Kremlin Feels Nostalgic, Decides to bring back Soviet Union Full Force

[Sbane]

Why not?

Because all imperialism does is make the people we are trying to "liberate" hate us even more and also our ideals. The more wars we have in the middle east the lesser chance there is of democracy flourishing in the middle east. I mean just look at India as an example. We equated Capitalism with Colonialism and look how long it took us to get over that. If we want to spread our ideals in the world, it wont be with a stick.

k...but that doesn't mean we have to "kowtow" to them either.

Oh of course not man but we dont have to unilaterally invade countries either. Terrorism is a policing problem. A world policing problem so we need more multilateralism not less.

Sure, this doesn't mean we have to "kowtow" to Fundie Muslim nations though.

I dont think America has ever "kowtowed" to any fundie muslim nation. If you are equating negotiation with "kowtowing", well I sincerely believe you are wrong. We are the most strongest nation in the world, we should be the least afraid to negotiate. Sometimes invasions are necessary, as in the case of Afghanistan because you just cannot negotiate with the Taliban. Most of the time talking to our enemies work and of course we have the army for backup.

I think you got lost somewhere.  All I was saying was that we don't have to EITHER play Empire or Kowtow to Muslim Fundies.  I'm saying there are other options than just those two.

Oh haha yeah i totally agree with you.

[Colin]

I'm not really too worried about this. As someone who actually watched the parade it was more entertaining than anything else, I'm always of the opinion that we should have a big military parade through Washington, DC.

As for Russia trying to exert its might or whatever I'm again not worried. Russia could have some regional power vis-a-vis nations like Azerbaijan or Belarus but it doesn't have the same sort of international force projection power as the United States. To be completely honest I think this constant painting of Russia as some "new Soviet Union" that we are obviously at odds with is false and is destroying what we could try to do to build a strong ally in Russia. The problem is that strategists, politicians, and military men on both sides expect the two countries to be in a struggle because that's all they grew up with was the constant Cold War mutually assured destruction.

We should really move beyond trying to turn Russia into a bad guy. Yeah, some freedoms have been curtailed, yeah, Putin is a strong man, blah, blah, blah, I'm sorry we have alot worse people running countries who we call America's friends and allies. My belief is that Russia's and America's interests are much more in alignment than at any other point in modern history and that the few areas that have been such bones of contention are small issues that would not dissuade me from thinking that an alliance or friendship with Russia would be mutually beneficial to both nations.