Oh my God, Russia! Why are you being so difficult? Playing by some rules and making up some of your own?!Who do you think you are? US?!
The US and the rest of the West would have a much better time with our international relationships if we had some awareness of the way our actions look to people who aren't US citizens, don't benefit from our actions, and believe in values that - though they may be identical in theory to our purported values - look different in application in their culture than they do in ours.
Russia sauntered around the proverbial block a number of times before we even existed as a nation-state. And, though shocking to the Bush administration and much of the Western media, they don't really give a shit about what we think. [And with good reason.]
They play the international cooperation game because they have to - and they gain a lot from it. But they play it their own way: not buying in wholeheartedly to the US agenda, but not directly rejecting it, either.
If we took an unbiased toll of all the international agreements that Russia has signed on to and followed-through with, then compared it to a similar list for the US, my bet would be on Russia for more cooperation and consistency.
What I love about Putin [Astrologists click here] is that he's willing to stand up against the deluge and tell the US and the EU to fuck off. I wish for the sake of the Russian people that doing that more often wouldn't be so economically deleterious.
It's ok, I tell myself, the virulent Christian male domination fantasy that is the Bush administration's foreign policy can't last forever.
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