War with Syria

Araysar/Tuco :

Please read this. It may be helpful for you to understand why the belief that Russia is not a superpower is not only valid, but a common opinion among many people in foreign policy circles.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/...r-power-status

http://eng.globalaffairs.ru/number/T...f-Russia-15237

If you want another clue, and one that is more fun than reading FP articles.. Go to any strip club and see if you can find any Russians. Russias 3rd export, behind Oil and weapons, seems to be sex trafficking. A superpower does not ship out its female population in shipping containers to be indentured servants in the world sex trade.

http://www.academia.edu/210605/Human...ntry_Of_Origin

aaron_sl said:

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So technically speaking Russia is most likely not a superpower (barring nukes), but they are in a position to dominate the Eurasian landmass. That is something the US fears, and anyone who want's to know why the US fears it then they can read this book:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grand_Chessboard

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If you're interested in the Russian military it's worth having a read of this:

http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute...es/PUB1069.pdf

In short, the Russian military is still big and powerful but it also still relies on a lot of old equipment (by Western standards) and cold war tactics, and much of it is basically a paper tiger:

"a survey of the Russian military completed after the war showed that only 17 percent of army units and 5 out of 150 air force regiments were combat-ready"

This can of course be fixed by reforming the military and spending money on equipment, but by the Ministry of Defence's own admission over 50% of the military budget is lost to corruption each year.

Anyways, back to Syria...

It should also be said that Russia used to have a big cultural aura in literature, music, cinema, visual arts and of course politics... today? The only significant contemporary russian author was a dissident (the late Solzhenitsyn) and as for movies you still have the likes of Sokurov (just won in Venice for his Faust), Lungin or Zvyagintsev, but they are lone dogs, not the products of an artistic movement or a healthy film industry.

fanaskin_sl said:

Arab League Rejects Attack Against Syria

CAIRO ? The leaders of the Arab world on Tuesday blamed the Syrian government for a chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds of people last week, but declined to back a retaliatory military strike, leaving President Obama without the broad regional support he had for his last military intervention in the Middle East, in Libya in 2011.

While the Obama administration has robust European backing and more muted Arab support for a strike on Syria, the position of the Arab League and the unlikelihood of securing authorization from the United Nations Security Council complicate the legal and diplomatic case for the White House.

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If I was an Arab leader in another country this makes sense to me. "Oh there's a stalemate in the war in Syria and the conflict will continue for years to come? Good, keeps all the crazies off my lawn!" It's sad to admit, but there's always going to be conflict in the ME; might as well let them fight it out in one country instead of having everyone leave and start trouble wherever they go.

Also I want to add that the word Isolationism is pretty much synonymous with Non-aggression in the world now, and that rustles my jimmies. There's a big difference between the 2, but whenever someone is opposed to the US getting involved in a conflict they get assaulted with a tirade of "WHY YUO WANT US TO BE LIEK 1930's ISOLATIONISTS AND CUT OFF FROM REST OF PLANET!?!?!"

Agripa_sl said:

Kosovo 2.0

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Could be. I've heard some describe it as this.

McCain was making the rounds this morning and said that the President can strike without Congress approval per the War Powers Act but he'd prefer the President "consult" with Congress.

Does this look like the leader of a superpower to you?

I don't think the problem is that there is sex trafficking, but that it is Russia's 3rd export behind Oil and weapons...

Russia has essentially said, "Get off my lawn," throughout this whole ordeal. I'm fairly positive that you need some amount of power to basically tell the US to fuck off.

Araysar_sl said:

this can only work if your perception of the world is that only one super power can exist at any one time. in that case US is the sole hegemon and has been since WW II meaning that USSR was never a superpower.

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While the US has been militarily active since WW2, and realists would argue that becoming an hegemon is the natural course of events for a unipolar world, but the evidence shows that the US has relieved heavily on developing international institutions for the pursuit of wealth over a hegemon. The invasion of Iraq and the war on terror seems to show that a global military hegemon is not really possible for any nation state.

The Russian Federation, or the Greater Russian Empire of Tsar Putin I, is most definitely a superpower. It's just goofy sayin that they're not. Back in the 90's up until the mid aughts sure, they were a rapidly waning major power. Its hard to exert global influence when you face the sorts of domestic problems they were facing with Gorbachav and Yeltsin. But the influence of Russia rivals that of China or America. How can you not call that a superpower?

Russia secured Georgia militarily without repercussion, they have slowed and averted the installation of missile systems in eastern Europe, they've attained a level of energy sufficiency that China and America would kill brown people for, their interests are considered and consulted in American foreign policy initiatives. How is any of that not an indication of a super power?

A strong Russia is good for America. Mostly because it keeps us out of situations like fighting "humanitarian" wars in Syria.

fanaskin_sl said:

all they got was a tiny piece of it, ossetia.

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yeah, but all they wanted was control of the pipeline that runs through there anyway. And they got it. It's not like they were conquering arable farmland.

Of course to be perfectly fair, I do think that America could probably go and subjugate Toronto and no one (except maybe the French) would say a fucking word.