I agree with the general thrust of criticisms made against President Bush regarding this comment from early in his Presidential first term.
Nonetheless, it is useful to provide some context for the statement. The statement was made after 911 with a visit to the Crawford ranch. Bush was using one of his strong diplomatic suits of ingratiation to basically back out of major agreements made under the Clinton administration. Most importantly, Bush backed out of missile defense treaties that guaranteed Russia that we would not develop such systems.
Bush’s gregarious ingratiation style was a way of compelling the media to accept his hardline against Putin as legitimate. This was functionally useful to allowing the US to break liberal bilateral agreements with Russia while appearing legitimate.
I do not think Bush fails to appreciate the aggression and absurdity of Russian policies since that time.
McCain’s statement about Putin is more accurate— we should see the KGB in Putin.
I have NEVER trusted Putin! He sways when he walks like he is King of the World. Once KGB AWAYS KGB. It was not a good thing for Bush to say. Sometimes we have to keep our feelings,emotions under wrap,especially when dealing with someone like Putin. What he is doing now is no surprise to a lot of people.
Nice recap. I think it’s also likely that about that time ras-Putin was thinking, I ahm goink to get you for this one day, Gay-org.