Russia throws a wrench in NATO's works.

[go west young man]

Source: Asia Times Online

The million-dollar question is whether there is political will on the part of the Bush administration to reach a "strategic consensus" over Afghanistan with Russia at the forthcoming NATO summit. Clearly, Moscow is willing. NATO old-timers such as France and Germany, too, are conscious that the alliance may suffer a defeat in Afghanistan, which would be a catastrophic blow to its standing, and that NATO and Russia after all share the same goals in Afghanistan.

The Kremlin has badly cornered the Bush administration. Taking Russia's help at this critical juncture makes eminent sense for NATO. The alliance is struggling to cope with the war in Afghanistan. By the analogy of Iraq, some observers estimate that a force level close to half a million troops will be required to stabilize Afghanistan, given its size and difficult terrain.

But cooperation with Russia involves NATO embarking on cooperation with CSTO and possibly with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as well. (Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, addressing the Security Council in New York on Wednesday, proposed that for effectively combating drug trafficking originating from Afghanistan, a system of security rings promoted by Russia in the Central Asian region in recent years would be useful and that the potential of CSTO and SCO should be utilized.)

What worries the US is that any such link up between NATO and CSTO and SCO would undermine its "containment" policy toward Russia (and China), apart from jeopardizing the US global strategy of projecting NATO as a political organization on the world arena.

The most damaging part is that Russia-NATO cooperation will inevitably strengthen Russia's ties with European countries and that, in turn, would weaken the US's trans-Atlantic leadership role in the 21st century.


Read more: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JC15Ag01.html

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Huge chess move by the Russian leadership.

[bemildred]

1. Who gives a sh*t about NATO's "standing"?

What the heck is NATO's "standing" anyway? What good is it, that it is worth all the blood and treasure thrown down a rathole in Afghanistan?

[windowseat]

2. And the right way would be what?

So, you're saying that we should ignore a potential ally? One that could help us in a situation that we have all but ignored while we bury ourselves in the Iraq quagmire? At least Afghanistan had some nexus to "terrorist threats" to the US, while Iraq is nothing more than Bush's ego trip.

In Iraq, we've stepped in it, big time, and so far I haven't heard anyone come forward with a responsible way out. Unfortunately, it appears that just pulling out quickly would ultimately result in serious security problems in the future, because the regime that survives in Iraq will not not be friendly to the US. The more we insist on the "go it alone", "it's my way or the highway" approach, the more we doom ourselves to a world without friends.

Bush took his eyes of the ball (in Afghanistan) by burrowing into Iraq. We still need to pay attention to that. And if NATO, and even Russia, will help us ... well, we should just get over it, adjust our priorities, and reach for stability.

Leadership is not always about having our way.

[Turner Ashby]

3. I think we'll be forced to accept Putin's offer,

but, we'll look weak when we do, and it won't be out of the kindness of his heart. Putin is a tremendous nationalist. Too bad, we didn't have nationalists running the White House when they decided to abandon Afghanistan and go into Iraq. I thought we had someone who understood the Russian Federation in office...what was her name?

[Warren Stupidity]

4. It won't help.

The irony of Russia returning to Afghanistan to help bail us out of the mess we created there is stunning. It also won't help. The return of Russian troops to the region will solidify Afghani resistance to the new crop of foreigners occupying their lands. Perhaps we might consider getting out and once again allowing the Afghani people to find their own troubled way? I don't particularly buy into the 'eyes off Afghanistan' theory. Nation building by foreigners is just as quixotic there as it is in Iraq. Of course you can flood the country with foreign troops, and by doing so reach a measure of stability, but then what? As soon as you leave the artificial state you have created collapses and is replaced by a more organic arrangement.

[Spazito]

5. Oh man, the irony, the absolute irony here....

Think of it......The US armed the mujahideen in Afghanistan, led by bin Laden, which led, in the end, to the defeat of the USSR and their pull-out and NOW Russia is offering help because the US is failing in Afghanistan. Damn, Putin is one hell of a chess player!

Boggles the mind!

[bemildred]

6. Yah. It's gotta feel good to be Putin right now.

What luck to get an opponent like Bush.

[ohio2007]

7. not really " Vladimir Putin assassination attempt 'foiled'"

Russian secret services have foiled an attack on President Vladimir Putin close to Red Square, it has been claimed.
A man with a sniper rifle and Kalashnikov assault gun was found and detained in a rented apartment overlooking Moscow's St Basil's Cathedral, on March 2, the day of the Presidential election in Russia.

Mr Putin and his president-elect, Dmitry Medvedev, appeared under the cathedral for a late-night pop concert once early results indicated that Mr Medvedev would win a landslide.

The popular Tvoi Den newspaper, which broke the story, claimed that both men could have been killed from the flat which was in the line of sight of a stage where they appeared.


snip

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/15/wputin115.xml

Putin may start a purge and that sniper is his excuse. WHo in the west will denounce him in his wot ?

[bemildred]

8. Yeah, really, it was foiled.

Bush would give both his nuts and a lung to be as popular as Putin is.