With this week's events in the Middle East on the table, along with yesterday's shooting down of a passenger plane (with American passengers on it) by Russian forces, is WW3 upon us?
Remember how America got involved in WW2: Germans sank a passenger ship with American passengers on it.
With respect to Beijing, too many have over-interpreted China’s lack of vocal support for Moscow as a lack of practical support. If Chinese firms sign massive gas deals with Gazprom and Novatek, as looks quite likely to happen when Putin visits Beijing later this month, the absence of Chinese Foreign Ministry statements backing up Moscow’s annexation of Crimea will not matter too much—and Washington will have few options in expressing displeasure that don’t make things worse. If a new Cold War starts, it will be the pre-Nixon version, not the post-Nixon one, with the difference that China has reversed roles with the Soviet Union, is closing in on the United States economically and militarily, and is globally connected in ways the Soviet Politburo could never imagine.
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Anonymous2014-07-18 22:25
There is a growing trend of neo-isolationism at the grass roots that is dangerous. Americans are 'war weary' after Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror, and they think they can choose not to play a global role. They are wrong, and if the US does embrace libertarianism which has strong isolationist elements to it, the rest of the world will pay a heavy price. China and Russia won't hesitate to exploit US lack of resolve and weakness - and they will shape the world according to their needs. This is exactly why Crimea and Ukraine are happening, and they are a fore-taste of what is to come if the US does not lead from the front.