Lent Post: Russia, Germany, and the Chess Game of the Ages

Salvete.

Well, the chess tournament ended this morning; congratulations to Super Grandmaster Li Chao for winning the tournament. Now, back to work (as I listen to more chess).

I've had German friends and I've had Russian friends. I'm friends with an immigrant who was born in Moscow; I've had a friend going into the navy, about whom we've always joked about him defecting to the German navy. I know Germany and Russia well enough to give my honest opinion about one of Yahoo's most recent articles: "Cold War kids Merkel and Putin square off over Crimean crisis."

First off, in terms of diplomacy, Germany runs circles around America. Yahoo apparently knows this.  How else would it manage to rise to the top of the European Union? Thus, Putin is far more likely to enter negotiations with Merkel. Yahoo knows this as well.

The problem that I see here is the tenseness and the historical significance of this. At no point in history since WWII could Russia and Germany look each other straight in the eyes and call each other equals. Even still, Russia could wax Europe like no tomorrow, like they attempted in Ukraine before diplomacy slowed them down. So now you have the head of Europe and the head of the former Soviet Union together in the same room. Either they will come to an agreement, which means that America will have less of an ally and more of an enemy, or things will take a turn for the worse, which means WWIII may happen the day after. This time, we would probably side with mainland Europe.

So now it seems like the only countries with sizable diplomatic sway are Great Britain, America (maybe), Germany, Russia, and China. (France doesn't count because France is France) Note that, besides India, I have listed the strongest nations of the world, and replace China with Japan, and you have the power players in World War II. We have an ambitious Axis and submissive Allies. How long do you think it is until WWIII? And how long do you think America will wait until we get into this one?

More on World Wars tomorrow.