Bush digs his spurs into the butt of an already scorned Russian bear -The iPINIONS Journal

There seems little doubt now that the United States and Russia have rekindled their cold war relationship. But I’ve been chronicling and lamenting the shotgun marriage between US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin that led inexorably to this current state of geopolitical hostilities for many years (as the related articles below will attest).

Now, however, media outlets all around the world are covering every nuance of this relationship for signs of combustible tension. And, in so doing, they have trained their voyeuristic lenses on Putin’s brazen antics. This, of course, is understandable.

After all, Putin has not only wielded neo-Stalinist power in Russia with an iron fist that would have made Uncle Joe himself blush, he has also made political incursions into neighboring states that are eerily reminiscent of the manner in which the former Soviet Union dominated its “sphere of influence.”

For example, in “Putin Fires First Salvo in New Cold War in Europe, January 3, 2006, I commented on Putin’s threat to cut off Russia’s supply of natural gas to Ukraine to extort cash and political concessions. And in “Putinization of Russia Extends to Georgia,” November 2, 2006, I commented on Putin’s moves to checkmate Bush’s support for Kosovo’s independence from Serbia by supporting South Ossetia and Abkhazia’s independence from Georgia.

But, unlike far too many political pundits in the West, I was equally cognizant of Bush’s cold-war flirtations, which clearly made Putin jealous and may have provoked him to act out as cited above.

After all, Bush has not only wooed these and other former Soviet republics politically, but he has rubbed his charm offensive in Putin’s face by forging military alliances with them as well.

For example, in the January 2006 commentary referenced above, I cited Bush’s scheme to enlist every former member of the Soviet Union’s Warsaw Pact into NATO. To appreciate how this could have turned Putin into a “soul mate” scorned, just imagine Bush’s reaction if Canada and Mexico were cooing at Putin’s overtures for them to join a Russian-led military alliance….

Then there’s his plan to deploy anti-ballistic missiles in Poland and Czech Republic, which, even though ostensibly defensive, Putin (with his Cold-War mentality) finds particularly offensive. Yet who can blame him? Indeed, does anyone remember how President John F. Kennedy reacted when Russian President Nikita Khrushchev deployed missiles in America’s sphere of influence; i.e., down in Cuba?

This brings me to Bush’s trip to the NATO summit in Romania this week to press the 26-member alliance to support “Membership Action Plans” for Ukraine and Georgia.

Frankly, I sympathize with Putin’s objection to the fortification of NATO garrisons along Russia’s borders. Especially since these countries are both sufficiently independent today, politically and militarily, that fear of a Prague-Spring invasion by the Russians is wholly irrational.

Not to mention that codifying the principle that a Russian attack on either Ukraine or Georgia would constitute an attack on NATO (i.e., the United States) is unnecessarily provocative: