Putin: US seeking 'absolute invulnerability'

[Poll_Blind]

When Russia looks, from the outside, at the US and Europe...what do they see?

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2012/0228/Putin-US-seeking-absolute-invulnerability
[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0.3077em 0.3077em 0em 0em; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]Putin: US seeking 'absolute invulnerability'[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3077em 0.3077em; background-color: #f4f4f4; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]A more world-weary and mistrustful Vladimir Putin appears set to return to Russia's presidency in polls slated for next Sunday. Mr. Putin's hardening suspicions toward the West in general, and the US in particular, are on full display in the latest of the lengthy policy manifestos that have comprised the main substance of his campaign over the past two months.

In this one, a 6,060 word missive published in the state-owned weekly Moskovskiye Novosti yesterday, he lays out a foreign policy vision that suggests a fresh chill in US-Russia relations may follow his return to the Kremlin. Already Moscow is moving to block Western initiatives in the Middle East, drawing a tougher line on US plans to install an anti-missile shield in Europe, and seeking to strengthen ties with the East, especially China.

His main foreign policy concern is that Russia is being encircled by NATO expansion into former Soviet territory and its strategic nuclear deterrent is threatened by US missile defense plans.

"It seems that NATO countries, and especially the United States, have developed a peculiar understanding of security which is fundamentally different from our view," Putin writes. The Americans are obsessed with the idea of securing absolute invulnerability for themselves, which, incidentally, is a utopia, for both technological and geopolitical reasons. But that is exactly where the root of the problem lies…. Absolute invulnerability for one nation would mean absolute vulnerability for everybody else."

PB

[jwirr]

1. The last line says it all.

[greytdemocrat]

2. And this is bad why???

[jwirr]

6. For the same reason that Empires have basically ended being despots throughout history. In order

to protect the empire the rights of the people are ignored both outwardly and internally.

[Uncle Joe]

4. I would add one caveat to the last sentence, including the American People as becoming part of

"the totally vulnerable" if the goal of global "total invulnerability" were ever achieved by the U.S. and the same would hold true for any nation.

"Absolute invulnerability for one nation would mean absolute vulnerability for everybody else."

That kind of power if it were ever obtained by sheer force of nature would be required to turn inward upon itself.

Enemies would need to be found or created from within as corrupted power players; competing for leadership without an external "enemy" focus would become increasingly desperate to create differentiation between themselves and their political opponents here at home.

[msongs]

3. as if the dictator Putin is not aiming for "invulnerability" inside Russia lol nt

[Poll_Blind]

5. Oh, be fair. You know what a dictator is and Putin's not one.

I doubt anyone here actually thinks Putin is some kind of "good guy" but there's no genetic difference between the politics he plays and the political positioning we see played out in the US, in allied countries, and elsewhere.

Genotypical difference? No.

Phenotypical difference? Yes.

PB

[flexnor]

7. I've never understood why people thought the cold war could never come back

and i think at times, our nation has acted as though it couldnt come back - in the 1970s, it was considered that US involvemet in a mideast war could be WWIII. Now, it seems like we MUST be in a war there at all times, what are we, going on our 4th one there in 20 years?

in this article, putin is hinting at exactly that