New Cold War Belief Growing

CSM Just After I posted Yesterday.

Hey folks,

The Emails are going nuts. I have A LOT of new information to talk about on the topic of Energy and Drilling, along with the Gang of Ten. From the NRCC, an Energy Expert, to a good friend that found some interesting information out. Even a cool little Video starting Nancy Pelosi herself. But that will have to wait until tomorrow.

What I do want to talk about is this piece from the Cristian Science Monitor. It was posted just after I posted Yesterday's Daily Article Russia Georgia War Not a Surprise

I talked about how I've been telling you that there is a new Cold War brewing and the fact that Putin wants the Soviet Territory back. I also told you that Russia is not, and will not be our friend. They are attempting to blame us. Well, according to CSM - Russia's cold-war mentality

A new Iron Curtain is being drawn around Russia. It's not so impregnable or wide as the Soviet one. But Moscow's willingness to war with NATO-aspirant Georgia sends this clear message to the expanding West: Thus far, and no farther. Given Russia's strength, the West has few options.

Neither the US nor any other NATO country will fight Russia over Georgia's two tiny separatist enclaves – South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia invaded South Ossetia Aug. 8 after Georgian troops tried to reassert influence there. Meanwhile, Russia's sending reinforcements to Abkhazia. Both territories have been protected by Russian peacekeepers since the early 1990s, when they broke from Georgia in bloody rebellions.

We now have learned that Putin is not stopping there, but continuing into Georgia.

The US is bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who wants war with Russia over this?

Neither does the West have much diplomatic or economic leverage with oil- and gas-rich Russia, whose autocratic regime has broad support from a population satisfied with stability.

As Russia's swift and deadly military response in Georgia shows, the West has underestimated – indeed sometimes aggravated – Moscow's fears about growing Western influence eastward.

Over the last year, Europe and the US pushed ahead with Kosovo's independence from Russian ally Serbia. While this may have been the right thing to do, it happened over the Kremlin's vigorous objections. And the US has not relented on anti-missile installations in Poland and the Czech Republic.

But if others underestimated Russia's determination to control its "near abroad" – and perhaps no one miscalculated more than Georgia's pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili – Russia grossly overestimates the threat of the West's eastward march.

NATO is not an anti-Russian military alliance. The EU has improved the economies, governments, and lawfulness of its new eastern members. This benefits Russia as an EU trading partner and neighbor.

When he was Russia's president, Vladimir Putin accused the West of reigniting the cold war, but it is actually Russia that's stuck in the cold-war mentality.

Like I said. LONG before many here.

Bullying through energy blackmail and now tanks and bombers, it reaches for its imperialist past and believes it requires a buffer to protect itself from threatening democracies. It would love to get back, or more tightly control, parts of Ukraine and Moldova, the long-disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, and parts of central Asia.

The West can best respond by starving this cold-war mentality – and weaning itself from Russian fossil fuels. If there is nothing for Moscow to fear in NATO and EU expansion, its members should not act as if there is. Russia deserves a strong rebuke, but at the same time, the West must be careful not to feed Russian nationalism.

EVEN MORE reasons for us to Dill Here, Drill Now.

The arguments to be made to Russia now must be ones of reason: Its support for separatists can come back to bite it (think Chechnya); and is violating another country's sovereignty something Russia would want for itself?

Putin does not care.

This must be part of a patient strategy that may, in the near term, result in Georgia having to give up its enclaves in exchange for peace. But for the West to abstain from the cold-war game appears to be the only way, over time, to win it.

Folks, this, Little Hitler rising in Iran, North Korea {Although appearing to want to play nice right now} and of course the continuing threat of Islamofascists, we NEED a Leader who will LEAD. Not only America, but the rest of the world. We need someone with experience. Someone not afraid of polls and or what some other extremists may think of us. Someone with courage, wisdom, and the steadfastness of Reagan. Not someone who spent 148 days in the Senate and has a Foreign Policy Adviser that likes to quote Winnie the Pooh.

Peter

Sources:
OPNTalk - Russia Georgia War Not a Surprise
CSM - Russia's cold-war mentality