The Russian Navy is all over the news after rescuing a hijacked oil tanker in a daring raid yesterday. Russian Marines stormed and seized the tanker and freed all crew members, killing one pirate and arresting the other 10. The Russian response to the distress call was made in less than 24 hours by a Udaloy-class ASW ship recently designated and fitted to take on this sort of mission.
As I said months and months ago... the Russians are updating and upgrading their military forces (land, sea and air) to take on a greater and greater international role, and are expanding the scope of their influence well beyond what even their former "superpower"-status traditionally was. We don't hear or read much about their "special forces", but what I have read tells me that these units are some of the best trained rapid-response teams on the face of the earth, and their equipment and support logistics are getting better and better with each ruble earned from Russia's petroleum industry and reinvested in the military.
I know Jambo thinks this is a good thing, and maybe it is. However, keeping up with the Russians is something we are going to have to do, and I am CONVINCED that our current President will not agree with me. If we allow our position as a world leader in security and military intervention and interdiction to be surpassed by the Russians, and the day ever comes when our interests and those of the Russians conflict... what happens then?
Russia and the US may very well learn to be allies... but we will never be partners in the way the US and UK are, or the US-Canada. Our foreign policy and military agendas will clash sooner or later, and our ability to speak from a position of strength will dictate how that confrontation ends up.
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