You may have thought the Soviet Union long dead, and thus it should be, but it is not. When the Berlin Wall tumbled, so did an entire corrupt way of life for many bureaucrats and butchers. But under Boris Yeltsin an entire new wave of corruption came to exist in the form of the oligarghs. The reaction to those thieves was Vladamir Putin, who even though his puppet has been installed, still runs the show in Moscow.
Under Putin, yet another wave of thugery has gone on. One cannot criticize the government. Crime still runs rampant, only now it’s organized. Gangs run massive botnets. The Soviets have kicked out all foreign entrepeneurs they don’t like (read: anyone who invested in oil). And now the coup de grace: they are attacking their neighbors in Georgia.
President Bush has stood idly by and let all of this happen. The real threat isn’t Iraq, it’s Mr. Putin and his thugs. Perhaps he’s scared of getting beat up for saying these sorts of things. I am.