The New Cold War, a Global Rant

At a Munich Security Conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed a growing concern for U.S. foreign policy. It seems that the U.S. has been planning to position itself as the globes leading Super Power. Leaders of countries all over the world are worried that the United States may become the new bully on the block. In times reminiscent of the Cold War, the world is experiencing a growing sense of tension; blamed widely on Americas insistence on policing the world. When speaking of the U.S., Putin used words like univocal, and phrases like one center of authority; yet he also spoke of self destruction.

So how is it that any world leaders could even think that America has any wish to become the new world police? What signals have we given people that we have any wish to be the head of some kind of world government that is lead by one Super Country, whose job it is to tell other countries what they can, and can not do, or even who they could trade with? Well, let's start with Global Strategic Positioning; the U.S. has plans to develop and place several anti-missile defense sites all over Europe, including Poland and the Czech Republic.

Supposedly intended to protect the U.S. and its' allies from attacks from rouge states and terrorists, skeptics say that these anti-missile defense sites are much better designed, and positioned to attack other countries, such as Russia, than to protect any one. Another major concern is the development of space positioned weapons such as former president Reagan's Star Wars. The common belief is that weapons such as these, and their tactical positions, will give the U.S. an overwhelming advantage over every other country in the world. It seems that in a world where everyone is trying to talk peace, the U.S. is busy building the greatest military empire in world history.

So how does the simple belief that the U.S. may have plans for global domination affect us? World leaders are so sure that this is the case that they are doing what they can to protect themselves. Russia has announced that they are rebuilding and modifying their nuclear arsenal to try to keep things on an even keel.

The Cold War worked because there was Mutually Assured Destruction, or M.A.D.; this means that the two Super Powers had enough nukes each, that if either were to attack the other, both would be completely destroyed. However, now there is one Super Power, and that happens to be the only country in position to survive this kind of major nuclear conflict, some believe even before it began. This becomes a problem because in this kind of situation, no country feels safe. How do you say no to a country that could nuke you off the face of the earth before you even knew what hit you? Well, that's how the world feels.

The war in Iraq has just made the world that much more paranoid. Iraq, formerly known as Babylon, has been the best strategic position in the eastern world since Biblical times. From there, one is in position to attack anyone in the eastern hemisphere, with deadly effect. Seeing that very little of the rest of the world agreed with the U.S. when they proposed the invasion, but the U.S. went ahead with it anyway, this seems to be a beacon to the world that the U.S. is going to do what it wants; and no one will, or can, stop them.