Failure in Iraq, catastrophic decline of the US reputation around the world, trillions of dollars in deficit and more to come, Abu Graib, Gtmo, war profitering - you name it - the current government destroyed everything the world used to admire about the US. What does such a destructive gvt do to distract? Oh, dig up some old ghost. I suppose it works for the uninformed. All that Russia has to do to reveal the true nature of the last US craze is ask a couple of rhetorical questions and make one suggestion. Question: where are the poor little European countries dying to be protected by the missile shield? (Even the Polish are overwhelmingly against it - the one country where Bush does not get egged immediately). Another question: do your own citizens know that they are paying for your crazed adventures bound to be failures rather than cover their own medicare? And a suggestion: we shall accept your missile shield on our border if you accept our, Russian, missile shield (say, against North Korea) in Tijuana. We can look each other in the eyes and trust each other again! And by the way, a country that abandons habeas corpus and finds the Geneva Convention "quiant" can hardly lecture anybody on lapsing on democracy. Allow us to laugh out loud when you try that again! Lena Ivanov

I believe that we commoners of the world owe Mr. Putin our thanks for elevating public scrutiny on the scandalous "missile defense shield." For years, we have heard that this system does not work as advertised but the media apparently grew bored with that story.

I want you journalists to follow the money. The Bush administration openly maintains cozy relations with known war profiteer, Halliburton. I suspect that a look at “missile defense” contractors would reveal a raft of Bush cronies – including Lockheed Martin. The “star wars missile defense system” has shown itself useless for military defense but a gold mine for its contractors. Americans stand to lose more in this deal than the Russians.

Thanks for bringing it up.
John Touchet (pron. hint: think sword fighting)
touchetjw@earthlink.net
Austin, Texas

I believe its about that and our hypocritic attitude. For anyone to think that we would continue to have a subservient Russia, on the heels of a very pliable Boris Yeltson, is a major political mistake. We have always had a problem accepting countries who develop backbones, or are able to pull themselves by their bootstraps (North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, etc); we prefer them bare-feet, naked, and begging for small change. Russia had no reason to continue honoring an agreement other signatories had abandoned, so as to pursue hidden agendas. We just have to learn to accept that the "bones have started to rise again". Besides, its about time we pay more attention to the many problems we have at home.

Exactly where is your home? North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba or Moscow?

Felix...A subservient Russia? I guess you are not informed as to how the cold war started. When the war ended in Germany, Russia was swarming over eastern Europe annexing every country in it's wake. Berlin was divided into four sectors. US, Britain, France and Russia. Russia was determined to drive us out of Berlin. After trying every avenue of propaganda and outright threats for three years that did not work, in 1948 they cut off all highway, waterway and rail transit to the city. The german people were starving and freezing to death. No electricity, no heat, no food. The 'hypocritic' Americans started an airlift that would last a year. They built runways and flew in tons of food, coal and machinery so two million Berliners could survive. Eighty pilots lost their lives, but West Berlin did not fall to communist rule because Berliners had real backbone, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and worked with the US to rebuild their city and country. So the Russians built a wall in the middle of the city and the cold war began. The same wall Ronald Reagan told Gorbachav to tear down. What bones do you think have started to rise?

No. it is too costly for relations to freeze up again.

Ronald Ray-Gun deficit spending on defensive & offensive ordinance put a nail in the USSR's coffin. But Ronnie forgot about his tax cuts for gas guzzling SUVs, "StarBuck" society (drive thru everything), and general corruption/co-option of the US Government. So Putin now has a loaded hand full of wild cards thanks to his vast treasures of gas & oil which the US & Europe has & will continue to offer up their treasuries. What goes around comes around and in the US it's a double ugly right now. What better time to challenge RayGuns & BushWhackers!

Definitely. If Russia continues to tighten its grip on the everyday freedoms Russia fought so hard for under Gorbachev and Yeltsin, it will create a state that will unnerve some of our leaders to the point of reaction. We all know Bush's' "satellite shoot-down" was a warning to Russia and other countries. Putin was right to scoff at Bush. On the other hand, we may have an opportunity with new leadership in January to solve our problems with Russia and put fears aside. A superpower must not be alone, and a superpower does not have to mean military might.

Russia wants to be relevant, therefore they are using confronting with the US to feel or rather gain "respect" or be fear in the world. But no, it has not means to catch the US. Bu US engaging in th e2 gulf wars, it give us the edge in any new development, strategic knowledge and capability. Russia is far from US military power. Russia just need a little respect. So they can feel good with themselves.

Since our politicians are too busy interrogating baseball players to even be aware of anything of substance and our population believes anything they are told, there is no reason to think the administration will do anything other than continue their deceitful and illegal ways in order to create more profits for certain companies and people. With that in mind, the inability of most Americans to find Russia on a map,and our self righteous behavior, I see no reason for there not to be a new "cold war." I do think, at this point, the Russians have a lot more sense than we do. I am an American. I love my country, but I do not trust our government and have no faith in this government acting conscientiously with any forethought. Maybe, when we are isolated from the entire world, someone here will realize something is terribly wrong.

