Russian Bitch-Slap

Yikes. It's bad enough that the Bush/Cheney/Neo-Con Bully Offensive did little more than expose how vincible our seemingly invincible economic and military power truly was. And it's also bad that we're relegated to begging tiny nations I've never heard of for additional troops, all in the name of continuing the charade of the Iraq War being multi-national; particularly since the Bushies really just wanted to go it alone in the first place, and thought any multi-national presence was unnecessary. But the All-Mighty Neo-Cons have now gotten us publicly bitch-slapped by the Ruskies!!?! This is just too much.

I mean, these people cut their teeth on Soviets. Condi herself has supposedly written an expert book on the subject. The terrorists were just the post-Cold War consolation prize after the Soviet threat sort of fell apart overnight. And yet now I read of our Secretaries of State and Defense being forced to wait for over half an hour before Putin "harangued them as though they were underlings." Yowtch. Bagnews has the visuals on that one.

The article I linked to acts slightly confused as to what's going on, but has it right with this:
Also, there was the oddity of why there wasn't some prior understanding that disagreements would be kept private, while public statements would be positive even if they were vague to the point of meaninglessness. That, too, often is the pattern for meetings where agreement is unlikely on major points of contention.

Instead, Putin brusquely derided the GMD plan to Gates and Rice in public.
For Putin, this is understandable, and richly rewarding. It makes him even more popular with the Russian populace to hammer Americans, seeming to return the Moscow regime to the glory days of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, when it was the only superpower to rival the might of the United States.

As well, Putin's coldly dismissive, perhaps even contemptuous, attitude toward Americans plays well in Iran, a rogue nation with which Russia has extensive ties.

I have no idea why they think this is an oddity. The truth is that America got screwed over by the Neo-Cons Bully Agenda, and now they're discovering that everyone hates bullies. As well as discovering why their predesscors refused to follow the neo-cons' idiotic advice of trying to bulldoze over all opposition. Even Patron Saint Reagan realized what fools these people were, and he was in the early stages of Alzheimers at the time.

The truth is that for all the bluster these people have always given for demanding that America take a harder stance against all other countries, it's obvious that they've done nothing but soften us up. And now two of our top officials are being harranged by the Ruskies and can't do a damn thing about it. They played out all our cards four years ago, and so we can't even bluff anymore. We've become the punching bag of the world, and rather than forcing everyone into the Big Bully's corner; we've made it a win-win situation for any dictator and/or madman to win support from his people. All they need do is denounce us and they score bigtime, and the best we can do is try to bribe them to stop. Thanks George Bush. Thanks media for giving him to us.