Saturday, March 25, 2006
The Russians, that is. No one really thought any different, did they? The idea that the end of the Cold War would result in America and Russia joining hands and figuring out they could rule the world together just isn't happening. The long tradition of European geopolitics being dictated by power counter-balancing is still in full swing -- the 19th Century lives very well here in the 21st.
Russians aided Iraq, documents say
One of the documents, which purports to be a summary of a letter sent to Saddam Hussein's office by a Russian official, claims that Moscow had ''sources inside the American Central Command in Doha," the US military's headquarters during the war. It said Russia used those sources to convey American plans and troop movements to Baghdad.
Russia had well-known and extensive diplomatic and economic ties to Baghdad prior to the US-led invasion and occasionally clashed with the Bush administration during the international debate over how to deal with Hussein's regime.
But the documents, made public in a study of the Iraqi military's decision-making during the war that was released by the Pentagon yesterday, are the first to assert that Russia actively passed sensitive military intelligence to Baghdad during the war itself.
The disclosures could jeopardize US-Russian relations more than any single event since the end of the Cold War, analysts said. While cautioning that Moscow may have an explanation, the analysts noted that some of the details were so sensitive that they would be difficult for the government of President Vladimir V. Putin to justify...
He won't have to justify anything. We'll ignore it -- at least on the surface. There are too many countries working against our interests these days to think about punishing Russia in any serious way, and their presence as a permanent member of the UN Security Council gives them a power greater than they deserve which results in a sort of immunity -- just another way in which the UN causes strife.
A power greater than they deserve in the security council? They're not the only ones. France, and yes, Britain, are no longer world powers. China never was one.
This is a case where Bush's instincts were WRONG. Wasn't he buddying up to Putin a few years ago, and publicly saying something like "I looked in his eyes and he's a fellow I can work with"? Something along those lines.