The Economic Nationalist

From today’s Washington Times:

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine—Russian President Vladimir Putin surprised the Bush administration today by offering to allow a U.S. missile defense shield to be installed in southern Russia instead of Eastern Europe.

Assuming that the Russians are serious, this is potentially a major development. The single greatest error the United States has made in foreign policy during the post-Cold War era has been in our repeated, thoughtless provocation of post-Soviet Russia. Following a prudent period of inspection, consideration and reflection, the U.S. should probably seize this offer with both hands.

We defeat the immigration bill last week, then find an opening to Russia this week? It goes well with America.

Some will believe this a Russian ruse, designed to put part of our missile defense under Russian control during some unforeseen future European crisis. Mr. Putin is not stupid; this indeed is probably part of his intent. However, if America has learned one thing in recent years it is that there are real limits to American power. The U.S. simply is not going to launch a nuclear strike on Russia to save Poland. If not, then U.S. anti-missile sites in Poland are of limited strategic use to us against Russia, anyway. Of much greater strategic use is a friendly Russia.

There may be a sign that the Russians are cynically manipulating us here, but if so then I do not yet see it. It is not the Cold War any longer. The simpler explanation is that the Russians are even more interested in containing Islam than we are, and that they want to find a way to align our country with theirs in the matter. At first encounter, Mr. Putin’s offer seems to fit this straightforward explanation.

HJH

This entry was posted on Monday, July 2nd, 2007 at 2:59 pm and is filed under Foreign policy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.