Reply #14: Whatever the armaments

[PATRICK]

a real Israeli attack would turn them all into scrap metal as before. The price might be ruinously high, who knows about that?

A REAL protection policy is a mutual defense pact. Would Russia actually engage Israel? That has never been done. We supply lots of stuff to all sides and one can still pretty much determine strength by the nation not by its material.

Still looks like nothing but a decimating madness until the oil runs out and then they can simply have at each other with sticks and stones for all their "allies" care.

Crazy. After crushing Islamic extremism in Chechnya Russia is allying with non-extremist Arabs who are currently threatened as part of a terror provocation. Maybe we are getting back to a big surrogate free for all like during the Cold War except that the shot up American army is right there to...do what? As far as the Russians see it, probably to continue to get shot up into non-existence like what happened to them in Afghanistan- with OUR help.