Breaking Bread with the Russian Bear

According to Pravda, Russia has become the top exporter of weapons in the world.

Russia is followed by the United States, France, and Great Britain in military exports.

There is a huge difference between the Russian exports and their competitors, and this article fails to mention what that difference is; Russia will sell to anyone who offers to buy, while the other arms exporters are careful as to who gets this equipment. The Russians have been exporting to countries actively engaged in terrorism-such as Syria and Iran-and Russian arms are responsible for many of the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Yet President Bush continues to pal around with Putin, who keeps Putin it to old George; recently, Comrad Putin and his dancing teeth cola-ed (Bush doesn`t wine-or vodka) and dined our President on a refueling stopover in an effort to butter him up so he would push harder for Russian membership in the G8. Bush has always worked statecraft based on personal relations, and Putin has used this against him.

I seem to remember the President said, ``those who are not with us are against us``, yet Russia continues to knife our efforts in the back. There are things we can do to pressure the Putin government to behave more responsibly, yet our government seems afraid to antagonize the Russian Bear, while our President seems willing to overlook many of these agregious violations of our trust.

Russia has been a large part of our problem in the Middle-East; we need a better, more realistic policy in their regard.