Look, I understand what you’re saying. I don’t think folks place the right emphasis on Putin. Yep, he’s a real problem.
Did we do anything to mitigate the problem? Did we reach out to him? Did we try to develop a better relationship with Russia. Did we continue to treat Moscow’s leadership with respect, in the aftermath of the Cold War?
We could have done so much more to toss them a bone once in a while, treat them as global players. Instead we just laughed as it went through it’s unavoidable growing pains after the fall of the U. S. S. R.
We could have held summits. We could have had exchanges. We could have pushed the idea that Russia and the U. S. has much more in common with our peoples, than Russia and China?
Yes I think Putin is problematic. If we had a Reagan in the office, he could have been handled so much better, and I think it would have made a better global player out of the guy.
Granted, he would have had to have been kept on a short leash, but that’s better than what’s taking place now.
It has been over twenty years, and one president after another has ignored Russia. Now we get this idiot stick, and Russia acts out. Who didn’t see this coming.
Worse yet. The Russians are stuck with him after his fourteen years of playing the President for Life Third World role. It’s not our fault though. Really. Don’t lapse into all faults in the world are ours thinking. I don’t blame America first because a former KGB Colonel aspired to take over Russia to seek a revanchist dream. I mean how is he different than Milosovic who went from Commie to extreme Ultra Serb Nationalist? He’s not. He needed a theme. I’m sure he’d agree that Russia’s pride was wounded by the world not treating Russia like it was a success story, but it’s a failure because of the Tsar, the commies, and the Putinistas, not because of anyone else. You might as well say when Obama’s policies fail that we should ignore that and treat him as a success because his dad’s was from Africa. Irrelevant.