Does the Cold War start with a Red Line?

Russia would cross "a red line for the United States of America" if it were to base nuclear capable bombers in Cuba, a top US air force officer warned on Tuesday.

"If they did I think we should stand strong and indicate that is something that crosses a threshold, crosses a red line for the United States of America," said General Norton Schwartz, nominated to be the air force's chief of staff.

No, this isn't a statement from history, and it isnt 1962, but 2008 and maybe, just maybe the cold war is heating up a bit as Russia considers its place in the evolving world.

Read more about the Cuban Missile Crisis redux here:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080722180457.q0jlf4en&show_article=1

All this just days after Russia announced a major coup in the global powerstruggle for energy, as they come much closer to their much denounced goal of a global energy cartel, with Moscow at the helm of a China- Eropean energy market.

From the details coming out of Ashgabat in Turkmenistan and Moscow over the weekend, it is apparent that the great game over Caspian energy has taken a dramatic turn. In the geopolitics of energy security, nothing like this has happened before. The United States has suffered a huge defeat in the race for Caspian gas. The question now is how much longer Washington could afford to keep Iran out of the energy market.

The overall implications of these Russian moves are very serious for the US and EU campaign to get the Nabucco gas pipeline project going.

Friday's agreements in Ashgabat mean that Nabucco's realization will now critically depend on gas supplies from the Middle East - Iran, in particular. Turkey is pursuing the idea of Iran supplying gas to Europe and has offered to mediate in the US-Iran standoff.

A gas cartel is surely in the making. The geopolitical implications are simply profound for the US.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JG30Ag01.html

The mind reels at how thoroughly dazed and confused the policy makers in the US Department of Energy and the Pentagon have been to have had something like this sneak up on them, and absolutely not seen it coming. Of particular note, if you read the article, is the lack of profit motive, this is not a grab in the interest of making more money, but of solidifying a section of the world that is increasingly less reliant on US interests and increasingly unfriendly to US interference. Also of note is the Dollar per Barrel Price Russia is willing to spend, realizing of course that if international policies dont get revised, which is unlikely, the world at large with be glad to pay $240+ a barrel.

I can garantee you that they are not making this move blind, and have had their brightest economists study its implications at length, we would do well to learn from it.

With this and continued Russian investment in both China and Iran as well as a veto stamp waiting for every US proposed UN Security Council Resolution, it becomes clear that Russia is once again stretching its legs and looking to become a global superpower. The question is, do we continue to oppose and provoke them in a diplomilitary strugle over missile defence systems, only to respond by drawing a "red line" in the sand when they react to our continued threats against their economic plans? With a continued foreign policy of military opression and coercion in the international comunity, we will fail to adress issues that well may lead to the largest financial pitfalls in history and in fact force the world at large to chose a new international reserve currency to complete its transactions in its ever broadening search for energy, this new reserve currency may well be Rubles.