Russia, the ventriloquist

I wish these little states would begin to realize the downside of being a ventriloquist's dummy: you always have somebody's hand up your @$$.

North Korea is re-starting its nuclear program--if it ever stopped--because we haven't removed them from the terrorist sponsor watch list yet. News flash, little country: we haven't removed you from the list because you've drug your feet and drug your feet about getting rid of the tiny little nuclear bomb you've built, and not building any more. I begin to wonder at the timing of this statement, though; it's after the Olympics, so Kim Jong Il the Pill isn't taking the spotlight away from China, but it comes at about the same time Russia makes another move in the explosive chess game/staring match with us. Are they trying to distract the American people? If so, it's likely because they've decided they'd rather be one of Russia's ventriloquist's dummies than step into the 21st century and become a free nation.

Iran has partnered with Russia for its nuclear ambitions since the beginning. Israel took out Iraq's sole reactor in 1981, and more than likely has plans (though I doubt they have much, if any, resemblance to what's been reported) to take out anything that Iran and Russia would build, in partnership, that could threaten it, Europe, and Western interests. (Incidentally, we've openly refused to sell newer jets to Israel that have that kind of reach. I hope we're doing it secretly, since it is in our best interests to.)

Syria did some shopping, this weekend, in Russia. Syria's tin god is in negotiations with Russia's to buy missiles. They're saying that this would offset the missile defense system that Poland and the Ukraine have agreed to host. This falls right in line with Israel's fears of a cold war in the Middle East. Once again, I believe it's more likely to become just another hot proxy war between the superpowers of the West and Russia, only this time, with a real ally caught in the middle.

Russia has decided to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent from its former satellite of Georgia, despite Western displeasure with the move--the territories are, after all, part of Georgia. Putin's puppet president says that Russia doesn't want another cold war, but are ready for one. Yeah, pull the other one. If Russia didn't want another cold war, they wouldn't have initiated bomber patrols off Alaska six months ago, threatened Western allies over missile shields to protect Europe from rogue Middle-Eastern states with nuclear weapons, or invaded Georgian territory over a specious, questionably legal excuse like "We're only protecting Russian citizens."

Stratfor says that Russia's actions are nothing more than cyclic--they take territory, get too big, lose it, regain power, and try to take it again--and that Georgia and the problems Kosovo faced in the 90s are related to this cycle, and offer a lot of useful background evidence to support that assertion.

Here's hoping that the UN doesn't get involved like they did there, or in other places they tried to "help."