Red Bear

While everyone has been fervently focused on the Iraqi war and battling terrorism around the world (which we should), I hope we are also paying equal attention to our old adversary; Mother Russia. There has been allot of very disturbing events happening of recent that concerns me. Truth is, I/we have no idea what Russia is actually planning. What, do you ask, am I talking about?

Recently, Russian bombers have resumed their cold war practice of flying long-haul missions to areas routinely patrolled by NATO , U.S. and other allies. Every week or so it seems that the Big Bear bombers (Tupolev 95 to be exact) are spotted in force pushing the air space boundaries round the world. Most recently, two bombers decided it would be a "good idea" to buzz the deck of the USS Nimitz, twice. Flying about 50 miles apart, one tupolev 95 flew at an altitude of 2,000 ft directly over the deck of the carrier, and then doubled back for another pass. The last time I checked the "kill zone" surrounding a U.S. Carrier is about 150 miles. Needless to say, it seems we are attempting to give the Russians allot of rope in which to hang themselves. Even with the peace that currently exist between the U.S. and Russian stunts like this do not seem like a very smart move. This instance along with similar events that have happened in: Alaska, Guam, Nato, UK,& Norway just to name a few starts to boggle the mind a little bit as to what exactly are they trying to accomplish. Are they simply attempting to divert our attention for the briefest of moments so they can pull something else off, or are they systemically trying to push airspace boundaries of NATO and our allies until some cowboy accidentally fires on them? Are they trying to push the world into another War? Are they trying to get everyone comfortable to the point that we drop our guard, and then *WHAM* get hit by a surprise attack? I don't know, but I hope people with much higher pay grades have.

On top of their bombers buzzing the world, Russian has told Ukraine that they "May" set their (Russian) missiles to target Ukraine if they join NATO and accepted deployment of the missile defense grid. Frankly, that doesn't sound very diplomatic... or intelligent. Someone should brief Putin on what exactly an "Anti-MISSILE defense grid" does. On top of that, in the same story Putin proclaims that a "New phase in the Arms race has begun." Very Scary. Of course, compared to the current war of fighting non-state gorillas, fighting a war with a very big (and formidable) state-sponsored military would be cake walk by comparison, unless a liberal is in the white house. By "cake walk" I'm not implying that we would simply roll over anyone. The death toll would probably be a shit load higher than the current war. But, it is a hell of allot easier to fight a country than it is to fight a militant group within a country where friend and foe look alike. Hopefully Russian remembers the difference (Afghanistan?).