Our present CinC is not intellectually prepared for a stiff game of Risk.

An opposing head of state flatters him, gives a convincing imitation of sincerity and a firm handshake, and Trump "knows what's in his soul". A year later and we have Russia violating the INF treaty because Putin knows Trump won't call him out on it.

He is folding, knowingly or less likely, unknowingly, right into Putin’s agenda. By dropping out of the Iran deal, he has taken any incentive they had to not develop nukes away. By dropping out of the IMF he has put not only the US, but much more so Europe at great risk. Russia now has no need to even try and hide their nuclear missle program. They have little incentive to stop incursions into neighboring countries nor their expansion and alliances with the worst countries in the Middle East. Iran and Syria will be more than happy to align with Russia while we are losing allies other than Israel thanks to Cheeto’s ham handed foreign policy. Not sure we can survive another two years of his reign.

Trump is driving us back to cold war as fast as he can and we are letting him. His actions call for him to be removed from office now before more damage can be done Republicans please wake up and help us.

The Oligarchs existed before the fall of Soviet Communism, the new world merely allowed them to become open about it and to never fear being shot by the state. Today they just have to bribe their way out of it.
If managed properly, Russia would become the premiere superpower and economy. But as always the elite farm the proletariat like mushroom - keep them in the dark and feed them shit.
Putin's Russia is currently in a precarious state. What it needs is another Cold War to boost their failing economy. And someone just stupid enough to be easily made to think they doing the right thing. And Trump is more than stupid enough for that role.
Russia will need to borrow money to rebuild its Nuclear arsenal so that the world remains at peace. Now there is threat of war, that will happen. As they re-arm. The USA will need to do the same. Both arms dealers will make money and the world can tremble for a few decades just in case it gets out of hand.
Putin can play his hand that Trump won't live long enough or remain in power to deploy his new toys
and whoever follows him will be stuck on course. This buys Russia time, and like chess they are in it for the long game.

I agree with you about Trump and the threat of future cold war strife. As for the old one, I remember being made aware of it in school when we had "drop" drills and the regular siren tests on Friday mornings, but I never felt a day-by-day threat such as you described. I guess I knew it in the back of my mind, but it wasn't something I consciously thought of very often.

I was a back-room 'Cold-Warrior' towards the end of the Cold War era. I knew full well that if shit hit the fan, my call up papers were in the office safe. Next stop BAOR (British Army of the Rhine) and short haircut and some camouflaged clothes followed by a Soviet PoW camp if I'm lucky! If I stayed where I was, I'd be turned into a black shadow on the floor as the Rooskies nuked where I worked.
To be serious, once the INF agreement is out of the way, then we could descend into a real shooting war as future tempers become frayed leading to someone doing something stupid. Perhaps we should also follow the power and money. Who stands to benefit from this? Was Trump just doing his Russian masters bidding? Could Trump have simply been out-manoeuvred by the far more skilled Russians, causing him the pull out thus, making the USA the bad guys?
What this can do, is give Putin an excuse to carry out power grabs along his border states by political intervention and then direct invasion once a destabilisation of the EU has happened following Brexit.

The big companies that make weapons will prosper.