[NormsRevenge]

... and to think we saved their bacon in WW2.

[calex59]

and to think we saved their bacon in WW2.

Truman should have listened to Patton and blown their a**es off the face of the earth when we had the chance.

[GOP_1900AD]

Putin could counter imperialism by shutting down the Kremlin, and getting rid of all the Soviet and Russian Imperial symbols.

[Frank Sheed]

Isn’t this saber rattling due to an election coming up pretty soon? I thought I had read that the Russian people want to hear that their leaders are playing tough with the U.S.

[TChris]

Mr. Putin, you should look up the psychological concept of "transferral of guilt". (I'm no psychologist, but there's some official term like that, I'm sure.)

It's the fact that the USA is absolutely anti-imperialist that has you foaming at the mouth. The idea that the US would dare to curtail Russia's imperialism by helping smaller countries defend themselves is simply maddening to you, isn't it? ...Pootie?

[M1Tanker]

Russia has the delusional and highly dangerous paranoia associated with needing an enemy at all times. The ‘need’ for an enemy is almost “1984ish” in its intensity and insanity. It really is sick and almost funny (in a Dr Strangelove way), until one realizes that Russia does have the resources to lash out and attack anyone.

Their paranoia is also projection. They want to be the imperial nation they once were, but cannot.

"Dangerous, Demented and Armed" pretty much sum up Russia.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

Because most, and I absolutely mean most people who hold elected office are not very qualified to do anything other than run a campaign, we are losing the worldwide war of ideas and perception. Putin has not come out strongly against, and is in many ways complicit with the destabilization of the world that Korea, Iran, China, and others are responsible for. We don’t call him on it. That’s unacceptable.

Privately, if Bush is anywhere near the kind of leader many of us have given him credit for, he is telling Putin that if he wishes to escalate into another ‘cold war’ we will bury him. The public response should be a vehement reminder to the world that the US is a champion of freedom, and that countries that stifle alternative opinions, such as the old USSR, the current regime in Iran, and even the ‘new’ Russia under some of the recent policies of the Putin government are the biggest threat as agents of imperialism. I can hardly believe sometimes how inept our elected officials are. I know they don’t represent the brightest of society, but come on, they have to be capable of more than what wer’re seeing. Aren’t they?

[Centurion2000]

... and to think we saved their bacon in WW2.

No, we didn't.

[SF Republican]

LOL - we lost 500,000 Russians lost 21,000,000 some savings. Does the missile shield violate the ABM treaty?

[Dead Corpse]

Er... which Nations have we taken over? We tossed the Taliban out of Afghanistan and Saddam out of Iraq. We didn't do it to take those Countries over as vassal States like Soviet Russia tried to do.

All this "empire" rhetoric rings increasingly hollow...

[4woodenboats]

How ironic that Putin is using the development of a new multi warhead missile to convince us not to put up a missile shield.

And what arms race would Russia be qualified to enter? How many missiles can they build before their economy implodes - 2? 3? I think it's all they can afford just to track down their defected spies, past and yet to come. We could probably neutralize this threat just by offering guest worker visas and time shares in Cabo to anyone currently working in their missile programs.

[ZULU]

Putie, Putie, Putie Putie.

Jorge El Segundo said he could TRUST you!!!! Why are you being so NAUGHTY??

[EGPWS]

President Vladimir Putin issued an acerbic warning Thursday to the United States, saying the recent test of a new Russian missile was a direct response to US actions and condemning "imperialism" in world affairs.

Ciphered, Democrats are a majority and a "lame duck" is in charge so I can beat my chest.

[wearearepublic]

Miz Pelosi, Don't you think it's time to send barney frank over to calm Mr. Putin down?

[Inwoodian]

I thought Russia was broke and couldn’t evev pay their military. Seems a little economic imperialism is in order.

[Alberta's Child]

I'm going to cut Putin a little slack here, because I suspect there is far more to this than meets the eye.

If you want a real eye-opener, do an internet search on the background of a group called the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus (they used to be called the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, and I suspect they changed the name when they started to get some unfavorable attention after the Beslan massacre). ACPC has actually sided with the Chechen separatists against the Russian government, and the group's membership list includes a bunch of familiar names from various positions of influence in and out of the U.S. government over the last 10-15 years.

Elliott Abrams
Kenneth Adelman
Bulent Ali-Reza
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Eliot Cohen
Midge Decter
Geraldine A. Ferraro
Frank Gaffney
Richard Gere
Douglas Ginsburg
Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
Robert Kagan
Max M. Kampelman
Thomas Kean
William Kristol
Michael A. Ledeen
Robert McFarlane
William Odom
P.J. O'Rourke
Richard Perle
Richard Pipes
Norman Podhoretz
Stephen J. Solarz
George Weigel
Caspar Weinberger
R. James Woolsey

[Riodacat]

I guess I don't get it.
Putin is obviously doing what he thinks is in HIS country's best interest - not ours and that's the way it should be.
We would be very fortunate to have politicians which do things which are in OUR best interest --- unfortunately that's not the case.
BTW, in WW2 we didn't save their bacon. It's probably fair to say that by destroying the best and bulk of the German army, they saved US hundreds of thousands of casualties.

[Rembrandt_fan]

You wrote, “... and to think we saved their bacon in WW2.”

While no closet Stalinist, I think I’m safe in making the claim that Soviet Russians bore the brunt of German military might in WWII to the tune of 30 million civilian and military casualties. If anything, Field Marshal Zhukov’s ‘Always Attack’ dictum kept the heat off the Western Front, saving countless Allied lives. Your statement has no historical validity. The Russians are not the French.

Insofar as Putin’s aggressive, anti-American agitprop is concerned, Putin knows that even the finished American missile defense shield is not intended to ward off an all-out ICBM strike by a first-rate (or even second-rate) military power. He’s making nationalistic noise to divert the Russian people from a corrupt, increasingly authoritarian domestic policy. Another Russian journalist thrown from a balcony or shot in the head? Kasparov and other anti-Putin activists thrown in jail? Rattle the saber at the Americans.

[RightWhale]

Now repeal the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty and open the Land Office.

[M. Espinola]

"and to think we saved their bacon in WW2."

In 1939 the Russians and the Germans were close friends while they were both carving up Poland. It was only after one brutal dictator stabbed the other in the back did the Russians come crying to US.

Each passing day demonstrates Putin's 'inner KGB'.