Russia is celebrating their Victory Day, and they’ve brought out all the big guns: literally. And the big missiles, too. It’s all very impressive in a belligerent kind of way, but there’s something that seems somehow insecure about it when they drag out all the big weaponry. It’s like they’re trying to compensate for something with all those big phallic missiles and artillery. I mean, don’t get me wrong; it’s scary and everything, but it reminds me of a midlife crisis sports car writ large. It’s clearly a gauche, ostentatious show of force designed to impress, or perhaps to cover for some inadequacy. Or at least, that’s how it seems to me.
All the communist countries do this (Russia used to be communist, but not anymore), and I have to wonder if this is designed to impress or intimidate. And if it’s designed to intimidate, is it aimed primarily at foreigners, or is it aimed at their own people to keep them in line?
We here in America do not make such vulgar shows of military might in parades for all to see; we do it in cable television documentaries on TLC, History, and the Discovery Channel.
(No offense, Russia, I hope: I just call them as I see them.)
