Syria and the NEW Cold War

Some are arguing that Russia and China are asserting themselves more in the world and now we are headed towards a new conflict with both of them. I sure as hell hope not. What do you guys think?

the-diplomat.com...

No offense, but these threads get tiresome...

Please note, China and Russia will never , I repeat NEVER take direct military action against the US for a ME country. Unless we attack them directly, its just not going to happen, nobody will actually do anything other than try to block UN resolutions, and sell them antiquated equipment.

I know it would be nice to think that there might be something like this to scare the US into not messing with these guys, but it will never happen.

So please stop with the if we attack this certain obscure bothersome middle east country its WWIII posts,

reply to post by Wiz4769

China did take action for Korea and Vietnam. That was done in the name of communisum and territory. Keep in mind that the oil that lays under the ME is far more valuable to them then political idealisim.

Don't think for a minute that this anything more than war for geographic oil domination.

Originally posted by Wiz4769
No offense, but these threads get tiresome...

Please note, China and Russia will never , I repeat NEVER take direct military action against the US for a ME country. Unless we attack them directly, its just not going to happen, nobody will actually do anything other than try to block UN resolutions, and sell them antiquated equipment.

I know it would be nice to think that there might be something like this to scare the US into not messing with these guys, but it will never happen.

So please stop with the if we attack this certain obscure bothersome middle east country its WWIII posts,

Do you think China and Russia would fight the US subversively in another country?

Between 1955 and 1960, the North Vietnamese with the assistance of the southern communist Vietcong, tried to take over the government in South Vietnam, and in November 1963 President Diem was overthrown and executed. The following year, the North Vietnamese began a massive drive to conquer the whole country aided by China and Russia.

Fearing a communist takeover of the entire region, the United States grew more and more wary of the progress of Ho Chi Minh and the Vietcong.

Source

The article linked is a little (lot) biased, but you get the point.

reply to post by Wiz4769


Idiotic comment IMO. The OP was about a new cold war emerging over Syria. As memory recalls, the West snd the East never attacked one another during the last cold war. The thread is not about WWIII happening, it's about Syria being at the epicenter of a new geopolitical struggle and asking what others might think. Those of us in the free world are entitled to ask such things without people
like you jumping off the deep end.

Not sure about syria but i think iran is the new cold war as they had plenty of reasons to attack iran if they really wanted to. Syria may be attacked like libya and iran maybe attacked like iraq, or maybe not. Either way the propaganda is not going away. My guess is theyll wait for a retarded republican to do the war, obama is already too hated. Fox will elect Newt Santromney and a fresh face will be used to invade iran, that way the neocons wont look like hypocrites supporting their mortal enemy obummer.

reply to post by travis911


In answer to your question - nobody knows, we can only guess. It is always desperately hard to predict how these things turn out. If you look back at the history of the first Cold War it is hard to comprehend how many cool heads failed to prevail at once - never underestimate the ability of our leaders to make completely ridiculous decisions based on blind self-interest.

What we have this time is an interesting mix in which domestic political problems are going to play a decisive factor. Each of the following are going to be instrumental in how the game in the Middle East plays out over the coming months/years:

Consider Russia, which is about to have Presidential elections against the backdrop of an increasingly vocal opposition movement. Putin will win, no doubt, but if the opposition movement gains sway, Putin may be tempted to distract the populace with a foreign adventure of some kind (the Chechen Wars anyone?). Russia's growth and stability relies on high energy prices and instability in the Mid East guarantees that, so an unstable region is a good thing for Vlad & Co.

The US. About to have Presidential elections against the backdrop of a severe economic crisis, a divided country and growing distrust of the Washington establishment. Depending on how events unfold, and especially if the US economy continues to recover, the eventual GOP candidate will abandon bashing Obama on the economy and switch to traditional foreign policy issues, no doubt sharpening the anti-Iran rhetoric, raising the stakes and the temperature in general.

China. About to get a new leader. Against the backdrop of an economic miracle that is beginning to buckle under its own weight. A large and increasingly suppressed population who may also need to be distracted by rallying around a shared cause whose focus is far from home?

The EU. Those two letters speak for themselves. I shouldn't have to draw a picture to illustrate the woeful lack of strong leadership on the continent at this time. Or perhaps it should be the incontinent Sarkozy is soon to become Mr. Carla Bruni. The British coalition Govt doesn't have long before it falls apart IMO. Even Merkel faces powerful opposition at home, and THEY are Europe's strongmen!!! Europe will not do anything to either cause or prevent war anywhere, because Europe is incapable of even sorting its own mess out.

Israel.....Okay okay okay

I don't have to go on to show how this isn't just about the Mid East or oil or any one other thing. It's just good old fashioned international three-dimensional chess, which could turn out any way imaginable. But if the first Cold War is any lesson, you cannot exclude the possibility of all the wrong decisions being made simultaneously, resulting in a long a protracted ideological schism during which occasional localised "hot" proxy wars will flare up, including, although I doubt it, Syria. But Iran, maybe.......