This was supposed to be a post about the "strategic" decision by Russian president Vladimir Putin to re-institute round-the-clock bomber patrols. However, as Ballista was searching through Google for images of Putin to use with the post, Ballista was distracted by just how scary the man is. Here, look for yourself. Sure, there is the occasional goofy picture, but mostly it is 100% chill-my-bones stuff. Actually, the word that pops to mind is nefarious. Seriously, Putin could stare down Darth Vader before breakfast, then move on to that disembodied eye of fire from the book/movies about that "one ring"-thingy.
Ballista doesn't want to get drawn into the international din created by Putin fishing shirtless, but consider this... What if disputes were settled by leaders squaring off against one another on the field of battle? Russia would conquer the globe. Seriously, what world leader could beat him? Leave weapons (polonium included) out of it. In hand-to-hand combat Comrade KGB still wins.
But back to the real reason for this post. As scary as Putin is physically, his words can be even more troubling:
“Fourteen strategic missile carriers, support planes and tanker planes took off from seven Russian airfields in various parts of the country at 00:00 Moscow time on August 17. Combat duty has begun,” Putin said. [Emphasis added]
For the sake of completeness, some news agencies interpreted the ITAR-TASS quote above as "combat alert," which, granted, is a bit less provocative. Bottom line, however, the world just took a step back towards the Cold War. And Putin isn't a vodka-soaked, aged politician like the soviet premiers of the 20th Century. Like Ballista wrote, nefarious.
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