Saturday, August 30, 2014

Russia is now saber rattling Finland!

Thanks for the link Joe!

photo via Vox

via Vox
This is a photograph of an AN-27 Russian military transport aircraft. Which wouldn't be so extraordinary, except that the air force of Finland says they took the photo while the Russian plane was in Finnish airspace. Even that wouldn't necessarily be so extraordinary, except the Finns say it was "the third event of its kind within a one-week period." And even that you might write off as just one of these things, except that Russia also invaded Ukraine this week so it's kind of hard to see it all as a big coincidence.
I personally don't see this as a big deal, but of course I could easily be wrong.  Stuff is heating up in Europe and the Russians would be a fool to not keep an eye on all of its neighbors---as they're keeping an eye on Russia.

On a sidenote, I wonder exactly how valuable NATO membership really is.  The organization is at best a quasi-political one that masquerades as a military grouping.  Its shelf life has expired long ago and what would impress me more is individual mutual aid pacts between countries.  For example an agreement by the Brits to defend Poland, Estonia and Romania instead of NATO membership would seem to carry more weight, less complications and be more effective than the nonsense we have now.