Neither is Russia.

Russia is not a coward, I challenge you to read Russian history very well.
well for South Ossetian of 70,000 people, and even more for Russians in Ukraine.

Russian doctrine is if anybody be it King kong of the West, being the greatest of all touch a Russian or spill a blood of a Russian would pay a price.

The reason why Russia didn’t interfere in Serbia is that, serbians being historical allies are not Russian citizens or full blooded Russians.

Or more likely that just as with NATO/US now with Georgia, that drunkard in charge back then had enough sanity to relise that once one side of Atomic Divide gets involved openly in conflict, the other side better keep it self limited to Loud Yelling and/or sometimes get involved covertly.

Oh yeah.. quoting Wikipedia on validity of russian election… while in Whitehouse sits a man who should not be there if “all votes were counted”.. which if im not mistaken is the whole idea behind democracy. ??

You wish to talk about strong man?? How about breaking constitution and spying on its own people?
How about breaking constituion and conducting and i choose my words here with good thought .. TORTURE of POWs???
How about sugesting to change constituion for marige act.. and at the same time refusing even to consider to ammend constitution for say.. gun control?
How about giving pardons to convicted criminals who compromised CIA agents for political vendeta??
How about abusing power of presidential VETO to silence both upper and lower house??
How about going to UN and telling fairy tales about mobile antrax factories, and 1000s scuds ready to deliver it to justify

Or if corruption In Kremlin is what you are concerned with, do i have to go into haliburton and your VP?? Pocketing 80bn and sending grounforces into iraq with non armoured HumVees..

I really dont like getting into these kinds of debates… but if you are going to talk to Russia from your high horse, look at your own government first please.

to SOC

I compleatly agree.. any nation which wishes to join NATO (toothless as they are) should have right to do so… Unless they are getting that membership to settle existing teritorial/political or other kind of disputes.

If Georiga wants to join NATO , its their right.. they can do it less Abkhazia and Ossetia.

With Ukraine its more complicated… there is about 50-50% split there politically .. and the current government does not have majority support for decision to Join NATO. I lived in Ukraine for a while and i know the people, county, problems.. it is not United country.. about 40% of them do not differ them self from Russians.. other 40% from Poles… about 20% are on the fence. If Ukraine joins NATO then it will further give West incentive to keep 40% of pro Russian ukranians subjugated and voiceless… and dont even try to tell me things like that dont occur in west.

And then we have whole religion split… again Ortodoxs siding with Russia and Catholics with Poles… with pretty much same diving ratios i mentioned above.

So when you say Ukraine wants to join NATO, you should be saying about half of them want to join NATO.

I believe Russia and the Pro Russian Ukranians have legitimate concerns in regards with the issue.

Oh and btw when Sevastopol came back into port yesterday… it was not welcomed by angry protestors , despite present governments hostility towards Black Sea Fleet.

About 70% (2 milion ) of population of Crimea are ethnic Russians. The real reason behind push to get Ukraine into NATO.. west has now began to Relise that Kosovo preseadent though it may Hurt one traditional Ally… gives Russia advantage in many many more other places.. like in Georgia.

Kosovo is a perfect example by West of how to shoot your self in a foot…

And by the same measure my Amateur Rocket club has 20 ABM interceptors, considering our 15 footer rockets could in theory be randomly launched up and by accident hit incoming projectile and deflect it off target…. Please…

If S500 ever gets in service, and even if they start doting country side all over Russia… there will still be no Way in hell to produce total umbrela of protection. Which by the way is why i consider this dedicated multi layered ABM shield US is building, a collosal waste of money.. Scatering radar/interceptors at fixed position all over world, Dedicated satelites, integration with other systems like AEGIS , 747’s with Laser beams in their noses… its a every Defence Contractors Wet Dream.. and even if you get it all done with no hitch and up and running.. the level of protection even against few incoming targets (let alone 100s) is debatable…

Evolving PAC3 further or new type of mobile system like S500 will give you as good cover, at lower price, and ability to shoot down more conventional targets.

True, Concorde was the only truly successful commercial jet of the three. But politics killed the Tu-144D, not capability. As for flight routes…there were agreements between the USSR and the West for a lot of reciprocal routes to be shared by Concorde and the Tu-144, but these plans fell through when Aeroflot started to back off of the Tu-144 program as the Tu-144D wasn’t ready soon enough. Had the Tu-144D come along earlier and not been dumped by Aeroflot there is no reason to assume it wouldn’t have been jetting about all over the place.

Only one SST capable in regular service? No, only one that enjoyed enough government support to stay in service. History ignores the Tu-144 and regards it as a failure for no good reason. French shenanigans at the Paris airshow aside, it was every bit the SST Concorde was, and in some respects more of one, and does not deserve to be relegated to a footnote in history.

You have now intrigued me to start digging for information, i all was aware off up to now is that Tu144 just crashed during Airshow .. and that was later blamed on it “flawed” design in western sources. The crash was huge contributing factor to demise of the project…. Hmmm… 😎

Russia isn’t going to get into a nuclear exchange over Georgia and their conventional forces would have a hard time fighting their way out of a wet paper bag, let alone take on the west. Heck, I’ll bet the U.S./NATO could kick that rabble outta Georgia faster than Iraq was kicked outta Kuwait and there would be very little the Russians could do about it.

Instead of putting 10 interceptors in central Europe the U.S. should put in 10,000;)

Well you seam to compare US/NATO/ISRAEL trained, supported and to some level equipped Georgian forces as worse than wet paper bag… since Russians did not have any trouble with them, even with rather limited forces in use.

Before kicking Russians out of anything, id like to see US/NATO kick rabble that is Taliban once and for all… last ive heard , they are coming back and even taking control of parts of country.

PS: As soc pointed out, handfull of Minutemans or Topols on each side and the life as we know it ends.. and they both have more than handfull last ive checked. So lets not predict any flattenings of anybody. 😮

She is a lovely thing… but short service time, and the fact that Hawker Huricane shot more gerries down despite its cloth covered frame, slower speed and climb rates, simply prevent Spit from title as greatest ever.. even if it is the most lovely thing to take to the sky ever.. unless Haidi Klums angel wings from that catalogue are the real thing. 😉

My issue with 707 is that there are number of contemporaries that, look similar, preform similar, and could have done as good job had they been marketed and sold as well as 707. Where as 747 just had no competition in sheer size and capacity.

That said im not taking anything away from the 707, everything you said stands.