A leading think tank founded by the godfather of neoconservatism Irving Kristol, father of Iraq War architect Bill Kristol, gets hot and heavy in a recent publication talking about the top ten “killer weapons” in the war hawks next project – war against Russia.

In a publication by the Center for the National Interest, a leading US war hawk think tank, the staff of their editorial pages laid out their belief that a war against Russia is increasingly inevitable and began to game plan what weapons would ultimately kill the most people in such an ensuing combat in one of the most grotesque examples of warmongering in recent memory.

"Between the never ending conflict in Ukraine, the crisis in Syria and now allegations that Russia has engaged in cyber hacking against America, relations between Moscow and Washington have reached a low not seen since the darkest days of the Cold War," said The National Interest, the think tank’s glossy magazine.

In predicting the possibility for "some sort of open conflict," the publication is careful to denounce the idea that they are openly advocating for some sort of military incursion in what reads like a wink and a nod – "While no one certainly dares wish for such an eventuality, taking stock of America and Russia’s military assets (in a magazine and online publication available for the public?) is important," reads the editorial.

The article starts with Russia’s Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker-E calling it "by far the best operational fighter aircraft Russia has produced to date" noting the aircraft’s "high altitude capability and blistering speed" along with its advanced maneuverability thanks to the aircraft’s 3-d thrust vectoring.

The Center for the National Interest also appears to be concerned with Russia’s Amur-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, the advanced T-90 tank (noting that the Armata will be an upgrade, but I guess they are postulating war before that tank comes into service), the supersonic BrahMos anti-ship missile, and Type 53-65 wake-homing submarine launched torpedoes that they see as a threat to US Navy surface ships.

By comparison, the think tank ranks the fifth-generation stealth F-22 Raptor fighter jet (they must not be too confident in the $2 trillion F-35, yikes), the array of US missile defense systems, the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), and the B-2 bomber while suggesting that “US allies” are their fifth dangerous weapon.

Yes, that’s right, a 20-year-old fighter jet and some nukes seems to sum of that state of the current US war machine in the eyes of the defense analysts at the Center for the National Interest. Not a whole lot to write about there, it appears.

Why a leading think-tank is postulating World War III even going through the effort to enumerate US allies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia in intricate detail despite what appears to be a shocking diminution, by the Center for the National Interest’s own accounting of US military assets goes beyond rational contemplation, but in the bowels of the defense establishment there seems to be a clamoring by a new generation of hawks for a war they can call their own – why they have their sights on Russia, who knows?