Red Dawn 2?
The great 1980's film "Red Dawn" portrayed a Soviet/Cuban/Nicaraguan surprise attack on the US.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5153/1865/400/191406/Red_Dawn_DVD.jpg)
In the movie, several large US cities were nuked, while Soviet troops invading from Siberia, through Alaska and Canada, met up with Nicaraguans and Cubans, invading through Mexico, to cut the US in two.
Many took the scenario seriously at the time and stocked up bigtime with ammo and baked beans.
That threat faded as communism "collapsed", the Sandinistas lost power and Cuba nearly went broke.
Now most of Latin America is red. Russia is getting more aggressive and is re-establishing military ties in Latin America. The "Bear" has even re-forged ties to the brand new Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.
From DefenseNews.com
Russia will resume military and technical cooperation with Nicaragua, the head of the Russian Audit Chamber, former Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, told journalists Jan. 12 in Managua.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5153/1865/320/777989/link.stepashin.jpg)
“The whole Nicaraguan Army and other power agencies use arms and vehicles mostly of the Soviet and Russian production,” Stepashin said. “We do not return to a bare field in Nicaragua, but resume our relations on a very serious basis, both technological and human.”
Stepashin attended the inauguration ceremony there of the newly elected Nicaraguan president, Daniel Ortega, as the personal envoy of the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A staunch critic of the United States, the leftist Ortega is an old ally of Moscow. During his earlier presidency, 1985-’90, the Soviet Union actively backed his regime against the U.S.-supported “contra” guerillas.
In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union delivered to Nicaragua more than 100 light tanks, about 200 armored personnel carriers, Strela and Igla shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles, several minesweepers and torpedo boats, military cargo helicopters and planes, Russian defense experts say. The deliveries stopped in 1990, after Ortega lost his bid for re-election.
In 1996, Russia forgave 90 percent of Nicaragua’s $3.4 billion Soviet-era debt, which stemmed mostly from Managua’s military purchases. Moscow nullified the rest of the debt in 2004.
The two countries signed an agreement on military and technical cooperation in November 2001, but no new arms deliveries from Russia followed. Neighboring Honduras expressed concerns about the agreement, but Nicaraguan officials at the time said it related only to repairs and maintenance of the military’s existing Soviet arms.
Stepashin told journalists in Managua that 18 presidents of Latin American nations who attended Ortega’s inauguration had spoken with him in favor of Russia’s presence in the region.
In the past several years, Russia has tried to build up military cooperation with Latin American countries, succeeding particularly with Venezuela. These attempts — which climaxed last year with a $3 billion deal to supply Caracas with Russian arms —met strong objections from the U.S. administration and are believed to have been the catalyst, in part, for sanctions Washington adopted last year against Russian military companies, including state arms-trader Rosoboronexport.
Hat Tip Once Upon a Time in the West
"Red Dawn" did get one thing very wrong. It had the remaining "400 million screaming Chinamen" siding with the US after being nuked by Russia, (there were 800 million before the attack).
Today, the 1.2 Billion, very wealthy "Chinamen" would side with Russia.
So would most of Latin America, most of the Moslem world and most of Africa.
Europe, as in the movie, would probably "sit this one out".
That doesn't leave a lot left to defend the US and the West, if or when the "balloon goes up".
Let's just hope that Russia really is our friend.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5153/1865/400/191406/Red_Dawn_DVD.jpg)
In the movie, several large US cities were nuked, while Soviet troops invading from Siberia, through Alaska and Canada, met up with Nicaraguans and Cubans, invading through Mexico, to cut the US in two.
Many took the scenario seriously at the time and stocked up bigtime with ammo and baked beans.
That threat faded as communism "collapsed", the Sandinistas lost power and Cuba nearly went broke.
Now most of Latin America is red. Russia is getting more aggressive and is re-establishing military ties in Latin America. The "Bear" has even re-forged ties to the brand new Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.
From DefenseNews.com
Russia will resume military and technical cooperation with Nicaragua, the head of the Russian Audit Chamber, former Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, told journalists Jan. 12 in Managua.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5153/1865/320/777989/link.stepashin.jpg)
“The whole Nicaraguan Army and other power agencies use arms and vehicles mostly of the Soviet and Russian production,” Stepashin said. “We do not return to a bare field in Nicaragua, but resume our relations on a very serious basis, both technological and human.”
