Everyone ready for WWIII?

Russia says its response to the further development of a U.S. missile shield in Poland will go beyond diplomacy ...

... ok, I just dropped a few ... and Rice's comment isn't exactly making me feel safer ... It's the cold war all over again, except now the trigger fingers are even itchier.

I really dont see this war being all that cold... this is Lenin-esque Russia back from the dead... and now they have a James Bond villan at their helm... and us without a shred of diplomacy or an international leg to stand on...

if this isn't defused SOON... this war will get very hot very quick... and I'm afraid we will all get burned

One thing about a war with russia, is it would most likely stay cold.

The Russians are not fanatics, they are quite practical. They know what is meant by a no-win scenario. They do not expect some spiritual reward for starting WWIII. They would not start something that would end up destroying them as well or giving them a pyrrhic victory.

When the Russians defended their country in WWII they were sure to lose Stalingrad. Yet they overcame million to one odds by throwing out the book and putting everything with a penis and an opposable thumb on the attack.

I'd say that was more fanatical than practical.

Does that mean, you don't mind another cold war?

The Bush Administration certainly seems to love pyrrhic victories, why not Russia?

That was quite a different time and situation. Russia had been invaded by the Germans and nearly overrun. The population was cowed by decades of brutal dicatatorship and would fall into line no matter how insane the plan.

There was no information or knowledge among the poulace about what was going on outside of their country or about the horrendous cost in life they were paying (except at the highest levels - where they simply didn't care).

I don't think you would see the same willingness to suffer those kinds of losses from any nation today. And for the record... some of the most hardened soldiers in the old Russian military were in fact, women - pressed into battle alongside the men.

With the way Putin can do whatever he damn well pleases I'm not so sure the people aren't cowed already. Plus, it was this sort of 'fearless' and incomprehensible 'sense of duty' that Russians are praised for still today. With the right propaganda I wouldn't be surprised if they thought bringing back the glory days would be a good idea.

As for the women, I wasn't trying to exclude them, I just wasn't sure if they were 'drafted' the same way. I prob should have just kept it ambiguous but it sounded like fun artistic license so I left it, my bad :P

Sound familiar???

The 'cold war' was never actually cold...there are millions of people can attest to that.

The real difference is that the American leaders after WWII, however misguided, were nonetheless wise and relatively prudent; not to mention freshly familiar with war. Not so much anymore...and what is more, much of the 'west' is being compelled by a force far more irrational, unrelenting, and fanatic than any before WWII or in the Cold War.

To paraphrase a quote i cannot find: "Regardless of what anyone says to the contrary, the real reason for any war is economic."

The most important lesson we can learn, historically-speaking, is that virtually every bit of this mess comes from the will-nilly drawing of maps and delineations of 'countries' by the British and their capital-partners. This same problem, created at the intersection of arrogance and greed, continues to plague Africa and much of the rest of Asia. These are problems from which humanity may not be able to recover, given our immense ability to kill one another (and not give a s**t).