Tsun Tzu dethroned.

[Anomalocaris]

Tsun Tzu, the former Yoda of grand and subtle strategy has just abdicated.   He recognizes his own inferiority and now consider it an honor to prostrate himself upon the ground Vladmire Putin walked on.

[downbeatplumb]

Tsun Tzu, the former Yoda of grand and subtle strategy has just abdicated.   He recognizes his own inferiority and now consider it an honor to prostrate himself upon the ground Vladmire Putin walks on.

Amazing how the Russians managed to win the cold war.

[abaris]

Amazing how the Russians managed to win the cold war.

But don't forget that Putin didn't come from a void. He grew on the fertile soil NATO had created long before he came to power. By moving on Russia's borders. He may win this new cold war, but only because it didn't come from necessity but from creating a continuing purpose for the cold war vehicle called NATO.

[Anomalocaris]

Still, considering the disparity of resources, Russia pulled off an real strategic upset vastly more impressive than trump's apparent electoral upset over Clinton.

---

It's ironic that during the entire classic Cold War period,when the opposition derided American power as "paper tiger", American power and the American system proved remarkably resilient, robust and steady. But post Cold War, when no one seriously doubt the strength, resilience and robustness of American power, American power and the American system proved so internally brittle and feckless.

Paper tiger this country wasn't. But it is now.

[Anomalocaris]

Amazing how the Russians managed to win the cold war.

But don't forget that Putin didn't come from a void. He grew on the fertile soil NATO had created long before he came to power. By moving on Russia's borders. He may win this new cold war, but only because it didn't come from necessity but from creating a continuing purpose for the cold war vehicle called NATO.

The problem isn't NATO per se. It is the fact that the US tried to use its dominating position in NATO to use NATO as a vehicle to aggrandize its own influence in Eastern Europe. Left to tradition NATO allies NATO would likely not expand beyond its Cold War foot print, and remain a viable security arrangement as oppose to a tool of ill considered US self aggrandizement.

[abaris]

The problem isn't NATO per se.  It is the fact that the US tried to use its dominating position in NATO to use NATO as a vehicle to aggrandize its own influence in Eastern Europe.  Left to tradition NATO allies NATO would likely not expand beyond its Cold War foot print, and remain a viable security arrangement as oppose to a tool of ill considered US self aggrandizement.

It is the conservation of a Cold War vehicle. NATO was obsolete the moment the Warszaw pact seized to exist. It would have been the wiser decision to create something new. I was against the countries of the former soviet block joining the EU for this exact reason. They looked to the USA and NATO rather than Brussels and it was obvious they weren't ready and willing for a real European integration. And NATO is in the way of a combined European army, which would be much more cost effective than every country playing their own military game.

That creates the bizarre situation, by the way, that Greece, the poorest country in the EU, arms itself to the teeth because of being afraid of another NATO member - Turkey. It's often forgotten that two NATO members fought a hot war against each other, a little more than 40 years ago.

[Anomalocaris]

It could have been modernized, but it was hijacked instead.