tuesday they were holding an American journalist in the city of Slaviansk and the online news site Vice News said it was trying to secure the safety of its reporter Simon Ostrovsky.
The self-declared separatist mayor of Slaviansk told a news conference his men were holding an American journalist. Vyacheslav Ponomaryov did not name him but journalists working in the area said Ostrovsky had been detained by gunmen on Monday and, unlike others taken with him, had not yet been released.
This is the sort of thing that used to happen all too frequently with the USSR. Journalists would be rounded up and accused of being spies. An international crisis would unfold, with trades made for captured spies being held by the U.S. Hopefully, it's an aberration, not a harbinger of things to come.
It's not a cold war - not yet anyway... but it sure is heating up into something pretty chilly.
