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POPSRussia Reconsiders "There's no question that Stalin is undergoing a sort of renaissance in Russia. Despite the many millions killed or sent to labor camps during his reign, many now view his rule with a sort of hazy nostalgia. "The cynical position of the Stalinphobes is that only innocent people were kept in the gulag," he said. "Criminals who violated the law were kept in the gulag. And let the Western reader ask himself, should criminals be kept in spas or resort hotels?" Meanwhile, Stalin's image and name, systematically bleached out as the waning Soviet empire began to grapple with its bloody past, are creeping back into Russian life. His name was restored this fall to a Moscow metro station. His unmistakable mustached face beams from the wall of Soviet Meatpies, a kitschy diner downtown."
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POPSCharles Krauthammer: The Three Envelopes 
I suppose, explain away his own, well, yearlong drift on Afghanistan. This compulsion to attack his predecessor is as stale as it is unseemly. Obama was elected a year ago. He became commander in chief two months later. He then solemnly announced his own "comprehensive new strategy" for Afghanistan seven months ago. Obama is obviously unhappy with the path he himself chose in March. Fine. He has every right -- indeed duty -- to reconsider. But what Obama is reacting to is the failure of his own strategy. There is nothing new here. The history of both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars is a considered readjustment of policies that have failed. In each war, quick initial low-casualty campaigns toppled enemy governments. In the subsequent occupation stage, two policy choices presented themselves: the light or heavy "footprint." In both Iraq and Afghanistan, we initially chose the light footprint. This was the considered judgment of our commanders at the time,
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POPSThe Mircale Of Perm Russia's up and coming cultural capital. Russia overcoming its soviet past? Or Russia coming to terms with its soviet past? Either way, a place i'd love to visit and experience for myself!
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POPSJust A Bad Bear Day - Sorry Bear How we do love to use animals for our entertainment!!! Unfortunately they are more intelligent than we give them credit for - I don't blame it for breaking loose. I mean if you were the bear, wouldn't you want to break free as well??? :-)
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POPS Oliver North::Protecting the Image by Oliver North Mr. Obama's presentation to the assembly Sept. 23 and his speech to the U.N. Security Council's summit on "nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament" Sept. 24 were celebrated for their "breadth and understanding" and his "appeal for dialogue in the quest for world peace." But the O-Team's careful choreography collapsed just hours later, when Iran's secret uranium enrichment facility, buried in the mountains near the holy city of Qom, was exposed. In the aftermath, it was revealed that Mr. Obama had known about the site since January. When asked why he failed to mention the Iranian malfeasance in both of his U.N. addresses, a White House spokesman said the administration didn't want "to spoil the image of success" during Mr. Obama's debut at the U.N. Of course, the problem isn't "image"; it's reality. And the reality is that the Iranian pursuit of nuclear weapons has continued unabated for at least a decade. U.S. intelligence confirmed that Tehran was building . . .
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POPS Debacle in Moscow by Charles Krauthammer And what's come from Obama's single most dramatic foreign policy stroke -- the sudden abrogation of missile defense arrangements with Poland and the Czech Republic that Russia had virulently opposed? For the East Europeans it was a crushing blow, a gratuitous restoration of Russian influence over a region that thought it had regained independence under American protection. But maybe not gratuitous. Some brilliant secret trade-off to get strong Russian support for stopping Iran from going nuclear before it's too late? Just wait and see, said administration officials, who then gleefully played up an oblique statement by President Dmitry Medvedev a week later as vindication of the missile defense betrayal. The Russian statement was so equivocal that such a claim seemed a ridiculous stretch at the time. Well, Clinton went to Moscow this week to nail down the deal. What did she get? "Russia Not Budging On Iran Sanctions: Clinton Unable to Sway Counterpart."
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POPSRussia Refuses Call For Tougher Sanctions On Iran, They Would Be “Counterproductive” President Barack Obama " who visited Russia in July " has vowed to “reset” U.S.-Russia relations. Beyond Iran, Lavrov said U.S. and Russia negotiators have made “considerable” progress toward reaching agreement on a new strategic arms treaty. The 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, expires in December and negotiators have been racing to reach agreement on a successor. The two diplomats also discussed possible cooperation on missile defense following Obama’s decision not to proceed with Bush-administration plans to base such a system in eastern Europe. Russia has welcomed Obama’s new approach, but has said it was eager for more detailed information. Clinton said the U.S. would be as transparent as possible. “We want to ensure that every question that the Russian military or Russian government asks is answered,” she said, calling missile defense “another area for deep cooperation between our countries.”
