I would think that what is meant here is that Poland becomes a target, should western nations be subject to a nuclear preemptive strike. We are already targeted, and have been ever since nuclear missiles seriously came into the picture--cold war or no cold war.

However, for Poland, which way do the winds blow? My guess is that any mushroom cloud over Poland would blow into Russia. It would be akin to nuking yourself. Can I say...stupid?!

For that reason, any "strike" might not be nuclear early on. In fact, from Russia's standpoint, wouldn't it be better to keep Poland from being a nuclear target by knocking out the defensive weapons we plan on putting there than to wait until the defensive stance is already achieved?

Key point: what if the Georgia thing is just a test? What if Russia feels like they "have" to go into Poland, but just thought they'd get their feet wet a bit by assaulting Georgia? (It's also a good way to go for that warm-water port they've always wanted.)

The world's response--"Hey! Stop that!"..."No, you don't"..."Who do you think you are?"..."Now, you're older, and you should know better than that!" (Maybe Dr. Phil needs to go visit the Russians.)

Ouch. That hurt. You mean you won't be my friend any more? Bummer.

It's definitely food for thought. After all, Russia crossed the nuclear threshold years ago that Iran is now chomping at the bit to cross (so some say, anyway...probably.)

So, what are we and the rest of the world going to do if Russia goes into, or bombs Poland? What can we do? Do we not have enough on our plate with the war on terror?

Wow, if world events aren't heading toward a giant, cosmic zit of end-time completion, I don't know what is.

Lord, give me the courage to live and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ like never before, while it is still daytime.

Come soon, Lord Jesus!

In Him,

Mike

Unless they use antimatter-triggered nuclear weapons...which wouldn't emit radioactive fallout. Another possibility is antimatter- powered "electromagnetic pulse" weapons that could fry an enemy's electric power grid and communications networks, leaving him literally in the dark and unable to operate his society and armed forces.


http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0507114

and

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...MNGM393GPK1.DTL


...we are in the very last of the days of Babylon...

A new Cuban missile crisis? Unlikely, experts say
By Susan Taylor Martin, Times Senior Correspondent
In print: Sunday, August 10, 2008

Anyone who was in grade school in the '50s undoubtedly remembers those "duck and cover'' drills, based on the absurd idea that a wooden desk could be a shield against nuclear attack. But that was the Cold War era, which hit its terrifying height in 1962 when the United States discovered that the Soviet Union was building missile bases 90 miles away in Cuba.

The threat of real war abated after the Soviets agreed to dismantle their bases in exchange for the United States' removing its own missiles from Turkey near the Soviet border.

But given that crisis, there has been surprisingly little reaction to reports that Russia — the biggest remnant of the old Soviet Union — is again considering a military presence in Cuba.

"We should restore our position in Cuba and other countries,'' Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying Monday by a Russian news agency. And the daily Izvestia cited a top Russian military source as saying that bombers capable of carrying long-range missiles could be stationed on Cuban soil.

The Russians could well be serious about improving their strained relations with Cuba. But the military talk is probably part warning, part worry over the Bush administration's plans to base missiles in Eastern Europe.

"The fact the United States is going to deploy a missile defense system in Europe has led some people in Russia to strut their stuff and say, 'Okay, if you're going to be in our area, we're going to put something in your area,' " says Philip Peters, a Cuba expert at the Lexington Institute, a think tank near Washington that studies military issues.

Peters notes that the White House has been "extremely placid'' about the reports, which the Russian Defense Ministry says were based on misleading information. And a Cuban diplomat said Cuba is unlikely to revive military cooperation with Russia, especially after Putin's abrupt shutdown in 2001 of an electronic listening post near Havana that monitored communications in the southeastern United States and earned Cuba a reported $200-million in rent.

While the bomber issue remains up in the air, the reports are evidence of two significant realities: Putin remains a powerful figure, and Russia is again a powerful country.

Though his handpicked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, has the constitutional authority to handle foreign affairs, it was Putin who reportedly said that Russia should extend its influence globally. That's because "Putin hasn't entirely reconciled himself to no longer being president,'' says Marshall Goldman, an expert on Russian politics at Harvard University.

And thanks to its wealth of oil and other natural resources, Russia has made a stunning economic rebound since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

Then, "Russia had so many difficulties at home that it couldn't worry about what was going on outside,'' Goldman says. "Russians now feel they are in a much stronger position, so they're trying to reclaim territory they thought they had come in possession of before.''

Cuba and the Soviet Union were close during the Cold War, when Cuban leader Fidel Castro's communist regime got billions of dollars in Soviet aid in the form of a guaranteed market for Cuban sugar and oil. But after the Soviet breakup, the Russian government claimed that Cuba owed it large sums of money.

"Castro told them to stick it in their ear,'' Peters says.

As relations with Russia soured, Cuba turned to the European Union and communist China for aid. It also forged strong alliances with the anti-American regimes in Venezuela and Bolivia, both major oil and gas exporters.

Cuba's own oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico have drawn attention from many countries, even as they remain off-limits to American companies because of the U.S. embargo. On a recent visit, a Russian delegation discussed helping Cuba explore its offshore fields and upgrade its oil storage and transportation facilities.

"The Russians are looking at a whole variety of ways in which to get involved economically in Cuba — possibly oil, possibly something in the tourism sector or biotechnolgy,'' Peters says.

Putting bomber bases as well as oil platforms on Cuban territory may be more bluff than anything else. Even the former head of Russia's strategic missile forces said it would make little sense to base bombers where they could easily be destroyed by an "enemy'' — presumably the United States.

But while the talk about Cuban bases may be only talk, Russia has made it clear that it doesn't want U.S. missiles anywhere near its own territory.

"I think this is a lot of strutting by the Russians, frankly,'' Peters says, "and if anything real comes out of this, it will be stronger economic relations with Cuba.''

Unless they use antimatter-triggered nuclear weapons...which wouldn't emit radioactive fallout. Another possibility is antimatter- powered "electromagnetic pulse" weapons that could fry an enemy's electric power grid and communications networks, leaving him literally in the dark and unable to operate his society and armed forces.


http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0507114

and

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...MNGM393GPK1.DTL


...we are in the very last of the days of Babylon...