This is CBS I In The World, I'm John Bachelors.

Reporting from Defense 1, Russian jets playing chicken with US planes over Syria.

Air Force Central Command reports head-on passes.

Denies Russian state-run media reports US is doing it too.

I welcome Katrina Vennonov, the editorial director and publisher of the Nation magazine.

Who remembers the Cold War as I do as a constant series of threats, of provocations, of escalations,

of backing up and then coming forward again as if you're going to prove something.

It came to a lot of catastrophes.

The Vietnam War was part of it.

The Korean War was part of it.

And in the end, the end of the Soviet Union.

But now, Katrina, a very good evening to you.

I don't mean to talk Cold War II.

It's just that this story struck me as so representative of the futility of this contest

between NATO and Moscow, between Moscow and Washington.

And in Ukraine, we have a battle space that's defined by endless numbers of casualties.

The New York Times says both sides put together, wounded and killed, now 500,000.

That's the future Katrina.

Is anybody listening that this will come to more grief?

Good evening to you.

Good evening, John.

I think the, seems in the last week, there's an emerging consensus that the Ukrainian

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