The Cold War Redux

It looks like the Cold War II is reviving up and it could mean bad news for everyone. But, first, let’s analyze how things are currently going down and what we might expect in the future.

First, relations between Russia and the West began to get conflicted when they backed Iran and said they

Is a Cold War 2 on the rise?

weren’t trying to develop nuclear weapons. That wasn’t a good sign. Second, when America began to develop agreements through NATO (specifically former Soviet nations) to make SDI fenses along their borders. That didn’t make Russia too happy.

Now, Russia decides to invade Georgia on a “peacekeeping mission”. However, after a cease-fire is declared, they still have not left Georgia like they agreed. In fact, they continued to move forward and even comandeered some US humvee’s. At this point in time, they have yet to move their forces away from Georgia. During all of this, Medvedev said, “Mess with us and we will crush you.” Even a Russian general threatened to use Nuke’s on Poland if America signs the SDI Defense program with them (poor Poland, why are they always a target?). Well, Condi went ahead and signed it with Poland today. Which, let’s be honest, probably isn’t making Russia very happy either. The latest I read was Norway stating that Russia is removing all military ties from NATO.

Russia knows we have our hands tied in Afghanistan and Iraq, so they know they have the upper hand right now and can do what we want. They are obviously flexing some muscle and thumbing their noses at the West. So, it seems they are back to their old games.

In political terms, I think this is seriously going to help McCain in the upcoming election. If Russia continues to do what they do best and another Cold War returns, then we are definitely going to see McCain prosper. This, however, is really bad news for America and for the world. We are just barely creeping our way out of Iraq and are still fighting the war on Terror, we don’t need another Cold War.

Just to step back and put things in perspective, I think we have to realize a few minor details that may stave off another Cold War. First, our economy is much different than it was even back in the 50’s. We are much more global now and every nation is becoming more and more dependent on each other for trade, etc…the West is much more economically stable than Russia (at least for right now). They would be pretty stupid to start cutting ties with the West in that way. Second, if America can start working to get off of foreign oil, we could seriously help our national security and put ourselves in a good position against our enemies by not funding their own economies. Third, and the most important I believe, is that this could just be a heated moment in history that fizzles. That tends to happen a lot and there have been tons of statements in the past about a returning Cold War. You never really know if it will actually happen, but it is always good to keep your eyes peeled.

Posted by Alcamadus