A photo from the Russian Defense Ministry website showing Russian bombers dropping their payloads on targets in Syria. Moscow's intervention in the Syrian war has increased tensions with Turkey, but has also served to drive a wedge into the NATO alliance. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service
Spiegel Online: Putin vs. Erdogan: NATO Concerned over Possible Russia-Turkey Hostilities
In Syria, the danger of a war between Turkey and Russia is on the rise. Officials in Berlin are worried that the situation could become an uncomfortable test case for NATO while Moscow seems intent on sowing divisions within the alliance.
It was a year deep in the Cold War, a time when the world was closer to nuclear war than ever. There were myriad provocations, red lines were violated, airspace was infringed upon and a plane was shot down.
The situation was such that an accidentally fired missile or a submarine captain losing his cool would have been enough to trigger World War III. It was 1962, the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis -- an incident the current Russian prime minister finds himself reminded of today. At the Munich Security Conference last weekend, Dimitri Medvedev invoked the danger of a new Cold War. "Sometimes I think, are we in 2016 or 1962?"
Officials in Berlin have likewise been struck recently by a strange sense of déjà vu. The mood is similar to how it was at the beginning of the Ukraine crisis, a time when everyone was reading the new book from historian Christopher Clark, "The Sleepwalkers," about how Europe stumbled into World War I.
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Update: A "Nervous" NATO Fears Turkey, Russia May Soon Go To War (Zero Hedge).
WNU Editor: We are not reliving the Cuban missile crisis .... Western policy and strategy have already failed in the Middle East, and there is no interest to develop a new strategy on what to do next in the region. But Turkey may change that .... much to the chagrin of everyone.