Putin Youth Camp

[bokworker]

The dude in the foreground is about to be taken out by the girl behind him.... it appears she already took out one guy that you can just see with his feet and gun up in the air...


Can't trust chicks with high powered guns...

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by bokworker

The dude in the foreground is about to be taken out by the girl behind him.... it appears she already took out one guy that you can just see with his feet and gun up in the air...


Can't trust chicks with high powered guns...

i think what is funny is the guy in the foreground looks like his arms have never seen a day of sunlight.

[mr.jaynes]

quote:Originally posted by swake

I think the west would be very well served to not overreact here and to take a long term and non-confrontational position towards Russia. We do not want another pointless cold war situation.

Russia is a paranoid nation, and with good reason. Over and over in the last 200 years the west has gone to war with and invaded Russia. Napoleon burned Moscow, the United States invaded during the Russian civil war between 1918 and 1920. Russia had more casualties in World Wars I and II than any other modern nation. Almost 15% of the Soviet Union's population was killed in WWII with 26 million dead and another 15 million wounded. And that was just 60 years ago. Fear and hate of the west is very well ingrained in the Russian psyche, with good reason, and having potentially threatening western armies and armament on their borders scares Russians no matter their political leanings. And Putin is very Russian.

The eastern block of nations was a construct that yes furthered aims of Soviet world domination, but also was a defense line for the motherland. That defense line is gone. NATO is now in nations right next door and is growing and Bush's missile defense shield right next door is another indication to Russians that they have much to fear (again) from the west.

Weather Putin got spooked by western fortification on his doorstep and decided he needed a more unified and stronger Russia or if he it used as a pretext for recentralizing power is kind of irrelevant.  Our reaction is incredibly important and we have been again clueless with international relations. Bush was stupid to push the defense shield but having done so now we can't allow Russia to dictate where NATO and it's weapons are located. Bush has painted us in a bad corner yet again. The defense shield was always more about Russia than "terrorists" and is somewhat pointless since Russians are far from stupid and are well aware that while our Tridents, while not currently targeted at them, can be retargeted in seconds and there is nothing they can do about those subs.

We were beyond foolish in pushing/allowing the Russians to act defensive. Bush embracing Putin is also a kind of stupid tactic. The President of the United States should not be overfriendly to someone that is being hostile to us. Meeting was the right thing to do, but the sailboat was silly and the whole tone of the meeting seemed to take issues too lightly. This was proven to be the case by Russia's threat to retarget missiles just a week later.  Inviting Russian participation in the missile shield program is an interesting gambit, but seemingly offering to allow Russians access to our technology in the current situation is beyond belief stupid. Bush is simply clueless. He simply cannot leave office soon enough.

Evenso, the last thing the West should want is for Russia to have the same influence and power it had during the Cold War era. Also, while Russia may have been attacked and invaded in the past, they certainly have been aggressive in the past towards other nations too.