Stepashin attended the inauguration ceremony there of the newly elected Nicaraguan president, Daniel Ortega, as the personal envoy of the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A staunch critic of the United States, the leftist Ortega is an old ally of Moscow. During his earlier presidency, 1985-’90, the Soviet Union actively backed his regime against the U.S.-supported “contra” guerillas.
In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union delivered to Nicaragua more than 100 light tanks, about 200 armored personnel carriers, Strela and Igla shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles, several minesweepers and torpedo boats, military cargo helicopters and planes, Russian defense experts say. The deliveries stopped in 1990, after Ortega lost his bid for re-election.
In 1996, Russia forgave 90 percent of Nicaragua’s $3.4 billion Soviet-era debt, which stemmed mostly from Managua’s military purchases. Moscow nullified the rest of the debt in 2004.
The two countries signed an agreement on military and technical cooperation in November 2001, but no new arms deliveries from Russia followed. Neighboring Honduras expressed concerns about the agreement, but Nicaraguan officials at the time said it related only to repairs and maintenance of the military’s existing Soviet arms.
Stepashin told journalists in Managua that 18 presidents of Latin American nations who attended Ortega’s inauguration had spoken with him in favor of Russia’s presence in the region.
In the past several years, Russia has tried to build up military cooperation with Latin American countries, succeeding particularly with Venezuela. These attempts — which climaxed last year with a $3 billion deal to supply Caracas with Russian arms —met strong objections from the U.S. administration and are believed to have been the catalyst, in part, for sanctions Washington adopted last year against Russian military companies, including state arms-trader Rosoboronexport.
Hat Tip Once Upon a Time in the West
"Red Dawn" did get one thing very wrong. It had the remaining "400 million screaming Chinamen" siding with the US after being nuked by Russia, (there were 800 million before the attack).
Today, the 1.2 Billion, very wealthy "Chinamen" would side with Russia.
So would most of Latin America, most of the Moslem world and most of Africa.
Europe, as in the movie, would probably "sit this one out".
That doesn't leave a lot left to defend the US and the West, if or when the "balloon goes up".
Let's just hope that Russia really is our friend.
32 Comments:
I don't really think that Russia is anything but a friend toward the West. That's for sure. Reason why, look at the terrorist groups Russia has endorsed and is still endorsing from Hamas, PLO to even the Japanese terrorist group responsible for the Sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway.
What is the point of raising this when the Act party is too gutless to campaign for military action in defence of freedom? Do you agree Trev that the US would be fully justified in hitting Venezuela now with an embargo and air raids? Cuba should also be hit from the air and subjected to ground attacks. Nicaragua and Bolivia should be warned to chnage gear or they'll get the same. Hopefully a Pinochet could emerge in those countries as a bulwark against communism.
The US is focused on the Middle East when it has big problems on its own doorstep.
I have said several times that Cuba is a legitimate target for US sanctions and other pressures because of its espionage and subversion in the region.
Venezuela is also heading down the same path.
Rather than a frontal attack however, I think the US should aid opposition groups in those countries and impose and enforce total economic sanctions.
There are many ways skin a cat that do not involve mass civilian and military deaths.
Maybe reading fewer war comics would help.
Well trev, the problem with that if you read the book by Anatoliy Golitsyn, high-ranking defector from the Soviet KGB, those opposition groups can be taken over by "reformed" members of the regime being targeted which is what happen in Russia and the rest of Eastern Europe and Central Asia and there are already these sort of groups engaged in Cuba, Iran and elsewhere.
Fair enough MAH. What do you think the US should do about Cuba, Venezuela etc?
Well, it's hard to say. Many policy making circles in the U.S. government would take the road of using supposedly reformed members of the targeted nation in question for support but would fail to take in account.
Look what has happen in Eastern Europe as an example. Many of the supposedly reformed and pro-democracy types are still loyal to the Kremlin. In a more realistic military strategy sense you would have to come up with a strategy that would totally rebuild and remove the hostile regime from power. But frankly these days, many people don't want a realistic military strategy.
In my personal opinion, I personally believe Iraq and even Afghanistan should have been run by American generals like Douglas MacArthur ran Japan. There'll be less ways for the enemy to infiltrate and take over new transitional government in a recent case of an Iraqi offical using U.S. tax payer funds to support the Shiite radicals like al-Sadr. But that's the way I see things should have been done instead of relying on the locals that could likely be influenced by the very people funding the insurgency such as the Iraqi President heading to Syria and Iran to talk to the two leaderships of Syria and Iran.
