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No he wasn't. Bush has played it quite smart.

Let's say Bush had done what all the knee-jerk armchair CIC's are screaming he should have done, and restarted a cold war public stance with Russia. It would only have heightened the portrayal of Bush as a belligerant warmonger, which while ridiculous, would have been bought by a larger number of the US public. Instead he did the PR buddy/buddy routine, which helped to reduce the above image to the average Joe. Besides getting us some help in the WOT after 9/11, it now makes him more of a sympathetic figure. He tried to trust Russia, and Russia is now letting him down. If he had taken the cold war position, the aid to Iraq news could be spun as simply common adversaries helping each other. Now it looks like Russia pulling a doublecross.

We would have done little different under a cold war approach. What are we going to do, bomb Russia? A cold war approach wouldn't have prevented it, and in fact the collaboration might have been greater. But this way Bush has called out Russia, just like with Germany, France, and the UN. Don't confuse public stances with letting one's guard down.

Bush has a pattern of dealing with adversaries, and how he has dealt with Russia is just another example of such. I'm surprised how many Freepers continue to miss this.