LordJim wrote:I keep thinking of the Firefox from the movie
There is a connection between the two planes - and it is not a visual one. In the film it is a metaphor of the machine, to symbolise the dehumanisation that the(-then) Russian regime impose upon their people.
- similarly, PAK-FA is the augur of the current regime's industrialisation strategy which is totally lead by endless money being poured into the military-industrial complex (the rationale here is that it is by default hi-tech and just like from the NASA space programme the benefits will somehow miraculously be transferred to the rest of the industry/ society)
- of course the augur will also be the end of it, as money is only limitless due to the nature of it in Russia: it is dug out of the soil. But the expansion of that production has maxed out (ref: sanctions, they started with oil drilling tech, if anyone remembers that far back) and the price the output fetches has halved. Tough! - and nothing to do with luck.
What has this got to do with Sweden? Even they have opened up their blue eyes and woken up to what's happening right on their doorstep. Reorganised their army back into battle-capable brigades (they had various disparate battalions, only, whose main purpose was to be running around the world, helping to nib various crisis in the bud).
To linger a bit longer on the Swedish soil, I quote from New York times reporting (this is Dec 1992):
"1992 speech to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev's clear intent was to wake up his countrymen and the world to the threat now before us. But his dramatic warning in Stockholm is being shrugged off as a bad joke, a sophomoric hoax.
What Kozyrev did was to play the role of the next Russian foreign minister -- the one who might represent a government that has brushed aside Boris Yeltsin and the democratic reformers. Without copping out with "Here comes a fictional scenario," the 41-year old diplomat shook up the closed-door assemblage with a peek at Cold War II.
A new Iron Curtain? "Our traditions are . . . in Asia and this sets limits to our rapprochement with Europe." The ironic portion of his speech saw Western groups ominously "strengthening their military position in the Baltic States. . . ."
Cooperation turning to mischief-making in defusing the violence in the Balkans? "The present Government of Serbia can count on the support of great Russia," said the "next" Foreign Minister of Russia.
War with newly independent Ukraine? "We will firmly insist that former Soviet Republics immediately join a new federation or confederation."
That sat 'em up, all right.
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No, it didn't. Not the Swedes, nor most of those who were taking part in the Conference. People simply believe what they want to believe. They may call their jobs policy making, take highly paid for it... and it is just sad to watch.
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)