The solution to the problems in iraq is tough repression and also a direct dose of capitalist civilisation, in the form a settlement programme like the one that the Israelis have in the West Bank. (There's more land in Iraq so tensions like ou see there shoudn't be witnessed.) Imagine American communities living in the heart of the Mideast, showing by positive example the superiority of the US system. The longer direct attacks on Cuba, venezuela and possibly Biolivia are put off the higher the chnace of the nuclear option - and no, I don't favour that - being necessary later.
That makes sense MAH. One of the reasons I have doubted the likely success of the Iraq mission, is that US politicians, from Korea to the Gulf War have consistently hamstrung their Generals in the field.
What you propose might be effective if the Military was actually allowed to do its job.
Anon. How would iraqis observe the American way of life, when all the "settlers" would have to live in secure compounds-guarded day and night by US marines?
Do you mean to say that those settlements wouldn't need Iraqi workers?
I agree with you and Mah though about the necessity of a MacArthur approach in Iraq. A democratic 'independent' government which aids fascism is a luxury we can't afford. the US forces would find it relatively easy to depose Maliki now and act as custodians of Iraqi democracy until the war ends.
Look, I believe the Douglass MacAthur approach is quite suitable. The Brits should have been using this method to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so it wouldn't get so out of hand as it has today.
You had radical Socialist Zionists and "revisionist" Zionists attacking moderate Zionist pro-British factions and you have radical Palestinian agitators doing similar things. The Brits should have used the Douglass MacAthur approach there, because if you look at Hong Kong, it had over 100 years of British occupation as a British colony, but look at it today.
It's now one of the freest places on the planet. Even freer than the United States. Israel is still trying to shift away from its old socialistic stances as well as other parts of the Arab world that are attempting to do the same thing such as Lebanon as one example.
That's what should have been done with Iraq and Afghanistan is the MacAthur approach as how it was done with South Korea and Japan. But I'm probably sure there were subversive policy making circles within the U.S. government that might secretly be working for the enemy and what's more we gave in more trust to someone like Nouri al-Maliki who has a long history of being a allege Syrian agent.
"It's now one of the freest places on the planet."
Unless I'm mistaken, Hong Kong is now part of China.
How about Hong Kong outranking the mainland Chinese government where it's roughly around 119 or 120 in the ranking? Certainly that tells that the people in Hong Kong certainly have more freedom than the mainland Chinese who suffer under the Communist regime.
But I guess folks like you wish that Chinese officals assigned to oversee Hong Kong to subvert it into a socialist hellhole like Venezuela, Cuba and others.
No, I despise the Chinese regime, which is why I find your statement that Hong Kong (which is totally undemocratic) is "one of the freest places on the planet" so incredible. Or are you claiming that freedom and democracy are unrelated?
Check the econonmic freedom ladder. Hong Kong outranked the United States since the U.S. ranked number 4. Are you saying that Hong Kong isn't free when it outranked the United States which is a superpower?
Why don't you look Hong Kong up on the economic freedom ladder and tell me how "unfree" it is? I'm just quite appauld that someone like you certainly doesn't really care that a region such as Hong Kong could squash a socialist hellhole like Cuba, North Korea and even outrank mainland China.
Strange how you anonymous attempt to justify the nations that are on the rank of being a socialist hellhole to let them continue that trend when Hong Kong style capitalism should be the wave of the future. Even help get the U.S. back on its feet once more along with other Western nations heading in a socialist slump.
Keep apologising for communism, mah. Why don't you just join the party?
Anonymous, I can see that you are nothing more than a fradulant Rightist to suggest I am a Communist like you have done with Trevor. Hong Kong's economic system is quite different from the mainland Chinese economic system which is a Communist system stupid.
So stop suggesting that I am a "Communist" or that someone like Trevor is a "Communist" for taking a different position. You can't stand the fact that Hong Kong is the most Capitalistic region in the world. Even outranking the United States and not to mention all the socialist hellholes which includes mainland China as well.
Having you stating that I am a "Communist" perfectly illestrates your own denial of your own ideology and why people like you could care less that the people of Hong Kong would be subverted into totalitarianism thanks to the Communist Chinese officals that are suppose to oversee Hong Kong.
