Putin Threatens West Over Plan To Deter Missiles - WSJ.com

Putin Threatens West Over Plan To Deter Missiles - WSJ.com

The big bad Soviets are back, but with a difference -- Putin is much more dangerous than the relatively cautious, sclerotic old men of the Soviet Union. he has more money at his disposal (thanks to the high price of energy) and is not influenced by the horrific Soviet WWII experience, which held back the Soviet leadership from taking global revolution too far (and in fact, partially as a result of this mindset, they were better at controlling nuclear technology proliferation than the West was). the Soviets are attempting to convince the Syrians now that Israel intends to attack them and that they'd better preempt (just as they did in '73), they are arming Iran with anti-aircraft weaponry (even while they slow the pipeline on helping Iran's nuclear effort), and they are playing their effectively anti-American role almost everywhere on the international stage. No wonder that Defense Secretary Gates has been reaching out to the Chinese lately on military cooperation (while our political leaders push them aware over the downside of globalization).

Putin looks more likely to act like some James Bond film super villain than his Soviet predecessors did. Is it possible that Putin will put Iranian fingerprints on an attack of American forces or interests in Iraq, the Gulf or Europe that is calculated to send us to war against Iran, thereby further making the US unpopular in the world as the big bully, bleeding us and also taking care of an annoying and potentially dangerous Iranian nuclear problem,cutting them down to size to give the Russians more ability to reassert control in the Arab world? It might sound like something from "24", but with this Russian dictator, it is distinctly possible...