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105 comments on Russia: There Is Life After Peak Oil
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105 comments on Russia: There Is Life After Peak Oil
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A good article and a good comment!
The article is a good comparison with Michael Gorbachev's petulance in the New York Times this morning:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/opinion/20gorbachev.html?_r=1&ref=opin...
This is REALLY why the Soviet Union collapsed, mediocre politicians, living their own dream and to hell with reality. There was no other reason why the Soviets could not feed themselves but ideology. There was no reason for the Soviets to allow their infrastructure to deteriorate past the point of no return.
http://www.englishrussia.com/?p=315
I think the US and tbe Europeans lost a great opportunity in the early 90's to bring Russia into a European concord. A big reason this did not happen was because of the influence of defense industries that were threatened with a loss of European demand on one hand and an oversupply of ex-Soviet equipment on the other. Selling gear to new NATO countries has always been a priority ...
If only China could be wedged into NATO, somehow.
As for the comment, the best and easiest way for the US to solve its energy problems short term is to invade and conquer Venezuela. We would divide the country in two; keeping the oil part for ourselves and giving the rest over to Greenpeace for a nature preserve which would solve both the climate change and 'Chavez problems'.
Operation 'Go Green'!
Of course, we could better pull this off with conscription and an 'under the table deal' (Non- aggression pact?) with Putin regarding spheres of influence. Our sphere in Iraq is only so-so of a payoff for us. The Saudis and Iranians have not been intimidated as we hoped they would become ... but we can turn over the Middle East franchise to the Russians and focus on this hemisphere.
It would take little to overrun Canada and Mexico. We've invaded Mexico twice not counting Texas. The Canadians are NICE, they would be easier for us than the Georgians were to Putin. The great prize is Brazil, we could smash everything but the oil fields and the salsa. Heck, Brazil doesn't have much of a military. We ought to be able to knock that place over in six months.
'Operation Salsa'
I think dividing up the world into red and blue is a great idea. One for you and one for me! We Americans can all be 'Red' (How ironic!) and those who don't like it can leave it!
Salsa? Brasil?
Sorry. Salsa is a spanish word (not Brasilian/portuguese) for sauce, i.e., hot sauce.
Salsa dancing and music are caribbean, predominately Cuban.
That page is A-grade rubbish. That "main highway" to Yakutsk is many thousands of miles from the industrial world in remote Siberia. There has never been a proper road all the way because much of the terrain defies road construction - too marshy etc. All you can see from those photos is that someone had the bright idea to clear a trackway through the forest (which would serve for travel by tanks and large civil engineering vehicles). But then various ignorant people took a chance on driving their bog-standard, or more to the point, non-bog-standard cars along that treacherous route, with predictable consequences. Nothing to do with the general standard of RF roads (not that they're that much better, to be sure).
Invading us Canadians would be about the worst idea americans could come up with.
They've tried to do it on 3 seperate occasions before. Twice we stopped them, and once we beat them back so far we burned down the whitehouse (which was actually pink at the time and white was the only colour that would effectively cover up the char from the fire)
note the correct spelling of the word 'colour', eh!
I think something was left out of my US public school education. Please share a few details about these attempted invasions and the charred Pink House...
Greg,
"I think something was left out of my US public school education. " I'll bet, this is from wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington
The attack was in retaliation for the U.S. invasion of York, Upper Canada (now Toronto, Ontario, Canada), at the Battle of York in 1813, in which U.S. forces looted and burned the city, including the Parliament Buildings of Upper Canada.
So two centuries later and not much change:-(
Thanks Tony. So much for the myth that America has never been invaded...
I thought it was common knowledge that America was invaded by hordes of cowboys, get-rich-quickists, and religious nuts, from England etc., and things haven't entirely changed since.
Yes, Canada has been invaded several times, and the attempts were all beat back...by the British, not Canadians. At the time, Canada was a region of the British Empire and people largely with British and French peoples, rather than a nation as it is now.
Still, invading Canada would most certainly be a mistake...maybe just Quebec.
Please, take Quebec.
Maybe we should just force Canada to take Texas instead :-).
"by the British, not Canadians." -- ?? At that time, there was no distinction whatever. It only became possible to be a Canadian after 1867. And you might still find Canada a prickley mouthful (just kidding).
Usa would not invade canada because it already own it. See NAFTA.
Usa never let an anti-american govt elected in canada or mexico. It never let these countries make an army that could be called an army. Heck pakistan has a stronger army than canada and mexico combined both conventionally and unconventionally (nukes) inspite of
(a) being a new country (got freedom from british in 1947)
(b) going through three wars with india in between 1947 and 1971
(c) losing half of its population and quarter of its area to india in 1971
(d) in constant threats of war from india, russia, afghanistan, iran etc
Heck, if it was Pakistan we would have blown off our natural resources with our own hands rather than becoming a slave to an aggressor because of it.
