Dr. Strangelove-McCain

Everybody knows by now that whenever some international conflict occurs, either at home or abroad, a Republican gets his wings. Unfortunately, the war between Georgia and Russia is no different, and John McCain can already be heard from the mountaintops excoriating the former Red Menace and rattling sabers a la Dick Cheney. This plays so well to McCain’s advantage for many other reasons, for one this is at least a familiar adversary to him; it’s not as hard as trying to remember Sunni from Shiite from Kurd from whomever brown people the US happens to be decimating at any given moment. His tough talking about the Ruskies hearkens back to the glorious time when the US was actually a respected superpower, not just some mere hollowed out shell of one. No one seems to be able to put together that McCain has the exact same policies, if not even more bellicose and fascist rhetoric than Bush-Cheney, many only see this seemingly affable old maverick, war hero, POW of a senator who couldn’t possibly be any worse than Bush-Cheney… Right?... Right?! It is assumed that because he was in the military, he must have an extraordinary grasp on National Security, Foreign Affairs and the sort. This has time and time again proven to be demonstrably false. I fear Mark Penn was right in those leaked memos and e-mails from his time with the Clinton campaign; it may not be until 2050 that a candidate like Obama is truly viable and given the same “fair shake” as a candidate like McCain.

Putin eyes full merger with Belarus

From Russia, With Love...

When (if ever) will this ridiculous neoconservative administration start to realize that this country no longer wields anywhere near as much clout it did, say, six years ago?

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/opinion/24wright.html

I guess Richard Wright does a more than adequate job of addressing this contemplation, so I will simply have to digress slightly:

I posed the quasi-rhetorical question above because the US is once again ruffling feathers in Eastern Europe by proposing a new missile defense system, not in any way intended to remind us of the good old Cold War days I’m sure, to have bases constructed in Poland and the Czech Republic.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/world/europe/24gates.html?ref=world

What is Defense Secretary Gates and co. going to propose next? “Let’s see if we can’t send a man to the moon!”

Why must these people be so fatally stuck in the past? “Let’s re-invade Cuba! Surely we’ll get rid of Castro this time!”

America cannot afford to keep pissing off allies or even countries slightly less than allied. Take Russia for example, who is not entirely happy with our most recent “let’s forget the past and be BFF!” For better or for worse, Russia has rebounded extremely well from the chaos ensued after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. The passing of former President Boris Yeltsen is symbolic in that he got the ball rolling to help bring Russia where it is today. While his rule was a rather tumultuous one, marked by a great deal of uncertainty as to whether or not democracy could/would work in a post-communist state. This question actually still remains as signs of a return to its iron-fisted ways of the past are certainly manifested in ex-KGB operative, President Vladimir Putin.

Whenever a former leader passes, it inevitably evokes memories and reflections on the time said leader ruled, but the Bush administration obviously cannot get it through their ever so thick skulls that times have changed and Russia is no longer some charity case. I realize Bush ‘looked into [Putin’s] eyes’ or whatever and thought he saw good and decency, but we all should know by now how outstanding a judge of character he is.

“I don’t recall…”