Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The return of strategic aviation and the end of the "McDonald's rule"
Russia has been flexing its muscles for some time, and the invasion of Georgia is but the most egregious example. Andy McCarthy points us to a story in the New York Sun that says that Russia resumed Cold War-style strategic aviation off our Alaskan coast six months ago:
Ms. Rice could not say what NATO would eventually decide to do to make its position clear but said the alliance would speak with one voice "to clearly indicate that we are not accepting a new line."
At the same time, she said that by flexing its military muscle in Georgia as well as elsewhere, including the resumption of Cold War-era strategic bomber patrols off the coast of Alaska, Russia was engaged in high-stakes brinksmanship that could backfire.
This "is a very dangerous game and perhaps one the Russians want to reconsider," Ms. Rice said of the flights that began again with frequency about six months ago. "This is not something that is just cost-free. Nobody needs Russian strategic aviation along America's coast."
No, nobody needs that.
Russia, only theoretically a democracy, broke Tom Friedman's "McDonald's rule" -- that no two countries with a McDonald's franchise had ever gone to war -- when it invaded Georgia (list of McDonald's "countries" here). Increasingly, that is not looking like the last rule Putin's Russia will violate. The question is, how will the next president deal with it?
5 Comments:
By 
, at
Wed Aug 20, 10:06:00 AM:
Wasn't Friedman's "McDonald's Rule" actually broken during Kosovo?
By , at
Wed Aug 20, 12:45:00 PM:
Ya want ketchup with those fries?
And I guess it's not the end of history, either.
Out with the new paradigms, in with the old!
-David
By , at
Wed Aug 20, 04:02:00 PM:
I have a photo of a Soviet Bear D passing the Iceland/UK Gap with two F-4Es on its wings. That image is circa 1982. The F-4Es were flying out of Iceland and were under control of an E-3 AWACS aircraft, also out of Iceland.
NATO fighters in those days escorted the Bears almost every inch of the way from Murmansk to Havana. Wonder if the current crop of "leaders" are up to answering the BEAR with that kind of action.
By 
davod, at
Thu Aug 21, 08:48:00 AM:
Return of strategic aviation - Maybe we need a few more F22s.
By , at
Fri Aug 22, 05:37:00 PM:
Perhaps we should retaliate by dismantling all of the Russian McDonalds and shipping them back to the states.
