Reports of America's demise greatly exaggerated ( An ex-KGB agent engages in wishful thinking )

Desperate times call for desperate measures. No kidding. I understand why you took the collapse of the Soviet Union model added some wishful thinking and applied it to the United States. See Wall Street Journal article.

The Great U.S. of A is not the Soviet Union, this analogy doesn't work on this country. The Soviet Union was a collection of loosely assembled countries that shared little in common except ... well, actually with the exception of common borders I cannot think of a single thing that united them. Flag? Hymn? No, they were quick to disembark from the Soviet Union, turn the red flag into a doormat and erase the lyrics of the Soviet hymn from their memory.

Ukrainians, Belorussians, and Russians had something in common, but Georgians, Armenians, Tajikistanis, and Uzbekistanis were always looked at by Russians as secondhand citizens. Estonians disliked Russia, but don't blame them, they did not join the Soviet Union voluntarily. The former soviet republics were happy to return to the pre-Soviet Union state.

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Editor's note: A recent story in the Wall Street Journal profiled former Soviet KGB agent Igor Panarin's prediction that the United States will soon collapse. Vitaliy Katsenelson, who emigrated to the U.S. from Russia 17 years ago, offers a response.