Putin's puppet to step down?

Russia's President Medevev has proposed, and gotten passed, an amendment to Russia's constitution, lengthening the presidential term to six years. Medevev will also probably step down to allow the puppeteer to rule from in front of the curtain. This will allow Putin, when he regains the presidency, another 12 years, during at least four of which America will have a president who wants to negotiate peace without the superior firepower to back it up, for fear that having the firepower will be seen as a provocation.

While I will concede that it could be seen as a provocation, we have the ability to take it far past provocation into deterrence. That's what Regan did in the face of the "evil empire." And, thanks to Regan's policies, the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s in the attempt to keep up technologically, using a command economy.

And we need to step up military spending on technology now--Russia's already beginning the game of oneupsmanship, placing missiles to counter the anti-missile shield we're placing in Europe to block irrational Middle Eastern nations' abilities to hit Europe with nuclear weapons. They're also the ones instigating the provocation by playing in our back yard.

We need to respond to these provocations--and we have to be prepared, and be seen to be prepared, to respond with more than words. I do not say we should not negotiate; however, we need to show that we have the ability to back that militarily before Russia will take us seriously.

I'm praying--hard--that our new president sees that necessity.