I wish you were correct but you're not. We don't have a bunch of secret agencies out of control as you put it and I don't know what you base that on. Yes, we have Guantanamo (Gitmo as you put it), which is a bad solution to a bad situation. And I don't see us running around wantonly killing and torturing folks.

The world may want a "peaceful social gathering" as you put it, but, unfortunately, some countries don't. There are countries that welcome the election of Obama because they think it weakens our resolve.

Srdjan, it boils down to this: In 1991 when Russia needed us we immediately gave them $200 million in aid. We continued aid in subsequent years...but....in the past several years Russia has rolled back democratic reforms and has actively persecuted any opposition to Putin. They tried to assassinate the leader of the Ukraine. They poisoned and killed a foe in Britain. They launched a cyberattack on Estonia and, apparently, continuously attack our sensitive sites.

If anything, Srdjan, we've shown restraint. You can believe all the "we have peace" BS you want but the truth is that Russia, and other nations, are overtly and covertly attacking us.

You can go on and on about how "nice" Russia is and how nice the rest of the world is but the truth, the obvious and undeniable truth, is that these folks are jockeying for power and trying to knock us down.



>>Srdjan, you are dead wrong.
>>
>>NATO expansion has been supported by the Bush administration but it was the candidate countries themselves who pushed for it. They see it as a hedge against possible future Russian imperialism. I can understand the traditional Russian paranoia about potential adversaries on the border but to say that this is a construct of Bush is silly. Also, Russia is already an associate member of NATO, in case you were unaware.
>>
>>A "friend in the new democratic Russia"? Have you been sleeping the last 10 years? The Russian government is moving more and more towards fascism and away from democracy. They are imprisoning or killing political adversaries. They have a youth movement called "Stal" which harrasses dissenters and intimidates political opponents. In come circles it's called the "Putin-Youth", analagous to the "Hitler Jugend".
>>
>>Oh, did I mention the military missions to Venezuela and Cuba? Or the sale of arms to Iran? Yeah, that's peaceful.
>>
>>We don't need a "peace at any price" approach to Russia. What we need is a carrot and stick approach: We're your best friends when you are friendly but piss us off and we are going to be your worst enemies.
>
>Are you fiendly ? To whome exactly ?
>
>I did not say it was solely Bush policies. Clinton did that as well. Durring the day he was dancing with Yeltsin
>while overnigt varous 'activities' were taking place in the Russia's neighbourhood.
>
>Democracy ?
>Man you have Gitmo, Rendition squads, whole underworld of secret agencies gonne mad / out of control
>Number of killed, kindapped, tortured under Bush administration runs in what __________ ?
>And you are talking about Putin's Russia being this or that ?!?
>
>Whom did you sell your guns last 10 years ?
>And you still feel that Russia is somehow 'evergreen bad guy' and you should maintain standoff with them ?
>
>Where have you been ? Things changed arround the world.
>It is simply time to turn new page in international relations. Carrot & Stick no longer work.
>There isn't any carrot left! You are only one left with the huge stick vawing in the air
>in a world which refuses to be your warzone. (Hence support for Obama all over the world)
>
>World wants to be peacefull social gathering.
>Majority of US people realised this as well, and this is I believe what they voted for.
>I vote for that to;
>
>Peace