In all honesty- My theory is that the key is Russia.
Bush needs to grab Putz Face by the collar and make it clear- he needs to start ACTIVELY working in the best interest of OUR National SECURITY, or consider himself a FOE...
As long as Russia is able to get away with playing friendly while systematically doing everything possible to weaken us through business deals and UN dealings- everyone else will feel comfortable doing the same.
If the US and Russia come together... it kinda tips the scales a bit too much for all the "in yer face" antics of the enemy.....
just my take...anyway...Russia is not our friend...they will help everyone else bring us down - just as Iran, etc...
But we need to call their bluff on it and stop pretending we don't KNOW what they are up to.
Did you read the Newsweak article on the summit in Russia last week? Very telling i.e. Putti-putt.
I totally agree with you, but to be honest, I don't believe it will happen. Putie is so in bed with the Iranians that he would get wound up in the bedsheets if he tried to get out. Besides, he needs the $$$$$ badly. Make no mistake, Putie and Ahmadinnerjacket are best of buddies and they will stay that way, IMHO. Putie's nuclear scientists and engineers have been in Iran helping them for a long time. And our intelligence knows that. What will happen in the short term ...... who knows?????
I'd agree -- well, I do agree, I suppose, with your entire post -- but I think we've made that more difficult by failing to recognize his Chechnyan problems as "War on Terror" problems.
Admittedly, there are many issues there besides "Islamist terrorism," including Russia's political direction of late, but I think we should have been seeking common ground with them since 9/11. Instead, we've treated most of their incidents and responses the way the rest of the world has been treating Israel's this week.
Some of the same thing applies in our relationships with India and Pakistan. If elements within Pakistan are supporting Islamist terrorism outside its borders, we need to be "helping" Musharraf stop it. If he won't stop it, surely we can do things unilaterally without jeopardizing his friendship or his tenuous hold on power, which are important for us at this stage...
I believe Putin might come around very quickly on a lot of things -- like acknowledging and stopping his aid of the terrorists attacking us and our allies -- if we'd come around on that one thing. We urge Israel on in it's conflict with Hezbollah, but get stuck on "restraint" when Chechen Islamist terrorists kill Russians.
I'm no fan of this little slimeball or any of Russia's ex-KGB guys, and my thoughts on this issue have nothing to do with the "looked into his eyes thing" (he's ex-KGB, remember).
I believe, though, that there's gotta be a win-win deal, somewhere, we can offer him that will help him with some of his country's problems and get him -- and his country's resources -- solidly on the right side in the War on Terror. He's hurting, and he knows it -- his economy is down the tubes, organized crime is metastasizing like melanoma, and the aforementioned lack of respect for his terrorism problems has gotta leave a mark.
"As long as Russia is able to get away with playing friendly while systematically doing everything possible to weaken us through business deals and UN dealings- everyone else will feel comfortable doing the same."
Excellent, with all that's going on in the world I wouldn't have thought of that but you're right, they have been on both sides of the fence. "Know thy enemies"...hmmm