The Grumbling Bear

Stirring and beginning to mark out territory:

The Guardian:

Luke Harding in Moscow
Wednesday August 22, 2007

Vladimir Putin announced ambitious plans to revive Russia's military power and restore its role as the world's leading producer of military aircraft yesterday.

The new emphasis on Russia's revived military prowess comes against a backdrop of deteriorating relations with the west. Mr Putin has denounced the US's missile defence plans in Europe, scrapped an agreement with Nato on conventional armed forces, and grabbed a large, if symbolic, chunk of the Arctic.

San Diego Union Tribune:

By Guy Faulconbridge
REUTERS

6:15 a.m. August 2, 2007

MOSCOW – Russian explorers dived deep below the North Pole in a submersible on Thursday and planted a national flag on the seabed to stake a symbolic claim to the energy riches of the Arctic.

Russia wants to extend right up to the North Pole the territory it controls in the Arctic, believed to hold vast reserves of untapped oil and natural gas.

The first item is no doubt a reaction to this inane policy revival on the part of the Bush administration, using the onionskin paper thin justification of a ballistic missile threat to its allies from rogue nuclear nations.

The second item would seem to be more of an insurance policy on the part of Russia in reaction to the continuation of the neo cons' undeterable urge to expand the conflict in the Middle East that could spiral out of the control of anyone or any nation.

Like every other nation, Russia recognizes that energy is the key to survival and a source of energy needs to be secured in order to ensure the security of that survival. The U. S. is and has been for decades making more and more aggressive inroads into the energy resources right in Russia's backyard with no regard for the rights of the nations and peoples who can lay rightful claim to those resources. So, two options present themselves and are being acted upon by Russia. The strategic economic one, in the form of the Arctic claim, and the strategic military option in the form of the increased military production and patrolling:

By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:11pm BST 22/08/2007

Eurofighter Typhoon jets scrambled for the first time to intercept Russian nuclear bombers approaching British air space, the Ministry of Defence said yesterday.

The Tu-95 Bear nuclear bombers were detected over the Atlantic on Friday, the RAF said yesterday.

Tornado F3 fighters and two Typhoons were scrambled from RAF Leuchars in Scotland.

And let's not forget the Dragon, who also has a big vested interest in the resources of the region:

Iran has become the top oil exporter to China, surpassing Saudi Arabia. Official Iranian statistics have stated that China's oil imports from Iran more than doubled in 2006. In June 2007, China reportedly imported around 567,000 barrels per day (b/d).

As Scott Ritter said in a discussion with Seymour Hersch:

Our oil-based economy is operating on the margins, as we speak. We only have 1.0% to 1.5% excess production capacity. If you take the Iranian oil off the market, which is the first thing the Iranians will do, we automatically drop to around minus-4%, which means there ain’t enough oil out there to support the globe’s thirst for oil, especially America’s thirst for oil. And we're not the only ones drinking it. You think for a second the Chinese and the Indians, the world’s two largest developing economies, are going to say, “Hey, Uncle Sam, we’ll put everything on hold, so we can divert oil resources, so you can feed your oil addiction, because you attacked Iran”?

Energy. It's what inevitably brought down Hitler's Germany when he made the fatal decision to invade the Soviet Union when he did which was in response to the aggressive moves that Stalin was making towards the Ploesti Oil fields in Romania. The Wehrmacht was nothing but a useless mass of steel with out petroleum based products. The decision was made in June of 1941, and the course of the war was essentially set, although it would take several years and millions of lives to secure the ultimate result.

The Japanese push in the Pacific six months later was essentially a similar grab for resources, although not in reaction to aggressive moves by rival nations but to the power vacuum left in the Pacific following the marginalization of the European colonial powers in 1940 with the fall of France and the Battle of Britain and the tying up of the Soviet military in the West six months earlier. Ultimately the defeat of Germany and the over stretching of the Japanese Army and Navy (along with key battles such as Midway) determined the outcome of the war in the Pacific.

Energy. Once again rearing its ugly head as the primary reason that nations threaten and attack each other. I have a sinking feeling that even when the so called 'renewable' energy sources become the preferred option people will find ways to fight over the wind and sunlight.

And speaking of Solar Power: