The US and Russia should be friends.

[JVS]

I see a lot of talk about conflict over spheres of influence, Nato expansion, Georgia, etc. but ultimately it fails to convince me that republican sabre rattling is justified. For the most part, Russia and American interests seem to be compatible. What exactly is our beef with them?

[LSK]

1. the cold war is the good old times for some people

apparently

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[JVS]

3. I don't get it. They produce a lot of oil. We kiss Saudi ass, why can't we be friendly with Russia

[gatorboy]

2. It's an election year.

The saber rattling just looks so presidential, dontcha know?

[JVS]

7. It would be presidential to use an emerging Russia to curb China and the EU

[gatorboy]

9. Maybe if you're a progressive minded individual. But McCain is using the situation differently.

He's trying to score "Commander in Chief" points. And Bush is trying to get his abysmal ratings up by looking like he's still in charge

[King Coal]

4. We don't like them invading countries just to get their oil.

[JVS]

5. They already have plenty of their own oil.

[ingac70]

11. Do as we say, not as we do. n/t

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. After Russia bombed Pearl Harbor and Burned

Washington DC in the war of 1812? Its not over.......

Never mind Bruno on a roll.

[PVnRT]

8. One is selling oil to China

The other is the historic paranoia on the part of Russia (justified) of western powers encroaching on them. This has been going on since the Mongols overran eastern Russia, when the Vikings invaded, when the Poles invaded, Napoleon, Britain, Germany...frankly, if I were them, I'd be pretty damn paranoid myself.

[JVS]

10. EU expansion would be a good reason for Russia to be paranoid

[spanone]

12. the military industrial complex fears peace imo

it's not good for business

[The2ndWheel]

13. We never did get into a direct war with them

Britain, Germany, Japan...they ended up kissing our feet, militarily speaking. Each time it took an extra step to win. We never took that next step with Russia. It always indirect war, and then the Soviet Union fell apart because of itself, nothing we did to it. So maybe they think they can do what it is that they want, since we never physically won and got to set the terms. Britain was pushed back. The US went into Germany. The US took that extra step, or two extra steps, with Japan. The US never went into Moscow. The US never actually used a nuclear weapon against the Soviet Union. I'd say it's unfinished business. Plus Russia supplies a lot of energy to the West, especially Europe. Europe doesn't have much of a military, and the US got to set the terms in Europe decades ago, so. The EU is caught in between. They need Russian energy(and the reason those pipelines were built was to go around Russia), and the US military is pretty much the global cop.

As long as there are different entities known as America and Russia, the interests will never be completely compatible, sometimes drastically incompatible. Unless one of them takes that next step and sets the terms.

[Oregone]

14. I've learned to hate Russians, All through my whole life. If another war starts...

It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

Dylan