Iran actually spends less on their military (as a share of GDP) then their neighbours (and obviously) more than the USA, They never start wars. They had indigenous democracy not imposed on them by anyone (until the CIA overthrew the democratic government and put in a monarchy) Iran has been invaded by the USSR, Britain, and most recently Iraq. They may make a lot of noise about Israel, but its just posturing. Iran has never participated in any wars with Israel. When Iran wants to hurt another country, they support their dissidents with money and weapons, they have not gone to war. They support Hezbollah, Assad, and Iraqi Shiites, (and other Shiites) but they are remarkable peaceful in a dangerous neighbourhood. Their nuclear enrichment program was very suspect, but its likely to go the way of Taiwans, Swedens, Argentina's or Iraq's, not: Pakistan or DPRK

on the wikipedia page on the Crimean referendum, there is a pile of pro-Russian voices who are whitewashing the whole affair, claiming the monitors were valid though they were totally biased. Material I put up about the sketchy background of the monitors got repeatedly taken down. Some are Communist Party members, or Russian advocates. It seems clear that Moscow allowed in only a group of voices who would certify their sham referendum. The page does not say how the OSCE monitors were shot at by Pro-Russian militias, and tries to say the whole referendum was super legitimate.

Yes, and the lesson of the Anschluss was that it emboldened Hitler to pursue the Sudetenland. Putin may take the lesson that he has a free hand to deal with the 'near abroad', the former Soviet Republics, at least the non NATO-members. The message was less focused on the West, and more at Astana, Tashkent, Tblisi, Bishkek etc... It is Moldova who is most immediately threatened, as Transdinistria wants a Crimea-style referendum to join Russia. They like Crimea already have Russian troops there since Soviet times, that the Russians have never quite gotten around to withdrawing. (never withdraw from territory if you don't have to was Stalin's thinking)

Many countries are hunting for that money. Canada is trying to seize yanukoych's assets. It may end up like Gaddafi's assets in Canada and South Africa, returned to the Libyan government. A few solid assets for the Ukrainian government would have a bolstering effect, of propping up Kyev's current finances., something they could either liquidate or borrow against.

A nuclear propulsion system is only useful if the carrier is intended to go anywhere. It's mostly likely built to be sunk.

No, training is a very likely activity. I dont know what you mean by surprising a carrier, that doesn't seem to make sense. How exactly do you think a carrier prevents anything from getting close to it? They don't have force fields. A whack of missiles are essentially impossible to prevent from reaching a large target. It makes total sense that they would practice tactics to attack a carrier. Its an effective tactic to practice attacks on mockups before they could imagine they might be able to do it at all effectively. the US, Japan, other countries do these kind of exercises, and sometimes actually sink ships in wargames.

Probably less as a propaganda attempt, and more likely as war exercises. Its a totally logical policy to use mockups as practice. The US and other countries do this all the time. Its probably a very good use of limited Iranian defense money, as it will give them a much better idea of how to attack a carrier in an actual hot conflict.

Are you talking about North Koreas election or the Crimea's? it was about the same level of choice, nowhere could anyone vote to stay with the Ukraine in this sham referendum

did the US annex Iraq or make it a colony? Did they seize its oil and reserve it for Americans? Is Russia going to let Crimea be independent, and make its own decisions as Iraq does? The stupidest argument against standing up to Russian aggression is to say the US has at some points been aggressive. Thats neither here nor there. The question now is about naked expansionist Russian aggression and bullying. In this case, the US is not being a bully and aggressive, but needing for everyone to love her, and not make any difficult decisions that might piss anybody off.

The CBC and BBC have more independence then the media in Russia, in Russia the state owned broadcasters say the Putin line and only the Putin line, and nothing contradictory

He may find that he could not get Russians to go along with it. Even Hitler found it almost impossible to coerce his country into war, he practically had to drag them into war single handedly, and over the objections of many generals. Putin may find everyone is willing to follow orders, except to take the country into a crazy war.

And their lack of willpower. Berlin says they want to be the leader until they have to make hard decisions, then they wish they were in the backseat again just complaining about the driver

Andropov is Putin's idol, he sees him as the way he wish the USSR had gone

The thing is that Russia dumping all its treasury bills isnt going to cause a panic on treasury bills --- people will buy them right up, the problem is when there is a crisis in confidence, when people believe there will be a default, that things will get worse, that the bonds they bought will be worthless or worth less then now, but if Russia sells their assets, it wont trigger a crisis. The example you bring up, is not at all the same. The banking crisis was when all of a sudden banks realized they had way more worthless assets then they thought, for some of them it threatened their solvency. I dont think you can say it made any currency worthless -- all that money is still worth about the same. A few banks needing bailout money, and a drop in economic production, a short recession, none of these are the crisis' you seem to be describing, like an entire monetary system collapse/destruction of the entire banking system of the US. Almost every bank is still around it seems.

a fake vote where supposedly all the ukrainians and tatars also wanted to join Russia. Ya right. 97% approval is the kind of election result dictatorships produce, honest elections never get that result. Support for separation was 40%, so its a total lie that suddenly everyone wants separation.