Does anyone believe the Cold War with th Russia is a thing of the past? I believe it was in remission for few years because of Russia's economic collapse and the breakup of the USSR, but recently I think it's heating up again. The Russian's recently announced they have developed a new missle that can avoid anything the US can shoot at it (scram jet technology that can take evasive action). Also recent intelligence that say's Moscow may have provided Intelligence to Saddam during the 2003 invasion.

It appears that since Russia is making big money on their oil exports and befriending alot of "anti-American" countries, the cold war is alive and well.

I've never trusted that it was over.........

Yup. It is now global warming.

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95 R129
04 Infiniti G35.5 BS
10 X204

Uhhhh.... since when are the Russians obligated to rubber stamp our every whim? I'm not comfy with them feeding Saddam intel, but we did cram the war down their (the Russkies) throat.

Funny thing, in hindsight, we'd a been a lot better off, IMO, if we'd let them have their way in Afghanistan back when. Instead we armed the opposition, many of whom ended up resenting us because of the way we just used them as proxies to beat up on the Russkies and then split when the fun was over.

As for other countries dealing with Iran, hate to break it to you, but we dealt with them pretty heavily from '53 to '79 only we had stacked the deck and had bombers w/ nukes in easy reach of Soviet targets based in Iran to boot. Now we're *****ing cause other countries have dealings with Iran? Didn't Reagan do some questionable deals w/ Iran? Is anybody besmirching him for that? Anyone in the "love it or leave it" camp, that is?

We are not the masters of this earth. The sooner we recognize that, the better off we'll be.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Where is that written? You got the same direct line to God that Dubya Dubs has got?

As for it being someone else, not sure I'd welcome it but that won't make much difference cause we're going to be knocked off the throne soon enough.

What kind of car would you rather have? A MB diesel that gets 35 mpg and does 0 to 60 in six seconds? Or an '85 Crown Vic that gets 13 mpg and does 0 to 60 in 12 seconds?

The latter is our economy: using about twice the energy per capita of Japan, and one and one half times as much as Germany, two countries that are, uhhhhh, a little more technologically advanced than Afghanistan.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Dream small and achievable. It is safe.

Ummm, could you be a little more vague please?

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Didn't we already go over the energy thing once before? If you calculate energy usage based upon area the US is way more efficient than either Japan or Germany.

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-livin' in the terminally flippant zone

What are you smoking and why are you holding out on me?

Based upon area? And that matters because? Per capita we're way in excess of them and everyone else in the world except Canada and similar countries in colder climates. The kind of energy we've been using will oneday be seen as a brief bubble. If you look at a graph of population growth since the birth of Christ, it looks the stock chart of Yahoo in the summer of 2000. The earth was at 1 billion people in the early 1800s. When you add to that a similar increase in energy use per capita, it is IMPOSSIBLE that we will not exhaust all easily recoverable fuels in a short time -- short in geological terms -- hell, short even in terms of the history of homo sapiens. I'm not a full tilt mathematician but I understand enough to know we're heading down an untenable path.

Do you have the capacity to consider that error is not only possible but unavoidable? Pride and irrational exuberrance have rendered us near fools.

We're not only rabbits on an island with no predators, we also each have a gymormous furnace, hungry for fuel -- or at least those who don't have one yet are trying damn hard to get one.

Pessimistic? Not really. I stand to make a killing with some of my energy and resource efficient devices, the likes of which I won't tell you about but will be happy to sell you before too long.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

The Cold War is over in that the various antagonists are no longer under threat of nuclear annihilation.

But if the questioner wishes to know whether the factors that put the various countries in conflict have abated the answer is "no." Those factors are still with us just as surely as they are with every other organism on the planet. Energy, resources, lebensraum. Different organisms, people, and nations combine their abilities and resources in different configurations to meet these goals. Failing to meet them results in failing to reproduce--the fundamental unit of success in all organisms.

There will always be a struggle for these resources. How that struggle is played out depends on the competing organisms, people, and nations.

Two words: HUMAN NATURE.

SOMEONE will ALWAYS be "top dog".

Knowing that this is inevitable, then I'd prefer it be US.

Mike

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1979 300 SD
350,000 miles
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1982 300D-gone---sold to a buddy
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1985 300TD
270,000 miles
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1994 E320
not my favorite, but the wife wanted it

www.myspace.com/mikemover
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Because, things like people, food, supplies and energy for that matter have to be transported throughout the geographical entity that is a political state. This should be obvious.

I see you've reinvented the perpetual motion machine or is it cold fusion. Is it a little red birdy that sips water?

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-livin' in the terminally flippant zone

Well put. The Russians are under no more obligation to let down their guard against us than we are to them. The finite nature of world oil supplies is of possibly greater concern to them than us because their average climate is somewhat colder and their coal reserves are smaller, inexplicably. Perhaps that's "proven" coal reserves.

Would we sit still while they invaded and sought to make a permanent dependent ally of the 2nd or 3rd most oil rich nation on earth?

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Russia, including Siberia, has the second largest oil reserve after the M.E..

That it is done is obvious. The need to do it is not nearly as pressing as you ass-u-me, I submit. Increased local self-sufficiency could cut down on much needless transport. But our large degree of energy usage derives from much more than the size of our nation.Sneer and scoff all you want. After all, that is one of your strong suits. That you would find it so silly and improbably that big improvements in efficiency might be possible is telling. I mean, after all, life as we know it these United States represents the pinnacle of human possibility, ain't that right?

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K