“Both the islamo-nazis AND a re-emergent expansionist Russia under KGB Putin are threats to the US.”
I am certainly no apologist for Russia - my heritage is Russian-Jewish, so the Czars were none-too-friendly to my family, and the f’ing Communists stole everything that my great grandfather ever worked for and then made the rest of the family that couldn’t get out miserable for another 70 years. However, Russia is not expansionist. Russia, under Putin, is busy reassembling the Soviet Empire - which is, essentially, old Russia plus a bit more territory to protect against German invasion. The main point I’m making is that the Russians are a bit paranoid, having been invaded quite a number of times by the Swedes, Poles, French and Germans, and they just want to be left alone. Their feeling is that if they are big and tough, they won’t have to lose 1/10 of their population to war every generation or two.
We can work with that - let them know that we respect their sovereignty and their need for a feeling of security, but that we have similar needs. We’d be speaking to a receptive audience - provided that we meant it, and acted upon it. Also, we’d HAVE to maintain great strength to earn their respect, and to make them WANT to stay inside of their rather large cage.
Islam wants to take over the world, and kill everyone who won’t submit. Russia is manifestly and profoundly different from that.