Russians track and play with US drones

Had thought when read headline they got hacked and taken over by bored russian kids as many hack for fun ...... ( they damn good at it too .... )


Probably making sure ol scammy not have another oops moment with the drones and hit any russian bases or assets ....... along with let scammy know to step aside while ivan clean up the mess he made .......

Actually, there is another headline I'd seen earlier where the Russian Defense people were stating America wasn't 'always' hitting terrorist targets in Syria. I have a feeling they've been watching our drones VERY carefully, and just made themselves known for doing it recently here.

Catching our drones bombing outside our 'rules for war' and whatever else we have for self-limitation may be quite a coup for them. Propaganda value would be very high, at least.

Welcome back to the cold war! For those who missed part 1 for the intermission period we've had? Hey, this gets A LOT more fun as things move on. They are just eying each other at this stage. Wait until Russia decides to actually DO something. Then we'll see the true measure of Putin and how ambitious he really is.

I do agree about there being little the world can say about Russians being there in Syria or bases.

After all, Syria has been a client state of the Soviets, and then Russians.

Who, for instance, ANYWHERE in the WORLD would have the place or the nerve to tell America we can't build a base in Thailand, or Japan, or Kenya or Honduras, if those local Governments were in agreement? The answer? No one...and damn good for it too.

The flip side of that and the passion behind it..means we're the WORST kind of hypocrite (and dangerously so in this example) to tell Russia that what is good for our Goose ain't viable for their Gander. They're likely to turn our goose into a dinner and stack their plate with second helpings.

I don't worry about them in Syria, because frankly, SOMEONE had to do this ..and if it be Moscow? Well, then so be it. The job gets done, as it MUST. I worry about what comes after ....as Russia won't be getting their ass kicked this time, like they did in Afghanistan (they learned ...it is we who have now gone through Groundhog Day with guns several times, to continue repeating the same mistakes). When they come out of Syria stronger...will they even stop at the Middle East for spreading Russian Hegemony? I doubt it... After all, Putin is hard pressing in the Arctic, Bearing Straight, West Pacific (to a much lighter degree there..and that seems China's wheelhouse to manage) as well as Europe.

I guess I'm concerned because there really is NOTHING on Earth, presently, that has both the ability *AND* the will to slow Putins roll when he rolls out of Syria before too long. I don't trust a Russian leaders self control for conquest. History isn't a pretty thing to go by, as the only thing we have to consider with this, eh?

@ninurta,

Sad isn't it?

Here's a bit more on my take regarding Cold War II - in Cold War I, Russia exported communism and regime change. They did it not by conquest, but by exporting ideology to individuals who then took the reins and did the work, while the Russians generally stood back and threw weapons and equipment at them, and waited for the results. Every now and then, they took a more direct route as in Eastern Europe and Afghanistan, but generally they were more hands-off, preferring to let proxies take the heat.

I was told in the early 80's that Communism is not bad or unfriendly per se - for over a third of the world, the communists are the only friends they have!" yet the direct action they took in Afghanistan was so miscalculated that it toppled their empire.

In the early 60's, we had the Cuban Missile Crisis, with Russian trying to get a foothold in OUR sphere of influence, 90 miles off our own coast. Flash forward a few decades, and WE seem to have learned nothing at all from their mistake, for WE are trying to gain a foothold on THEIR back door, in the Ukraine and Crimea. How have we missed the lesson of their massive ass-kicking in Cuba, so that we are doomed to repeat it from the WRONG side? The tables have turned, the entire world has capsized and gone upside down, and now WE are attempting empire-building from the wrong end, and the end results are going to be predictable if we don't wise up and pull back - just look at Russia during the late 80's and early 90's to see how it's gonna go.

Putin is Russia's Reagan. I never thought I'd ever say that back in the 80's when Putin was a KGB operative, but here we are... and if we keep pushing it and meddling where we don't need to for the sake of empire, Putin is going to kick our asses, HARD - HE DID learn from OUR mistakes, unlike our inability to learn from theirs.

Our soldiers are top-notch, the best in the world... but their individual abilities mean a lot less without effective leadership, which they seem to be almost entirely devoid of. Afghanistan is a case in point - we had the Taliban whipped, on the run for their very lives, because in the early stages, we fought it smart, and steamrolled them using Afghan man power. Had we continued that course, let the Afghans retake their own country with our assistance (as opposed to interference), we'd have won in less than a year, and Afghanistan would be better for it today. Instead, we went the Russian mistake route of sending in massive infusions of troops, viewed by the Afghans as "invaders", and kicked our own asses, just like the Russians did before us. We learned nothing from their mistake, and so repeated it. The political commisars in State dept then decided that "regime change" was the order of the day, to reform a foreign population into our own image - a population that wanted nothing to do with our image in their turf.

I said it then, and I'll say it again - we should have just assisted them in retaking their own country from the Taliban foreigners, and then assisted them in rebuilding an Afghanistan that the AFGHANS wanted, not a "democracy" export they want nothing to do with, which is alien to their culture. Instead, we mucked that all up, just as the Russians did before us.

Iraq should NEVER have happened - Bush took his eye off the ball in Afghanistan and invaded a nation that didn't stand in need of invasion, making more enemies than necessary out of former friends. Look where that has taken us - if you can't see it, just ask an ISIS trooper.

None of this is 20/20 HIND SIGHT - I said it all way back then too, and what I had to say fell on deaf, but "patriotic" ears.

All hail the American Federal Empire - watch it fall, as a shooting star to the ground.

And the band plays on, oblivious.