Seems that some don't. Just because he's jailing homos, they seem to think he's uberkewl. He's not.
Some may. I don't think most folks do. It's one thing to disapprove of something and work against it. It's another to toss people in jail for it. I don't support that.
Now, is it better to have him as an enemy, or a friend at arm’s length.
That depends on whether he really is a friend, which is doubtful.
Which is why we don't turn the store over to him. Increase economic activity that will help the average Russian. Keep military and related issues out of it. Don't provide all our sensitive technology.
Russia has been invaded from the West. Sure it is leery of the West.
Oh, Good Lord, NOT THIS SH!T AGAIN. We had to hear this tripe all throughout the Cold War. "We need to make concessions to Russia because Russia has been repeatedly invaded and their paranoia is understandable as a result."
Complete rubbish. When did America invade Russia? Who's going to invade Russia now? Germany? France? Lithuania? Please be serious.Which is the most economically sound nation in Europe today? Which nation in Europe has the largest and increasing population of skinheads and neo-NAZIs? For something to be an issue, it doesn't need to be appearant like it will take place today.
In the early 1990s when some of us tried to urge extreme caution with our relations with China, folks laughed. Now look at what is taking place. China is emerging to be a real threat. That's a real growing threat. Who knows that Germany will be like in another twenty or thirty years? Russia has every right to be cautious. We had every right to be cautious too. We were to stupid to be cautious. Putin doesn't seem to be. That's what a nationalist should be, in service to his own nation. Unfortunately we didn't have a strong nationalist when folks decided to turn the keys to our nation's technology and financial future to China.
Again, nonsense. We hold Russia "as we hold the rest of mankind: Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends."
Yawn. And who said we didn't. Russia has a right to see things from their perspective. That is neither wrong or evil, as long as it is merely a cautious stance. I don't see Putin lining up troops on his Wester border, so I'm not sure why you're going balistic here.
What should we have done? Opened our checkbook for Gorbachev? Why? Give me some specific issue on which the US has "failed." Just One. And please don't tell me NATO expansion or missile defense. NATO is a non-starter. The countries of the former Warsaw Pact are sovereign nations and are free to make defense alliances with whomever these please. The NATO military posture has virtually no offensive capability, and Russia knows that. Russia knows perfectly well that our missile defense in Eastern Europe cannot possibly stop any significant number of Russian missiles. Russia is opposed to US missile defense in Eastern Europe because it limits the ability of Russian proxy states like Iran and Syria to threaten our interests. Russia wants to use those proxies to threaten Europe, while pretending its hands are clean.
Wow...Conducting some trade that is mutually beneficial is not surrendering to Russia. For the record I think we screwed ourselves royally by what we have done in China. I'm not advocating that. Trade in goods can be a positive thing if managed properly.
And while we are on the subject of "we didn't do enough," why has Russia repeatedly sided, both publicly and secretly, with China to undermine our efforts to keep Iran from getting a bomb, and to keep the NoKorea bomb program alive? Talk about being responsible for a bad relationship.
Well, for one thing it did so because we hadn't developed it to be a better closer ally of ours. I say we didn't, because we are the powerhouse. We can craftily direct how things go. It's not Russia's game. We invite it in, to play by the rules in a manner that is mutually beneficial. Once we have better relations, we make it known we respect the sovereignty of Russia, and will continue to as it peacefully joins the West to conduct trade and cultural norms.
You're going far afield here, as if I was a fan of the U.S.S.R. or Gorbachev. I'm fan of neither. We handled the Cold War as we should have. We didn't handle the aftermath as well as we should have.
The only alternative is for Putin to go ahead and align with China in perpetuity. Would that be helpful?
So, your putative theory of diplomacy is "give Russia whatever she wants in order to keep her from aligning with another country in order to get what she wants?" Wow. Brilliant. Logic much?
Please link me to where I stated we should give Russia whatever it wants.
I made a suggestion that was quite qualitative in it's focus / scope.