Regarding the “Last Man Standing” theory: I have long believed that Russia, China and France were playing a game where they attempt to bait the U.S. into costly efforts that weaken us with little cost or risk to themselves.

Now I have no problem with our removing Saddam. Removing Saddam and the necessary rehabilitation of Iraq is a very expensive and time consuming project for the U.S.

Cultivating Saddam and growing him into a monster that we had to destroy cost Russia, the Chinese and the French nothing. All they had to do was jerk us around at the UNSC and make money selling weapons and technology to Saddam.

France, for example, understood full well that Saddam was pursuing nukes but they also understood it would be the U.S. and not France that would have to deal with Saddam’s nukes. Put another way, they would get the money for arming Saddam and we would get the body bags and the French were copacetic with that outcome.

I guess my point is that I believe that what all of these countries (i.e., Russia, et al) were up to was no more complicated that attempting to exhaust the U.S. to the point where the U.S. was just too worn out to compete AND THEN they could begin to make moves that the U.S. would require fresh energy and stamina to counter.

Put another way, Russia’s support of Iran is just geopolitical rope-a-dope. I believe that Russia and China know that the the U.S. will not permit Iran to create nukes. This means that Iran will never present a nuclear threat to Russia because we will destroy Iran at much risk and cost (and maybe begin another long, expensive rehabilitation effort) and it will have cost the Russians basically nothing.