Distractions only work if they're legitimate dangers.

Once again: Russia isn't willing to fight us openly.  They didn't during the last cold war.  They will not with this one.  What they did then, and are doing now, is using proxies to draw us out, thin down what we could throw at them, should we have to, and generally try to hedge in our influence.

But distractions only work if they're legitimate dangers, like the threats in the Middle East, South America, and Korea.

Middle Eastern Proxies

The Middle East, in particular, is a very good distraction.  Currently, we have the occupation in Iraq.  They won't need us to be there much longer--the Iraqi army is working up to Western European standards, and the majority of the people are happy with the government that they've set up.  They're working with their army and our peacekeepers to drive the radical jihadists out of their country.  

The downside to that is that, with our attention (and troops) out of Iraq, much of our attention will be free to shift...elsewhere.  Unless something else pops up to threaten us.  Something like Iran.  Or Pakistan.  Or Somalia.

Currently, with Russia's help, Iran is about to bring its first nuclear power plant online.  Beyond that, despite denials, the whole sane world believes that the only reason that Iran wants nuclear technology is so that they can adapt it to weapons tech.  No one knows how close they are to a bomb, but everyone is aware that the window for diplomacy is closing.

I'm wondering, since we're working on hunting the same bunch, why Pakistan has chosen now to decide they don't want us chasing the terrorists across their borders.  In fact, they've begun firing on our troops for crossing their borders at all.  Pakistan is fully aware that we, and they, are fighting the same enemy.  They're aware that this enemy is extremely dangerous, and that their top leaders' lives were only saved from this last attack by a last minute change of plans.   I don't see an obvious link, but the links between Russia and its former proxies were tenuous at best during the first cold war, and I don't have access to any raw data reports that were all that showed the links then, and probably don't even exist now.

I'm not fully sure that Somalia is, technically, part of the Middle East, or that Russia is involved in the way the issues there are heating up again, but the timing is awfully interesting, especially since Russia used a lot of rebel forces in their proxy wars against legitimate governments that were our allies.

South America

Of course, the loudest squeaky wheel in South America is currently Venezuela.  They've invited Russia to participate in naval war games in the Caribbean.  Russia has, of course, accepted in their attempts to create closer ties between themselves and Latin America--true to form with their re-emergence as a threat.  In fact, their ships are on their way.

Venezuela has also announced that it has plans to acquire military aircraft from China.  Actually, the announcement was that the plans for purchasing training and combat aircraft were now in the final stages.  Keep in mind that China, during Cold War I, was an ally of the USSR, and though they're currently a trading partner, they are neither a political ally nor even really friendly.  

North Korea

Once again, though I don't see clear links between Russia's renewed belligerent behavior and North Korea's, I don't doubt that it's there, behind the scenes.  North Korea's timing in determinedly pursuing nuclear technology--with which it has built at least one bomb--is too convenient for Russian interests to be a coincidence.

I think that Russia's likely up to something, something more than what they've already tipped their hands to.  Otherwise, they wouldn't be backing, publicly or privately, so many distractions that we, as a nation (and the rest of the world's peacekeeper), simply cannot ignore.