Misplaced Respect to an Enemy

I think we are BY FAR overvaluing the sincerity of Vladimir Putin's motives in negotiating foreign policy spheres with the United States, and I likewise judge that the O doesn't have the backbone to protect our interests.

The article below has some good meat to chew on regarding negotiating the status of Georgia and the West's current inability to stand in the gap against Russian ambition. About the only thing I disagree with is the usual estimation of Russia's relative weakness. Regardless of their frailty, real or imagined, the moves we are making in dealing with Russia will not weaken them or temper them to Western defense.

There are paper tigers in this world, but Russia is not a paper 'Bear'.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124683484600997771.html

Obama and Putin's Russia

JULY 6, 2009

An American President lands in Moscow today to negotiate an arms control treaty. Befitting that retro theme, thousands of Russian troops are in the midst of the biggest war games in the south Caucasus since the end of the Cold War, menacing the small, independent nation of Georgia.

President Obama's two days in Moscow are supposed to foster, in an adviser's words, "a more substantive relationship with Russia" -- the substance being Iran's atomic ambitions, the war in Afghanistan and a replacement for the soon-to-expire Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. You know, the stuff of a quasi-superpower partnership. But Russia hardly looks super, or inclined to forge a partnership, except on its own terms.

Instead, Supreme Leader Vladimir Putin wants to settle old scores and establish what he calls "a zone of privileged interest." He must appreciate Mr. Obama's eagerness to change the subject from Russian belligerence to nuclear weapons, which plays up Russia's remaining claim to superpower status. How that serves America's interests isn't clear...