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Tuesday, Mar 28, 2023 - 23:04 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

To Win A Strange Game

The recurrences are coming in thick and fast now:


Turn 13, Action Round 4 (Team Red)

Team Red plays {Cub}/{Belarussi}an Missile Crisis for 2 Ops.


Call, raise or fold?
(Original sources: twilightstrategy.com, bbc.com)


With even the FAKE NEWS media getting around to naming it a New Cold War on the regular now, another old favourite classic has been given an airing, after a couple of references in earlier Turns. Back in 1962, the Ruskies (then indisputably the Team Red leaders) engaged their Team Blue counterparts - the U.S. - in a Mexican nuclear standoff of sorts, by parking ballistic missiles in the territory of Team Red underlings Cuba, within about 140km of Florida. One might of course argue that Cuba had every right to host whatever weaponry they wanted on their own soil, from the principle of sovereignty, but there was no way America was going to accept that, "sovereignty" be damned. After imposing a (to be Taiwan-style?) Blockade on the independent island-state, the threat of mutual annihilation was averted after a very tense month, by the Ruskies agreeing to remove their missiles from Cuba, in return for the U.S. dismantling their own missile installations in Turkey and Italy.

Given how the American uniparty establishment and their media machine appears to have converged on acknowledging Cold War II (while blaming Putin and Xi for it), one supposes there are few compunctions left about revisiting old Cold War gambits (alongside World War II comparisons), and Russia has duly announced their intent to station tactical nukes in Belarus (bordering Ukraine and several NATO states), after reaffirming their special partnership with China. Since tactical nukes have significantly lower yields than strategic ones, which are already within range of major European and U.S. cities anyway, this move doesn't really increase the existing nuclear threat appreciably, while skirting the line of their joint statement just made with China against nuclear proliferation.

If the Cuban Missile Crisis model is indeed being emulated by the Kremlin, though, Russia may simply be gunning for a propaganda victory in extracting similar nuke - or even conventional arms - withdrawals from NATO allies. However, it is difficult to see Team Blue backing down in these changed circumstances, with Russian prestige and reputation nowhere near their Soviet peak; the U.N. Nord Stream inquiry has been stonewalled despite the BRICS three in the Security Council standing firm, and it's looking like China will be trying to extract technical know-how from their junior partners, while trying to oppose the "Red China" label. Our Prime Minister - along with Malaysia's - has just been summoned to China for what looks very much like an Influence-flexing tributary mission, as Beijing continues calling the shots for Team Red.


1 Ops: +1 Influence in Israel (5/3). The shockwaves from Muslim Revolution continue to make themselves felt, with Israel now enduring significant civil unrest amidst the very real threat of potential diplomatic isolation in the region. Netanyahu appears likely to remain as PM whatever the outcome of the proposed judicial overhaul due to the nature of the Knesset, and in any case discontent at perceived U.S. "weakness" towards Tehran encouraging the landmark Chinese-brokered deal, seems to have set in. It has been pointed out here that Israel, while nominally in Blue, are (somewhat understandably) out for themselves even more than most other states from the condition surrounding their founding, and there's little question in my mind that if some Realignment with Russia/Team Red is what they think would (marginally) improve their odds of continued survival, that is how it will be.

1 Ops: +1 Influence in France (4/3). It feels like France has been just a little less enthusiastic on the Ukrainian proxy war than, say, Germany and Poland, and their mammoth millions-strong protest - including some police themselves - are a reminder of just how vulnerable democratic governments can be, to such mundane-sounding issues such as an increase in the retirement age, and to just 64 at that. Germany is concurrently at a standstill thanks to a mega strike over spiralling inflation (wait, they swore it was transitory?!), which might explain the hesitance by even stalwart European Team Blue members, to move away from Russian gas. If a (partial) disruption of a single year has led to this already, one has to wonder at what a sustained cut-off could bring...



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