[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> I think the Georgia - Russia crisis plays into the hands of Senator >> Barack Obama; because, it highlight many of the D's criticism of the >> Bush Administration's foreign policy including: >> > > It looks like Leland gets his ideas there too. Negotiating with the Russians > looks like a good idea only if you think they want peaceful coexistence - how > is that for a cold war term? Negotiating with the Russians is like > negotiating with the Ds. There is no interest in compromise, only moving the > agenda forward. ... and no,I don't think the Russians have changed... only > rearranged slightly. > > We beat them under Reagan, then foolishly took a 'peace dividend' as Clinton > gutted the military. Meanwhile the Russians were biding their time and > reconstructing their economy and now we see, military. > > Think back even further to how the world criticized Hitler, but agreed to let > him keep his new territory if he promised not to go any further. How did > that work out >
Putin has been rebuilding the Russian military, (eg former Soviet Union Military), over the last 6 years. With improvement in the Russian economy, driven mostly by an ever increasing value for a barrel of oil, Putin has quadrupled military spending. His military is primarily built to content with regional conflicts, like the Chechen Wars and current Georgia crisis. Many people feel that Russia is the number two military power in the world today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_of_the_Russian_Federation Although Russia is the largest country in the world based of geographic area, she only has a population about 1/3 that of the USA, as she is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. Russia has a high mortality rate with low life expectancy, and a low birth rate, all of which curtail population growth. Russia in the recent past even had a negative population growth, so Putin put some incentive in place to encourage a better birth rate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Russia Regards, LelandJ #------------------------------- Excerpt: When Putin officially assumed the presidency in 2000, the state of the Russian military remained much the same as it did when the Soviet Union collapsed. Many of the weapons and equipment used by the armed forces were nearly a decade old, but still reliable and powerful, such as the AK-74 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AK-74> and the Dragunov Sniper Rifle <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragunov_Sniper_Rifle>, which do not need to be replaced soon. Corruption was also a problem, seen among both officers and enlisted men. During the First Chechen War <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Chechen_War>, the Russian military had insufficient funds to purchase more up-to-date military equipment, such as the Kamov Ka-50 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamov_Ka-50> "Black Shark" attack helicopter. Paratroopers were also unable to adequately practice parachuting due to a lack of fuel for planes. Putin, realizing these shortcomings, characterized the Russian military as "an unwieldy and extravagant military machine." At the time, military and law enforcement expenditures accounted for more than a third of the country's budget.^[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_of_the_Russian_Federation#cite_note-1> Early in his first term, Putin sought to reduce the military size by up to 30%. Putin also sought to improve and better organize the command structure of the 12 individual agencies that maintained their own establishments in 2002. Under Putin, for the first time since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the Russian military has a Chief Rabbi <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Rabbi>. Rabbi <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbi> Aharon Gurevich <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aharon_Gurevich>, 34, was appointed by Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar. ^[3] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_of_the_Russian_Federation#cite_note-2> Dale Herspring from Kansas State University said in 2008 that, "The Russian military will be back about 2020. In 2015, it will be in sort of a decent shape. But they say this openly, that before Russia will be in a position to be a military power, it will be 2020."^[4] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_of_the_Russian_Federation#cite_note-3> However, a senior U.S. administration official said, referring to the whole armed forces in October 2007, that Russia was once again "indisputably the number two military power in the world".^[5] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_of_the_Russian_Federation#cite_note-4> > -- > Larry Miller > > --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- > multipart/mixed > multipart/alternative > text/plain (text body -- kept) > text/html > message/rfc822 > --- > [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