And if all you can do is say that someone like me is a "Communist", then you are simply just bankrupted and intellectually dishonest.
It's not excellent acid Anon, it's psychosis brought on by a rather too intimate relationship with a box full of tin soldiers inherited from Mah's old grand daddy, marched up and down the Bremworth in Hataitai or Ashburton or wherever, on a daily basis. Much as with the Grand Old Duke of York.
It's manifestation is grandiosity and the tendency to prescribe all sorts of "solutions" for the world, blithely unconscious of the resulting human cost, viz. blood, tears, and for hundreds of millions - a twisted "I think, therefore it is (or should be)" approach, a la the lunatic from Crawford, Texas.
To borrow Trev's way of putting it - I've said "several times" that the answer is "Grow Up !". That advice hasn't yet resonated with Mah. One day perhaps ?
In the meantime, watch out all communist, arab, and black babies around the world. You are inestimably dangerous. Guantanumo don't exist for nothing !
Ka kite from beautiful Northland.
Tino Rangatiratanga !
"steve the not so nice guy",
Please shut up. You have already proven that you are a child stuck in a adult's body when it comes to attempting to debate.
And for you, anonymous you are also heading down in the same boat. That you can't take it that Hong Kong style Capitalism is quite ahead of its time.
Again my dear Mah, you flatter yourself outrageously with your core belief that you engage in "debate".
All you are doing is providing case study for the medical profession.
So no, I won't "shut up". I might however get on the phone to CYFS - I'm sure there's something weird going on in the privacy of your own lounge with those poor tin soldiers.
I can just smell it !
Mah: please explain to me the dynamics of heading down the same "boat".
A very interesting concept. I've never heard of 10 Downing "Boat" until now, nor 1600 Pennsylvania "Boat", nor Karangahape "Boat".
Are you rewriting the Lexicon of Common Daily Usage perhaps, you intellectual giant you ?
Kia Ora !
"You guys must be getting far better acid than I am to believe this sort of shit"
Isn't it quite interesting how someone like you anonymous wishes to be so blantantly dishonest with your own brand of personal attacks?
'Mah' is short for Marxist with a southern drawl, right?
Anonymous, I am not a Marxist you troll. But you seem to surely give McCarthyism what it really means toward the far left/pro-Communist circles.
Why don't you just shut the hell up with your trollish behavior? How about looking up Hong Kong's economic system through Google despite it technically being controlled by China. I believe the people of Hong Kong deserve to not be ruled under the totalitarianism of the mainland Communist Chinese government.
Take that in your pipe and smoke it you troll.
I note that nearly half of Hong Kong's poulation live in public housing. Doesn't sound very free market to me. As for "technically" being controlled by China, Hong Kong is a *part* of China, and its head of government is directly appointed by the Communist regime. Before that it was a British colony, so it's never actually been free.
So let me get this straight Hong Kong's rank on the economic freedom ladder is somehow wrong? Or do you wish to deny there is an elphant in the room that states that the people of Hong Kong are freer than those on the mainland controlled by the Communist Chinese government?
You just can't stand that Hong Kong's economy just happens to be quite Capitalistic while the economic ranking on the mainland Communist Chinese government is down in the dumps.
Here's the link of Hong Kong on the economic freedom ladder:
http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/country.cfm?id=HongKong
Where's Bhutan on the list? How can we take any list seriously if it doesn't include Bhutan?
So let me get this straight anonymous, you don't care that Hong Kong happens to be number one on the charts, but would rather see a nation like Bhutan on the list and complain about it more than let's say the Communist Party of China and other subversive forces in Hong Kong are ready to erode the freedoms that the people of Hong Kong have?
The only people I can't take seriously are people who are detracting that Hong Kong happens to be number one on the economic freedom list even someone as an American myself admitting that Hong Kong is freer than the United States and those living on mainland China.
OK, Mah, so we've established that for you economic freedom (the freedom to make a buck) is everything, and social and political freedoms (democracy, freedom of the press, and all the other things they DON'T have in Communist ruled Hong Kong) don't matter. But answer me this. Why do half the people in Hong Kong live in public housing? Why doesn't the free market work there, Mah?
Oh please anonymous, you are the typical detractor. You don't really give a damn that Hong Kong is on the economic freedom ladder do you? You simply wish to discredit nations that happen to be on the top ten. Pathetic and all it simply exposes is that you can stand that Capitalism is one of the most successful economic systems.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home