Jimmy Gilliam
Palestine, Texas

Careful JG you might ruffle the feathers of some bald eagles (the one's who reside at the local land-fill)! The only comment I have is about Congress and baseball; try directing more anger against America's pass-time in general and the Commish in particular for the Congressional dilema. But whe you examine the whole tawdry affair, it just polarizes how bad every institution in America is currently. Oh, how in the world did a "question authority" type land in Palestine, TX? I thought that was Billy & Jim Bob Jump Back territory only????

I ended up here because I liked the trees and lack of cold weather, not the lack of thought processes. Listening to most of them talk for 35 seconds explains how our country is in the shape it is. This is very much law and order country which basically means whatever government or police (local or federal) does or says is only right and is the way it should be. To carry this back into the realm of a "cold war," since our leaders deem it necessary to bash the Russians, then it must be right and we have to show "them commies" that our way of life is the only one, because God's on our side. (Hello again, Bob D.) Sometime it amazes me how little thought goes into accepting the party line. That sounds the most ominous to me, but, given our educational system, it is no wonder that people do not think. Hopefully, there are enough people that learned to cogitate without educational guidance to shake enough good citizens out of their slumber, to consider the path our oligarchs are sending us, not only in relation to Russia, but to all other countries as well. Have a nice day.

I don't remember anything about the US aristocracy in American History so I guess we should have revisionist American History taught. I do know the founders were afraid of a foreign nobility infusing itself into the American fabric. Masters of War could describe the current aristocratic ruling class if it were not for their ability to screw that up beyond all repair. So I'll settle for just calling them Jack of All Wars-Masters of Nothing!

NO

They are absolutely in a state of Cold War, however this time it is not as global in its perspective. Washington and Moscow follow two different paths when it comes to the former Soviet satellite countries. The U.S. has strategic interests in almost all of them, paramount being Georgia because of the BTC pipeline. U.S. NGO’s along with George Soros, master of international dealings, have been pouring money into these former Soviet Union countries with the intent of pushing out old guard communist leaders from remaining in autocratic power. Lets be honest it is not typically for the reasons that you hear on TV, spreading democracy and whatnot, it is purely political and hence, economical. We don’t mind tolerating a dictator as long as he is not friendly with Putin, such as in Azerbaijan, but as soon as they look toward Moscow the NGO’s and Soros are their to start a resistance movement. Don’t get me wrong Putin is a genius and Russia really has never had a history of democracy, it is and always has been a country ruled by one man, either the Czar or the Party Secretary, or in this case a president that will become prime minister.

The US has no reason whatsoever to put pressures on Russia for a backdown from Georgia. The main organisation that must help in this conflict is the UN security council. There were no possible pressures put on the US at the time of invading Iraq on the basis of false intelligence allegations and without the U.N full consent to do so. The preemptive war doctrine initiated by Georges W. Bush is a very bad heritage of of US lack of morality of getting involved in other nations possible wrongdoings. It is a fact that the US is currently very weak and would never engage into a war against Russia. The best thing for the US to do is to begin showing the good example and stop acting as an hypocrite police of the world.

I believe we are heading toward a cooling of our relationship. While I certainly don't think we should cut off relations by any stretch, it is clear that Russia is moving into a direction that is not good for the United States and the rest of The World. Looking into the eyes of Putin is not sufficient to craft our policies and POV around. The Georgia situation shows how Russia has designs to elevate its role and influence, to the good or more likely, bad. Oil revenue is key to this. I thought this other piece from The World helped lay out the geopolitics and oil quite well and what is going on.

http://www...onomy.html

I also thought a recent Op Ed by Thomas Friedman on the USA's important global role, despite our mistakes, is worth noting. Do we want Russia controlling the international stage and setting the tone? I don't think so.

http://www...edman.html

No U.S. and Russia are not returning to the days of the Cold War. President Bush first off has a confused view of history. He compares World War II to the War on Terrorism and even goes so far as calling Islam "Islamofacism." Both are not the same thing or the same type of war. Islam is not an ideology but a religion. A brother religion of Christianity and Judaism. Because of the history Orientalism p.s. read Edward Said's Orientalism, when European writers and academics in the Middle Ages and 19th Century painted the Middle East and Islamic World in a negative light to justify colonialism and subjectation, Bush sees Islam in the Middle East and even in African countries where Islam has always had a home in need of immediate reform and modernization. And he means Islam as in religion not just Arab or African governments.
Now, Bush is comparing Russia to the old Soviet Union which was far larger and more beaucratic than Russia today. Russia has changed and so has the viewpoints and attitudes of ordinary Russians from the day the Soviet Union collapsed. Perhaps the U.S. is worried that it's loosing the powerful monopoly it had as the world superpower with challenges coming from China, the Gulf countries, Iran in Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere and now Russia trying to show its neighbors in the Caucasus and Central Asia that it can still be a regional power despite the U.S. trying to use its influences to garner favoritism and support from smaller and quiet countries.
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