Gog and Magog; the Russians are Coming!

Timothy Birdnow Mike W. points our attention to this overlooked piece of news; the Russians had a stealthed nuclear powered sub operating in the Gulf of Mexico for a month and the United States never detected it. http://freebeacon.com/silent-running/ This following on the heels of nuclear attack exercises by the Russian regime that violated American restricted airspace in Alaska and California. According to the Freebeacon: "The submarine patrol also exposed what U.S. officials said were deficiencies in U.S. anti-submarine warfare capabilities—forces that are facing cuts under the Obama administration’s plan to reduce defense spending by $487 billion over the next 10 years. The Navy is in charge of detecting submarines, especially those that sail near U.S. nuclear missile submarines, and uses undersea sensors and satellites to locate and track them. The fact that the Akula was not detected in the Gulf is cause for concern, U.S. officials said." [...] ""In June, Russian strategic nuclear bombers and support aircraft conducted a large-scale nuclear bomber exercise in the arctic. The exercise included simulated strikes on “enemy” strategic sites that defense officials say likely included notional attacks on U.S. missile defenses in Alaska. Under the terms of the 2010 New START arms accord, such exercises require 14-day advanced notice of strategic bomber drills, and notification after the drills end. No such notification was given. A second, alarming air incursion took place July 4 on the West Coast when a Bear H strategic bomber flew into U.S. airspace near California and was met by U.S. interceptor jets" End excerpts. Such Russian gamesmanship was common during the Cold War, but the Cold War is long over and yet the Russians are doing this anyway. The Obama "reset" of relations - hi9 kowtowing to Russian demands, his killing missile defense in Poland, his nuclear treaty that radically reduces the U.S. nuclear arsenal, have had the exact opposite effect; Russia has become more aggressive and suspicious of the U.S., not less. As Winston Churchill could have told Mr. Obama, weakness begets aggression. The U.S. has been weak as water in her policies toward the Russian Bear. A Russian warfleet is off the coast of Syria http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/news.php?Itemid=7561, with hundreds of Russian marines at the ready. The British had stopped a Russian vessel delivering attack helicopters to Syria off the coast of Scotland back in June. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9339933/Britain-stops-Russian-ship-carrying-attack-helicopters-for-Syria.html Russian envoy to NATO Dmitri Rogozin has threatened war should the West intervene in Iran: http://rt.com/politics/syria-iran-nato-rogozin-749/ '“Iran is our close neighbor, just south of the Caucasus. Should anything happen to Iran, should Iran get drawn into any political or military hardships, this will be a direct threat to our national security,” stressed Rogozin." End excerpt. (The Chinese have threatened to join Russia in a world war if there is foreign intervention. http://www.eutimes.net/2011/12/china-joins-russia-orders-military-to-prepare-for-world-war-iii/) Pravda is accusing the Turks of training the insurgents in Syria. http://english.pravda.ru/hotspots/conflicts/15-08-2012/121893-terrorist_syria-0/ The Russians are planning to revive three defunct military bases in Vietnam, the Seychelles, and in Cuba. http://english.pravda.ru/russia/politics/01-08-2012/121804-russia_army_base-0/ Each of these holds strategic importance to U.S. interests; Cuba is obviously a springboard to the U.S., Vietnam protects the South China Sea should conflict erupt between the U.S. and China, and the Seychelles so the Russians can move against the Persian Gulf and Sea of Arabia, thus defending Iran and Pakistan. The Russians have sold military hardware and technical expertise to the Iranians, as well as centrifuge technology and other dual use equipment. Iran is nearing the completion of atomic weapons - something that cannot be permitted by Israel or the United States, or many regimes in the Middle East, for that matter. Russian updated her nuclear arsenal in 2005, with new multiple warehead missiles and other advanced technology and new delivery systems. http://www.nti.org/country-profiles/russia/ The U.S. arsenal goes back to Ronald Reagan, and even before; some American equipment is still using vacuum tubes. http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai? verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA532375 The Russians continue to pursue modernization of their weapons, despite the loss of revenue from slumping oil sales and the shale gas revolution. http://english.pravda.ru/russia/kremlin/26-02-2009/107155-russia_nuclear_arsenal-0/ Meanwhile the U.S. stockpile continues to drop. http://www.fas.org/blog/ssp/2007/05/estimates_of_us_nuclear_weapon.php According to FAS: "The 2012 stockpile of 5,000+ warheads represent a significant reduction from the 24,000 warhead stockpile of the 1980s (and the all-time high of 32,000 warheads in 1966), but it still a very big post-Cold War stockpile. No other country with nuclear weapons is known to plan a stockpile that big. The only other country with several thousand warheads in 2012 will be Russia, but it probably only maintains a large stockpile because the United States does." End excerpt. And Mr. Obama has killed missile defense - the cornerstone of America's post-nuclear defense. Weakness begets attack. It is not the strong who are challenged, but those who were strong who have lost their edge. America is obviously losing her edge - economically, militarily, and by most other metrics. The Russians see this, and look upon the power vacuum with covetous eyes. This is an extraordinary danger because the Chinese have decided the twenty first century will belong to them, and the conflict that is about to erupt could be catastrophic to the human race. If nothing else the Russians can restrain America and the West where they need to act, which will give the barbarians the tools they need to rain doom upon the entire world. The Israelis aren't going to allow themselves to be destroyed, and will act should Iran or any other Jihadist power try to annihilate them. How long before we are all drawn into the vortex? We thought the Cold War ended, but it never did; the Russian military was left largely in-tact, and the old rulers simply transitioned into the new political structure. Like Komorowski in Dr. Zhivago the same scoundrels rose to the top in the new order. Putin was KGB and a Marxist and still is. The Russian nuclear arsenal was never destroyed (the money the U.S. supplied to destroy the arsenal saved the Russian Federation a bundle, which was used to make new weapons. That happened on George W. Bush's watch.) The Clinton Era "Nuclear cities Initiative" kept the nuclear materials factories running, ostensibly to keep the Soviet scientists and skilled people from freelancing to Iran or other rogue regimes, but it meant that Russia had an endless supply of enriched uranium and plutonium, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer. Now we face a modern nuclear arsenal created almost entirely with our help. And Russia wants to flex her muscles at our expense. Things are going to converge shortly. Obama needs a game-changer to get re-elected, and war is always the best way to turn the public. Israel cannot allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons, and Iran is on the cusp. Syria is decending into chaos and this may draw in the great powers. We are sitting on a powder keg. How long before the explosion. This situation is more dangerous than any I can remember. There are too many players active on too many stages, and too few controls in place. America has lost the will to do what must be done, and Europe is more interested in maintaining her social welfare state, in having three months vacation per year and enjoying 35 hour work weeks than in actually doing anything. The nations that are in the ascendency are not from the traditions of liberal democracy as in prior years (Nazis may have been total bastards, but Germany came from this liberal democratic tradition and understood certain rules of warfare, such as not torturing prisoners or whatnot.) We now face an explosiion with nuclear armed states, with chemical weapons, with biological weapons, and no compunction about using them. Power alone is the biword, and an apocalyptic nation hellbent on restoring the Kingdom of Islam holds the key to the bottomless pit. And Russia, the King of the North, Gog and Magog, is sharpening her pruning sheers into swords.