Back to the Future...

I'm not an intelligence officer but have some bits of intel that make me wonder where we're headed and it it's where we want go.

In March, Russia, China, India and Brazil put forth a serious attack on the US Dollar as the currency of exchange. Behind the scenes, Russia and China are turning from their communist roots towards "Authoritative Capitalism" They are retaining their strong arm control over their interior populations but are using their new found capalistic power to try and over shadow the West. There is a stong possibility that they are acting as conspirators in concert to take the West and primarily the United States down. Their new found economic power is allowing them to buy new technology and to increase their military budgets by billions of dollars.

However, they have learned a leason that we have not. They are "buying" allies and reopening diplomatic relationships with more traditional satellite
states. They are doing their old trick of not only supplying arms but they are spending large sums of money to build up the infrastructure of these "friends". The efforts we have tried in Iraq pale in comparison. Remember, they may have won the hearts and minds in Vietnam in the final count.

Friends of mine, that are not of this country, tell me that there is an attempt to hold the nose of the US with a combination of economic sanctions and a widely increased conventional armed forces. Then give us the "death of a thousand cuts" by drawing out our strength by in a series of small wars that will make Iraq look simple in comparision. They are counting our continued rescue of our failing economy to keep us from rebuilding our own defense forces. (I'm not trying to second guess our president's policies)

Russia has already opened overtures to Cuba and Venezuela for starters. Brazil is a hot bed of Russian influence. Brazil believes that it's time to take their place on the world stage and they want Russia's help. Brazil is by far the largest economy in South America and if it turns against us, what will be the effect of other countries? There is supposedly an attempt to bring other countries in the Central and South American sphere to their side by promises of investing in their infrastructures. My friends tell me that even though the Drug Cartels are making fabulous amounts of profit, their new found military abilities are the product of Russian influence.

So where do we go from here? The last president said that Russia was our ally. Is it still that way in the face of their increased defense spending and a belligerent claim that they have rights to all of the assets under the Artic? Is China still cowed by our support of her growing industrial might or has she found that she no longer needs to be concerned with our demands?.

I don't put forward these statements to muddy the waters of our diplomatic ventures. If anything, I want clarify what our policies are and do we have a plan to counter a possible rebirth of the "Second World". And more to the forte of SWC, do we have the capacity to fight a war on all fronts? Or has our focus on the wars in Iraq and Afganistan cost us the capability to fight a conventional war and there for have to back down to the rising might of these countries?