Posted on 07/07/2009 12:43:19 PM PDT by libh8er
It is a start. The honesty, dignity and respect shown by the President of the United States of America was a refreshing change to the arrogance, boorishness and callousness of the Bush regime and provides a scenario for a reset in relations and a genuine spirit of partnership for the future. An excellent example for the wider world.
Barack Obama comes away from Moscow with a handful of documents, which could be summarised in a nutshell as no more than the beginning of a process to reduce the nucear arsenals of the greatest nuclear power, the Russian Federation, and the second greatest, the USA and also the permission to fly troops and equipment over Russian airspace to Afghanistan.
Apart from this, little else tangible. There is still the question of NATO expansion to the east, something which Russia was promised on several occasions would not happen if the Warsaw Pact were to be discontinued and which promptly took place, a most monumental lack of respect, absence of character and a barefaced lie. There is also the question of the missile defence shield on Russia’s borders, which is an intrusion into the status quo established between the parts over the years.
However, what there is now after the visit that did not exist before is a spirit of cooperation. President Obama promised to continue studying the plans and left the door open for a possible change of mind given that the situation changes with regard to Iran. Was he saying “Give me an Iran without the capacity to produce weapons-grade nuclear power and I will not build the shield?”
To highlight, President Obama’s careful choice of words in behaving as a polite guest would be expected to, a sharp contrast to the sneering insolence from Condoleeza Rice, Bush and Cheney over the last eight years which basically soured the relations to such a state that they hit a 15-year low last August, when Georgian troops trained by US military advisors launched a cowardly act of terrorism against South Ossetia, slaughtering nearly two thousand Russian civilians.
President Obama leaves Moscow more in the spotlight outside Russia than inside (many people did not even know the visit was taking place and the TV stations do not attach a great importance to it) but the first step has been taken, the first stone cast towards mending relations and building bridges, not walls.
Truly we now have a US President with the stature to call himself worthy of his post on the threshold of the 21st Century, someone whose global vision appears to be nearer to Moscow’s, which has always been that of a multilateral world working together in fraternity and mutual respect.
We can indeed reiterate the words proferred in this column after the election of Barack Obama: Welcome, friend! Now let us move on to the actions...
The Pravda was savaging Hussein until his meeting with Medvedev and Putin. And now suddenly they do a 180.
Reminds me of the evening that Billy Jeff Toon told us the Chicoms no longer had their missiles pointed at us.
I thought Obama was grovelling at Russia’s feet.
Must be parallax error.
So what’s a little mutual grovelling among friend?
Must have fired Baghdad Bob.
Now that is just ridiculous.
"During the last years we have been working on strengthening Russia-U.S. cooperation. Although there were differences between our countries, I always valued your openness and sincerity," Putin said, congratulating Bush on his 63rd birthday on July 6.
"With special warmth I recall your hospitality in the Crawford ranch and your family estate in Kennebunkport," Putin wrote, referring to their 2007 meeting at the Bush family vacation home when the two leaders went fishing and ate lobster.
Bush had said he "was able to get a sense of his soul" when he first met Putin and since then their warm rapport has helped limit the damage from a series of rows that returned ties between their administrations to chilly Cold War lows.
Pravda - the official Russian organ of the Putin party.
Is it common in Russia for men to have hyphenated names?
His real name must be Timofei Bankrovich Khincheyev.
Obama was licking the boots of Putin....
They: scrap MIG-15. We: scrap F-22 and F-35
Obama-Putin Agreement Improves Peace?
"DO'H!"
The Russians know that Obama loves adulation and particularly if they compare Bush unfavorably to him (that’ll get him purring like a pussycat). Then they’ll take him to the cleaners.
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