The canadians need to get awake from their "glorious" part (if its a glory to be a slave in british empire). Heck it was much easier for iraqis to fight americans in 1800s but modern warfare is a much different story.
We will be all right-we have all the smart Pakistanis living in Toronto-they can help us out.
(e) A per capita GDP that is 20% what Mexico has and 7% that of Canada.
Coincidence, I'm sure. It's not like foolish military spending ever crippled the economy of any other nations or anything.
I suggest you literally see NAFTA, as it's obvious you don't understand what it actually says. This has been covered before.
"slave in British Empire" ? AFAIK the Canadians were not slaves, British rule gave it the decency and freedom that it wouldn't have had if other empires ruled it.
The best fate to befall backward areas was to be taken overby the British (not perfect but much better than the alternatives).
The British changed their policy toward the remaining colonies after the Revolution. If the British had treated the Canadians after the Revolution the way they treated them before the Revolution, Canada would be part of America.
Instead they treated the Canadians the way they should have treated the Americans in the first place. The British can and have learned from experience. Contrast that with the American ability to learn from our mistakes...
maybe the "best fate" for the white people. Natives and imported slaves did not fare so well. The best fate for the "backward areas" would have been for the Europeans never to have shown up. But they did, and now the European invaders are in turn being invaded. Interesting world.
No, although the best fate was never to be invaded every part of africa and asia was invaded by another. So realistically the best choice was to be taken over by Britain ( which outlawed slavery 60 years before the US and 160 years before KSA).
As far as Europe now being invaded I regard that as somewhat racist (although true). Most of the "invaders" are ex empire (North Africa to France, Caribbean to UK etc) and make for a better society. My fear is the tolerant multicultural society will be destroyed in a helter skelter after TSHTF. Interesting world indeed.
Hey bigpatty!
Do you know how to spell "Canada" without using any vowels?
- C eh, N eh, D eh?
There is a certain sad logic to that rant. And maybe Gorbachev is being "petulant", although the article has been translated from Russian, and it's tone may be misleading.
However, assuming that steve is trying to be logical and not just a smart-ass, one can say that the lessons of history, for what they are worth, demonstrate conclusively that a bipolar (Red/Blue) world is unworkable. The inherent instability leads inevitably to the tragedy of the Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat
Time will tell whether Russian politicians have learned anything from the last century, but if they persist in following the U.S. path of hyper-capitalism (i.e. profit to current shareholders above all consideration of the economy, people or environment that the particular enterprise is embedded in) then we are all toast.
Anti-missile missiles in Poland enrich U.S. based "defense" enterprises. It is hard to see who else benefits-- even if they work, which is highly questionable. And if Russian "defense" contractors counter, as is likely, then the cold war starts all over again.
Poor world!
"then the cold war starts all over again" I thought everyone already knew that that's obviously the whole and only motivation for such a dumb provocation.
I hope you realize that the reason you are getting arrowed down on your comment is because you don't know the difference between Samba and Salsa. Hint, there ain't no Salsa in Brazil. Second hint there isn't an army in the world that would heed it's commanders if they told their soldiers to attack a Samba school. Trust me, a Samba school can lay down any modern army. Native Brazilian here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4V38d_NCRk
Good luck invading Brazil, LOL!
3 - 0
You forgot to ship the girls to China.
LOL
They were busy defending our borders :-)
:-)
Sorry, 'operation desert salad' has already been taken and 'operation kick 'em in the nuts' ... well, the Pentagon doesn't like foul language ...
:)
"It would take little to overrun Canada and Mexico. We've invaded Mexico twice not counting Texas. The Canadians are NICE, they would be easier for us than the Georgians were to Putin."
Setting aside the fact that the USA does not have to invade Canada (we export the majority of our oil to them already, and the oilsands can't be developed any faster than they already are), there would be the same situation as in Iraq. Mission accomplished in a few weeks, then years of booby-trapped pipelines and highways, terrorists in Quebec making South Ossetia look like a walk in the park, ships unable to use the St. Lawrence Seaway to reach the Great Lakes because of the blown canal locks and costant sniper fire from thousands of kilometres of shoreline, etcetera. Since the majority of Canucks are white folk who look and talk just like Minnesotans or Dakotans, American counter-intelligence would have a hell of a time trying to sort the sheep from the goats. Also, like the Russians, we would just wait for winter to counterattack.
The majority of Canucks are white folk who look and talk just like Minnesotans or Dakotans
eh ?
Alan