With help they can.

I'm writing from Russia, and you would not believe the attitude here. We all watched the horror on CNN live satellite feed - NTV, ORT, RTL all switched to CNN often without translation. Most people here had tears in their eyes, old babushki when they hear my accent grab my hand and tell me Bog khranit Ameriku (God bless America). After the attack two nights ago Putin spoke to tell the American people that the Russian people understand our tragedy, that they are ready to provide all help possible - even military assistance. He closed with Amerika my s vami (America we are with you).

Outside the US embassy there is a MOUNTAIN of flowers, from simple Russians. A bouquet costs several days pay, so it is quite a gesture. Even Zhirinovskiy is calling for Musselman blood and to help the US.

At Noon today in Moscow, an hour ago, they declared a minuta molchaniya - Minute of Silence, and the president asked all Russians to stop and pray for America. A few minutes ago I drank a beer with a colonel of infantry - Russian - he told me an interesting story:

Two nights ago when the Mujahideen in Chechnya heard of the WTC attack they made a holiday. They fired weapons, launched RPGs, and danced about their hideouts with glee. Russian forward observers detected the activity and several airstrikes and counter-insurgency operations were launched. They colonel reports that they were unichtozhili pol'nost'yu - completed destroyed. He says that they are ready to do the same in Afghanistan - they still have roadmaps ;-)

Bog Khranit Ameriku i Rossiyu!!! God bless America and Russia.

When this war is over, I hope we will be fighting alongside the Russians. They've had some miserable leaders and some bad governments, but when it comes to guts and endurance, Americans with any recollection of history have great respect for the average Russian peasant and fighting man.

So, even the bastion of communism hasn't been able to wipe God and prayer from the people's minds. It's heartening....

Thank you for this report. God bless the Russian people as well!

God Bless America and Russia. God Bless Putin and Bush.

President Bush's respectful behaviour toward Putin has reaped it's first reward.

I've heard that the Russian people have always been pretty much pro-American.
It's political "leaders" that set nations at each other's throats.
struwwelpeter, please thank your Russian friends for their concern...
their reaction will go a long way toward bringing Americans to realize
that the Russian PEOPLE are not the demons they have been made out to be.
(I've always really hated the media propaganda machine and how it deliberatly
manipulates public opinion...it's the source of much suffering in the world.)

Somehow, your linked account describing a nerd battling MPAA copyright issues and being disappointed in not being able to testify on the day of the crashes isn't terribly cogent.

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As far as the Russians: they pursue their own interests. Just as with Israel, we shouldn't forward their own policy aims in our own pursuit of retribution against worldwide terrorist networks. There is a lot of conflict in the world with Muslim states and peoples. Some of that conflict has nothing to do with terrorism. We need to contain the scope of our activities to terrorists and their supporters and their international network, a monstrously huge and complex task all by itself.

In foreign policy, no one is actually an altruist.

Remembering this simple fact keeps your priorities straight. The giant underground Russian complex they recently constructed and the peril posed by the development and sale of extremely advanced weaponry to China to use against America (who else?) gives me pause before I take any statement by the Russian government at face value.

Naturally, there are a great number of very warm-hearted Russian citizens whose support I welcome without question. I'm glad they support us in this matter.

My friends in the former DDR (now Germany's five new federal republics) told me that there were always more communists at Frankfurt University than in East Germany. More than a few Russians pine for the days of the party, especially the retirees who worked all their lives and now find themselves able to buy only a loaf of bread a day on their meager pensions, but even in its heyday, party membership remained below 5%.

Religion, on the other hand, was impossible to remove from the Russian soul. Only the most dyed-in-the-wool communist didn't have a minature icon stashed somewhere. Once Brezhnev, when talking about an arms treaty, let slip that "God will bless us" (much to the real commies' embarassment).

What the starpyory miss is the feeling of worthiness, the pride and patriotism which the flags and parades and space exploration of those days brought.

Russia and the US are not very far apart, psychologically. Jokes that I translate into German or tell to Englishmen get no reaction, but have Russians rolling on the floor. Both are huge nations built by the sweat and blood of brave pioneers, vast expanses of mountains and plains and deserts and mighty rivers. Both nations stood against Hitler, and were space-faring superpowers. Check out their music. Not such a foreign country after all.

Russia has no love for Islamic fundamentalists, and unfinished business in Afghanistan. Russia's aims and the US's coincide for now. But never be surprised that the US's goals are uniquely American, while Russia's are uniquely Russian. I ask Russians who don't appreciate Bush why they didn't take the time to vote for Gore, much to their consternation, and remind them that Bush is not president of the world, only the USA. Likewise, Putin is Russia's president, and I don't expect him to change their pissant visa policies to please me.

Jackie, Askel: Am I turning into a broken record yet?

Just wanted to thank you for this informative post on what binds the Russians/Americans. It was new to me-and refreshing.

Traveling around here I often feel that I've entered a parallel universe, an alternate America where our history somehow took a wrong turn.

Russians, to me, look and act more like Americans than Brits, krauts, frogs do.

An interesting mental exercize is to imagine what Russia would have been like if Washington's masonic brothers, the Dekabristy had succeeded in overthrowing the Tsar and establishing a republic early in the 19th Century. Very emotional to see all the masonic symbols in Decembrist cemetary in Irkutsk.

Even scarier to think that a Soviet-Socialist Hell is what the democrats wish for America even now.

Thanks Struwwelpeter. If only I loved listening to all my broken records as much as I do you.

From now on, I'll try my best to remember to substitute "Militant Atheist" for "communist".

Perhaps it will then become more clear how it is that there could be close ties and actual affinities among militant atheists, soulless capitalists and the Islamic "fundamentalists" whose perversion of the Koran is nothing short of Diabolical.

Russians, to me, look and act more like Americans than Brits, krauts, frogs do.

It's not just you. For all the starkly foreign aspects (particularly a language whose crossword puzzles have to have boxes as big as Texas) I truly was delighted to know I hadn't been crazy for feeling such an affinity for so long.

I have a picture for you of the one woman -- in all the world -- of whom I'm truly jealous. I'll post it soon.