Replies

Your response is well strange. It is full of a sort of frenetic hysteria and short on what US vital interests are at stake. Russia may have an unpleasant regime. Many nations do. There are currently what 2 1/2 communist nations, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela a very pale sort of. None represent anything much but third or fourth tier regional actors. The only interest Russia and Putin have in these petty regimes is that they can encourage them to do things to annoy the US. This strategy of trying to deflect regional players grudges towards this country is simply a way of returning the favor for the relentless meddling in the affairs of Russian borderlands the US has been involved in since the Soviet Union collapsed. China has a detente sort of relationship with Russia but the long term interests of those two giants over eastern Siberia are bound to end in friction and possibly conflict.

After the implosion of the Soviet Union the US had a very clear opportunity to develop a working relationship with the Russian Federation. Instead various players in the US intelligence community and cold warriors without employment in the beltway culture persisted in pushing an adversarial approach to Russia and actively encouraged border states such as Moldavia (which had never been a country ) to break away from Russia. The result has created the return of intense enmity in Russia towards this country and for some time ended any chance of developing a real working relationship with Russia. Russia by virtue of its size and resources is a great power and inherently of more consequence than any of the various border states. It is the interest of the US to build a stable relationship with those international players that matter just as it is in the interest of the US to continually maintain massively powerful military forces to instill the proper level of respect for the US.

The problems of the Russian borderlands are not our problems. At most these are the problem of the European Union just as were the problems caused by the collapse of Yugoslavia. There is no more vital US interest in the Russian borderlands other than possibly Poland than there was in the internecine battling between various ethnic factions in what once was Yugoslavia. Who rules in Georgia or even Kiev are at most of very limited interest to this country. The frenetic globalism you push is very much like that which helped launch the current Syrian tragedy. The US does have limited resources and it will be tried enough trying to contain the multi-pronged Chinese offensive aimed at ejecting the US from East Asia without having to try and refight the Cold War in Europe.

After the implosion of the Soviet Union the US had a very clear opportunity to develop a working relationship with the Russian Federation.

You reveal yourself to be a Soviet apologist. Actually, NATO has indeed been good to Russia. Too good. Rather than drawing down our forces, we should have strangled the Russians while we had the chance. Now the Commies, as seen here, are blaming us for Russian murdering and thieving everywhere they can.

After the implosion of the Soviet Union the US had a very clear opportunity to develop a working relationship with the Russian Federation. Instead various players in the US intelligence community and cold warriors without employment in the beltway culture persisted in pushing an adversarial approach to Russia and actively encouraged border states such as Moldavia (which had never been a country ) to break away from Russia. The result has created the return of intense enmity in Russia towards this country and for some time ended any chance of developing a real working relationship with Russia. Russia by virtue of its size and resources is a great power and inherently of more consequence than any of the various border states. It is the interest of the US to build a stable relationship with those international players that matter just as it is in the interest of the US to continually maintain massively powerful military forces to instill the proper level of respect for the US.

The problems of the Russian borderlands are not our problems. At most these are the problem of the European Union just as were the problems caused by the collapse of Yugoslavia. There is no more vital US interest in the Russian borderlands other than possibly Poland than there was in the internecine battling between various ethnic factions in what once was Yugoslavia. Who rules in Georgia or even Kiev are at most of very limited interest to this country. The frenetic globalism you push is very much like that which helped launch the current Syrian tragedy. The US does have limited resources and it will be tried enough trying to contain the multi-pronged Chinese offensive aimed at ejecting the US from East Asia without having to try and refight the Cold War in Europe.

Good analysis...bump