Yes the US, along with Australia, have been involved in usually UN sanctioned armed interventions. BUT that doesn't make Russia's current threats and aggression right.

A nuclear exchange is of course unwarranted even though it dramatises the arguments of the Left - who quietly support Bob Carr's inflightist views ;)

Plantagenet this not a left/right issue.It is about logic,common sense and seeing the truth.

Putin rightfully will not back down and if you want a full on nuclear war, keep backing the imperialist West since they want to control everyone on this planet. The USA has 850 military bases on this planet and no other country comes close to their military spending while they have 40 million of their people on food stamps and Obama continues to trash their Constitution and rights.

What will you do when bankers own all your assets ? They want to confiscate our deposits when the next big collapse happens. It is called "bail in" and it has been endorsed by APRA our banking control authority answerable only to the Private Bank of International Settlements. Our banks no longer answer to our Govts. What does that tell you ?

It was therefore..not only a nervous reaction..to the fact of flying around by the Russin bomber..which was common practice during the Cold War...The reaction of the Americans was due to the fact that most modern system,..especially its informative or radar part, did not work adequately...Therefore, there was such a nervous reaction to the whole episode.

After the incident,..the foreign media reported that "Donald Cook" was rushed into a port in Romania...There all the 27 members of the crew filed a letter of resignation...It seems that all 27 people have written that they are not going to risk their lives.

This is indirectly confirmed by the Pentagon statement according to which the action demoralized the crew of the American ship.

What are the possible consequences of the incident provoked by the U.S. in the Black Sea? Pavel Zolotarev forecasts:

I think that Americans are somehow going to reflect on improving the system “Aegis". This is a purely military aspect. In political terms, there is hardly any likelihood of demonstrative steps by either side. That is enough.

Meanwhile, for Americans it is a very unpleasant moment. In general, the missile defence system which they deploy involves huge expenditures. They have to prove each time that it is necessary to allocate funds from the budget.
..At the same time, the ground component of the ABM was tested in ideal conditions and showed a low efficiency. This fact is concealed by the Pentagon. The most modern component, the sea-based system "Aegis" also showed its shortcomings in the present case.

The system with which the Russian Su-24 shocked the American destroyer "Donald Cook" has the code name "Khibiny". This is the name of the mountain range on the Kola Peninsula in the Arctic Circle. "Khibiny" is the newest complex for radioelectronic jamming of the enemy...They will be installed on all the advanced Russian planes .

Recently the complex has undergone regular testing exercises on the ground in Buryatia...

Apparently, the tests which were conducted under conditions as close to real as possible, were successful.
Read more: http://indian.ruvr.ru/2014_04_21/Russian-Su-24-scores-off-against-the-American-USS-Donald-Cook-5786/

UOG thanks for the link. This is a big blow to Western Imperialist plans for a nuke war against Russia and China. Currently they do not have the military advantage.

For the moment our banksters will to continue to print more money propping up their derivative scams as they cannot afford a revolution from the masses and losing a war against Russia/China. Maths tells us that eventually money printing collapses economies and our pressititute media continue to ignore it. Their think tanks will be working overtime to sort out this major set back.

Will the dumbed down masses ever realise how they are being screwed ?

Most posts have missed Hendy's real objective which is to justify the $12 billion on the F35 Fighters which are required to meet Australia's commitment to the US policy of containing China.

One under God. I have tried to track down the source of these stories circulating about the Donald Cook incident , and Khibiny neutralizing the Aegis system. They seem to have originated from a blog site, and cannot be verified.
The Aegis system on US ships poses an immediate and real threat to Russia's security. It is the mobile form of the missile shield to be installed in neighbouring countries as part of NATO's encircling of Russia, and to which it is responding.