north korea, page-31

GroundZero,

Please let me clarify me statement re the Russians as it may be easy to take it out of intended context. Russia is in no way shape or form a central theme in my post although I deliberately mention no other names.

The Ruskies finally gave up on the cold war in the midst of financial collapse. The percentage of GDP that they had to put into defence was unsustainable and they could no longer pay their own people, maintain their fleets etc. The US knew this and deliberately started announcing new technology initiatives which upped the ante on the additional spent that was required to keep up the fight knowing that it would eventually break the Russians. Thats what the Star Wars programme was all about. The Russians were stretched to far for too long. Despite being called a war, it was a game of attrition on an economic level.

The above being the context for my comment about the Russians, I believe they would be laughing their asses off because the US did it to them and they can see the US getting a bit of their own treatment back from somebody else. The Russians probably don't want to see war any more than the next guy but it's gotta be hard not to feel some sort of satisfaction when the bully who beat you gets a bruising by somebody else.

That said, not all communists are created equal and I don't remember seeing the USSR and China unifying into a single communist state despite supposedly having the same ideology and both being keen to encompass as many previously separate countries under their control as possible. A lot has changed in Western Europe and this time around a lot of Russians will have a lot more to lose in such a game than they did the last time around. Bellies are full and recent memories of the old system won't have them running back for more of the same. Do previous allies still share the same agenda, I suspect not.