Putin is a Russian. Russians are either at your feet, at your throat, or intensely studying you to determine which way to move. There’s really no other way to deal with them.
Obama and his “reset” was as ill-advised and unrealistic as Carter and his support of Khomeini. There was never any realistic chance that either of them would be interested in any kissy-faced makeup because Khomeini had cultivated his resentments and hatreds for decades, while Putin had watched what he considered the mightiest and most far-reaching extension of Russian hegemony collapse into disarray and decay.
Both blamed the US then. Both had (have) firm and consistent reasons to dislike the US now, and both have separately come to the sober conclusion that the US is more useful (for any number of reasons) as an enemy than it would be as a friend.
The last is a point that Carter, Clinton, and Carter never managed to accept no matter how hard they tried. Carter thought that the downtrodden of the world would love him if he knifed the Shah. Clinton spent years and mega capital tongue kissing Arafat to get the Pallies to accept peace with Israel, and Obama? Yeesh... that putrid pussy-whipped POS has shown more flexibility than can be found in an unexpurgated and fully illustrated Kama Sutra. Is there a single US ally he has not shafted or a despot he has not bowed to?
All that brings me back to Putin, who is remarkably easy to understand if you just think like a Russian. What do Russians prize most? Respect. What do Russians desire most? Order. Is Putin raising Russia’s standing in the world and imposing order at home? Yes. Therefore, Russians not only accept and praise him, he is practically worshipped. If he crowned himself the Tzar, they would be in ecstasy.
No, America does not need a Putin, but we do need a leader. Unfortunately for us and the free world, what we have is Obama.
Funny how ‘truisms’ are recycled. I used to fish air out of Montauk Point NY. If the weather was bad the captain would say. ‘ This is Montauk, if the the weather is bad, wait half an hour’.
An Efriend in Oklahoma told me. ‘This is Oklahoma, if the the weather is bad, wait half an hour’.
Back in college, 45 years ago, during political discussions the ‘truism’ was. ‘GERMANS are either at your feet, at your throat, and if they're at your feet, they're looking at your throat ‘
Of course at that time WW2 was only 20+ years ago and WW1 was only 20+ years before that.
And a good chunk of the world considers the US the great satan. As far as the future if Russia in the world, we can stop there aggression a just by having a strong US. zer0 as Chamberlain needs to be replaced with a Churchill.