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Jon Markman
Editor's Note: Jon D. Markman writes a weekly column for CNBC on MSN Money that is republished here on TheStreet.com.
U.S. generals may have had a "don't ask, don't tell" tingle of a different sort when they saw photos of a bare-chested Russian President Vladimir Putin snapped on vacation in Siberia. American military officials have come to believe that the ex-KGB officer's newly aggressive stance, shown even more convincingly in some steps the buff leader has taken of late, is intended to provoke the West into the sort of confrontation that some in both sides' militaries yearn for. The end of the Cold War in 1989 may have been great for the nerves of the citizens of the U.S. and Russia, after all, but it's been hell on wheels for the warriors. Russian generals have suffered repeated embarrassments in a long-running guerrilla battle with separatist groups on the country's southern fringe, while the Pentagon has been drawn into maddening battles against hit-and-run insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Morale in both formerly proud armies is at an all-time low, and patience is wearing thin. What better tonic for military leaders on both sides -- not to mention, ahem, defense contractors -- than a massive new arms race ginned up and sold to the media? Neither side really wants bloodshed, but both are salivating at the opportunity to sell the need to prepare to their respective citizens. National-security threats are as useful for political campaigns as they are for weapons-industry investors, and it's no coincidence that both countries have major elections on tap next year. In a moment, I will tell you about the U.S. defense contractors most likely to benefit investors in the coming arms race of the 2010s, but first let's take a quick look at how we got here.
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