TW: They may have a very bad attitude and Putin has played a pretty weak set of cards well but they remain largely feckless. And those on the Right here in the U.S. that would like to stir up Cold War 2.0 are foolish as we have plenty of other matters with which to deal. I remain hopeful that at some point Russia will wise up (with appropriate outreach from the West) and join closely with us to combat our true challenges (e.g. jihadism, relative economic decline).
From Tom Barnett commenting on the attached NYT piece:
"Note how, now, Putin's strong words and hectoring are reduced to merely promising his people that Russia won't suffer the same bankruptcy and international humiliation of 1991 and then 1997-98--meaning his core accomplishment is now being put at risk.
That's why the hysterical crowd on Georgia over here were wasting their breath--the correction was preordained. Adding insult to that financial injury would have accomplished little but useless enmity that simply complicated the negotiations to come over more important matters.
The grand strategist picks his battles carefully, and remembers that the clock is always on his side if he's smart enough to keep adding friends and reducing his enemies load.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/world/europe/21putin.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
No comments:
Post a Comment