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POPSTentative Inspection Program Would Allow Russia to Visit U.S. Nuclear Sites "We want to ensure that every question that the Russian military or Russian government asks is answered," she said, calling missile defense "another area for deep cooperation between ourcountries." On another critical issue, Lavrov declared that it would be counterproductive to threaten Iran with more sanctions over its nuclear program -- as he resisted efforts by Clinton to win agreement for tougher measures should Iran fail to prove its program is peaceful. Clinton visited Moscow on her first trip since becoming America's top diplomat, in an effort to gauge Moscow's willingness to join the U.S. in imposing sanctions. Clinton said the U.S. agreed it was important to pursue diplomacy with Iran. "At the same time that we are very vigorously pursuing this track, we are aware that we might not be as successful as we need to be, so we have always looked at the potential of sanctions in the event we are not successful and cannot assure ourselves . . .
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POPSHow Can This Be??? How in the world can a person be a decent, moral person without the promise of heaven or the threat of hell. Just what is this world coming to??? Now I'll carefully remove my tongue from my cheek.
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POPSSaudis Consider Russian Air Defense System This is what I am talking about. Keep Iran away from this defense system, because Israel will attack Iran before it is in place. Before we are ready. It still may happen, with U.S. help and/ or approval...Saudis are strict and treat women like garbage, but this little act will keep peace a day or two longer....
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POPSThe Russians Are Coming! Casino Royale demonstrates that anyone vaguely Slavic makes the best bad guy. But for a true tribute to the Cold War genre, nothing tops Mike Myers towering body of work: Austin Powers - International Man of Mystery, Austin Powers - The Spy Who Shagged Me, and Goldmember. All of it of course stands in the shadow of the greatest Cold War flick of all time … Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Sorry, got sidetracked. It was another time. This is supposed to be about those damned Russian subs, popping up again like a crazy stalker girlfriend from the past. According to Defense Department officials, one of the Russian submarines remained in international waters on Tuesday about 200 miles off the coast of the United States. The location of the second remained unclear. I hope no Gloucester draggermen snag ‘em. Could be awkward. The submarine patrols come as Moscow tries to shake off the embarrassment of the . . .
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POPSObama's Move: Iran and Afghanistan United States between April and September. In his speech to the Islamic world from Cairo, he planned to show a desire not only to find common ground, but also to acknowledge shortcomings in U.S. policy in the region. With the appointment of special envoys George Mitchell (for Israel and the Palestinian territories) and Richard Holbrooke (for Pakistan and Afghanistan), Obama sought to build on his opening to the Islamic world with intense diplomatic activity designed to reshape regional relationships. It can be argued that the Islamic masses responded positively to Obama’s opening " it has been asserted to be so and we will accept this " but the diplomatic mission did not solve the core problem. Mitchell could not get the Israelis to move on the settlement issue, and while Holbrooke appears to have made some headway on increasing Pakistan’s aggressiveness toward the Taliban, no fundamental shift has occurred in the Afghan war.
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POPSSoviets Built a Doomsday Machine. It’s Still Working. more at source: By guaranteeing that Moscow could hit back, Perimeter was actually designed to keep an overeager Soviet military or civilian leader from launching prematurely during a crisis. The point, says Zhelenyakov says, was “to cool down all these hotheads and extremists. No matter what was going to happen, there still would be revenge. Those who attack us will be punished.”
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POPSThe UN Loves Barack Obama Because He Is Weak Not convinced about that last “seething with anti-Americanism” line, though. I think the world actually loves America. That’s why the world is all trying to get here. The world just has a bit of an adolescent attitude toward America’s dad-like role in the world. . . I’d say it’s more the United Nations General Assembly that is seething with anti-Americanism. Get back on topic, Nile! OK, here we go: It is natural that much of the UN will embrace an American president who declines to offer strong American leadership. A president who engages dictators like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez will naturally gain respect from the leaders of the more than 100 members of the United Nations who are currently designated as “partly free” or “not free” by respected watchdog Freedom House. The UN is not a club of democracies - who still remain a minority within its membership " it is a vast melting pot of free societies, socialist regimes and outright tyrannies.
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POPSThose Who Ignore History... History didn't listen to us," said Tabeyev, who's now 81. "All our efforts to restore peace in the country . . . this was a flop in the end." The fundamental problem in Afghanistan is that it isn't a country in the way the West thinks of countries, said retired Lt. Gen. Ruslan Aushev, who did two tours there and left as a regimental commander. "There has never been any real centralized state in Afghanistan. There is no such nation as Afghanistan," said Aushev, who's a former president of the Russian Caucasus republic of Ingushetia and now heads a veterans group in Moscow. "There are (ethnic groups of) Pashtuns, Uzbeks and Tajiks, and they all have different tribal policies." As a result, any occupation force will spend much of its time propping up a government that has little relevance outside Kabul and trying to corral disparate ethnic groups and tribes into a national army that's often unwilling to fight, Aushev said.
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