Russian FM: There is currently no cold war between Russia and the U.S. - Polidicks

[QUOTE]The situation and tensions surrounding NSA leaker Edward Snowden are “an anomaly” in relations between Moscow and Washington, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. There is no ‘Cold War’ between the two countries, he added. The remarks come after Sergey Lavrov's meeting with US State Secretary John Kerry as part of the so-called "2+2" talks in Washington, in which Russian defense minister, Sergey Shoygu, and US Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel, also took part. The Foreign Minister once again stated that Russia acted in accordance with its own legislation and international law when it granted temporary asylum to CIA former employee. He also reiterated that the US has never signed an extradition treaty with Russia. The current talks are taking place amid an escalation of tensions between Moscow and Washington, with Barack Obama announcing the cancellation of his September visit to Russia and personal meeting with Vladimir Putin due to severe disagreements on a number of issues including Snowden - as well as missile defense, the Middle East and human rights issues. [/QUOTE] [url]http://rt.com/news/lavrov-kerry-snowden-syria-303/[/url]

But the US wants there to be one so that they can justify a 700 billion dollar defense budget in peace time. [editline]9th August 2013[/editline] I'm gonna correct myself. Total budget for all matters of defense, not just the DOD, comes out to $1.030–$1.415 trillion

I wonder how the U.S. will respond to his provocative statement.

Man, wonder where we could get if we decided to pay off that war debt if they freed up some cash, instead of just having gradually growing interest that will eventually take up over a quarter of the GDP. [editline]9th August 2013[/editline] government debt interest is already like, 1-5 percent of the GDP. Gotta think about that huge amount of wasted money.

The US has relied on a war economy since.... Actually holy shit, between the two world wars, when were they NOT operating on a wartime economy?

[QUOTE=pentium;41776162]The US has relied on a war economy since.... Actually holy shit, between the two world wars, when were they NOT operating on a wartime economy?[/QUOTE] the great depression

[QUOTE=Paul McCartney;41776001]But the US wants there to be one so that they can justify a 700 billion dollar defense budget in peace time. [editline]9th August 2013[/editline] I'm gonna correct myself. Total budget for all matters of defense, not just the DOD, comes out to $1.030–$1.415 trillion[/QUOTE] Nah, they'll just send the CIA to sow the seeds of yet another bullshit war against who ever is next in line.

[QUOTE=pentium;41776162]The US has relied on a war economy since.... Actually holy shit, between the two world wars, when were they NOT operating on a wartime economy?[/QUOTE] The US had a history of buildup and demilitarization around wars since its inception, with the first anomaly being the cold war. There were times in the early 1800's that the ranks of the US military were so thin, most active duty personnel were locked into their ranks, some as low as corporals and privates, because there was simply no room for promotion. Before that, many forts would simply be abandoned between conflicts. The US isn't quite as xenophobic as it was back then though, and practices a lot more force projection then it did back in the 19th or early 20th centuries. To be fair though, the US military, active duty bodies wise, has been in the decline since the 50's. For example, the USAF back then topped at 1 million personnel compared to about a third of that today. Likewise, we've recently scaled back from the targeted size of being able to 'fight two wars in two theaters simultaneously.' Now a lot of this can be accredited to the modernization and ever shaping face of war, but the military is leaner now then it has been in years.