[jhpigott]

while i agree with your assessment and disagree wholeheartedly with the policies of Clinton and Bush on the “Kosovo” matter, the fact remains that Putin/Russia’s options are limited.

Outside of moving around some military hardware, Putin is not in a position to change the equation from a military standpoint. Now, he could apply pressure in several different spots to see if we’ll budge

[libstripper]

What I really can't understand is the absolutely irrational idea that the U.S. could gain anything worthwhile by deliberately poking a stick into Russia's eye over this Kosovo thing when the Russians are entirely reasonable in not wanting an Islamofascist pustule in the middle of eastern Europe and when they have always regarded this kind of thing as a direct threat to their national security. Although they don't have much in the way of viable military options in this situation, they have a host of very nasty non-military options, like, for example, encouraging North Korean and Iranian nuclear ambitions. Our Kosovo policy was (Clinton) and is (Bush) pure madness.