http://blog.peaceactionwest.org/2008/08/12/a-fragile-ceasefire-mccains-new-cold-war-and-the-same-old-addiction-to-oil/ Grassroots action for a safer, more just world Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:37:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://blog.peaceactionwest.org/2008/08/12/a-fragile-ceasefire-mccains-new-cold-war-and-the-same-old-addiction-to-oil/#comment-68 Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:17:58 +0000 http://blog.peaceactionwest.org/2008/08/12/a-fragile-ceasefire-mccains-new-cold-war-and-the-same-old-addiction-to-oil/#comment-68 Thanks libhomo for your post. I was thinking a similar thing when I wrote this post. While the rhetoric is reminiscent of the Cold War (as are the US and Russian nuclear arsenals), the geopolitics are reminiscent of what the British called the “Great Game” between the British Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire.
Some Americans politicians are pointing to the Russian empire and unfortunately for some it’s combined with some rather wild saber waving and rattling. Today McCain told a Pennsylvania radio station: “I think it’s very clear that Russian ambitions are to restore the old Russian Empire. Not the Soviet Union, but the Russian Empire.”

]]> http://blog.peaceactionwest.org/2008/08/12/a-fragile-ceasefire-mccains-new-cold-war-and-the-same-old-addiction-to-oil/#comment-69 Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:47:33 +0000 http://blog.peaceactionwest.org/2008/08/12/a-fragile-ceasefire-mccains-new-cold-war-and-the-same-old-addiction-to-oil/#comment-69 I think so much of the analysis of the situation is mistakenly based on the notion of Putin’s Russia being similar to the Soviet Union. From what I’ve seen, there is a new Russian, not Soviet, Empire and the historical lessons from pre-Soviet Russia would be of considerable use if any of our policy makers knew Russian history.

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