Russia increasing bomber patrols from from 2-3 per month to 20-30...

and what, if anything, does this have to do with bush and putin arguing about missiles. this is disturbing to my intuitiveness. can anyone put this into perspective for me please?

Not only are the Russians rolling in their newfound oil wealth (thanks to the $100+ dollar per barrel and rising prices), they also have massive untapped resources still to exploit in Siberia. Along with this surge in wealth, the Russian people are supporting the strongman government style they were used to under the Soviets. Putin is extremely intelligent, and he has tapped the simmering resentment that the Russian people have always felt towards their wealthier Western neighbors...especially the US.

Now they are dancing with joy to see finally see the US MILITARY bogged down in Afghanistan...just as they were in the 1970s. Question...how did the "Cold War" finally end? Answer: we outspent them and bled them dry while supporting the mujahedin in Afghanistan (more to follow on this). Look at the situation today...we are bogged down in not just one, but two wars. We are slowly being bled dry...both in blood AND treasure. What are they doing? Enjoying massive oil profits and touting their newly developed weapons systems....enjoying massive increases in global arms sales, and doing the same things that we used to do to them....ramped up bomber patrols to stick their thumbs in our eyes and gauge our reaction.

The infuriating thing is that we are bogged down fighting the movement that we created in Afghanistan/Pakistan that we used to kick the Soviets out of that area! We are responsible for creating the Taliban. We are responsible for creating Al-Qaida. We are responsible for the militant movements in the tribal areas of Pakistan because we nurtured and grew those ideologies when we thought they were needed to fight the Russians. Dr. Ron Paul is absolutely right...we are experiencing blowback and simply reaping the results of decades of piss-poor and immoral foreign policies. Everything is intertwined...you cannot separate foreign and economic policies.

I can't yet figure out what is the root cause...the reading I've been doing about the 14th amendment, the other reconstructionist amendments, the Federalist Papers, etc etc leaves me helpless to know whether the dog is wagging the tail or vice versa. All of these things are so much bigger than any one person or event...but the bottom line is that enough is enough. These world events are thought provoking and worthy of discussions....but the bigger issue is this - Our country and our liberties have been stolen from us and we as a nation have been put on a course that we have not chosen, a path that our framers did not intend. How can we right these wrongs? I believe that until we have a course correction here at home....these other world issues are impossible to fix.

My two cents anyway.

The Retrocon
Hope for America, Ron Paul for President in 2008!

They are playing the same old game of fear. Russia needs threat from US and US needs threat from Russia to take away the liberty from their own citizen. Since war on terror is not working any more they need different kind of fear.

Did you see Putin give Laura the flowers and then Bush tried to put his arm around Putin's shoulders for a picture and a little too quickly, Putin swirled out of his arm and led the way away from the area. It was like he put a quick end to the pictures because Bush was being too chummy for his taste. Just my take on it.

is everybody?

is a must read. His latest one is awesome - he's out of Australia and a great economist and wonderful writer. I posted some of his stuff about Iran at www.dailypaul.com/node/45...
I was just reading what Buckler calls " the PIVOT Meeting", he says "the meeting between the American and Russian Presidents will take place on April 5&6 in Sochi. Apart from the normal diplomatic folderol as to who invited whom, the facts are plainly in view. President Bush is travelling to Moscow as a "supplicant", having insufficient military and strategic means in hand to retrieve the drastic situation inside Iraq. The U.S military occupation of Iraq is right on the verge of full military failure. The US Force on the ground there has utterly exhausted itself and it cannot for much longer be maintained logistically. President Putin knows this. So do the Chinese who stand right behind him. Arriving in Russia, Pres. Bush will discover the real cost of a policy which has left the US in an impossible worldwide position." Then, Geo-Strategic Failure in Front - Economic Failure at Home, he says "In history, there have been many examples of geo-strategic overstretch leading to an impossible military position. A nation in this position has always had only two exits. One is a negotiated agreement which will allow the self-defeated party to militarily retreat with its own dignity nearly intact, at least in the view of the public back in the home country. This is what Vietnam achieved at the Paris Peace Talks. President Bush will find in Russia that the only position acceptable to Russia is that he leaves Iraq. Mr. Bush can take that exit - or choose the other one, which is war and disastrous defeat." It certainly sounds to me like Dr. Ron Paul knew what he was talking about all for the love of his country. He should be deeply respected by all Americans. RonPaul2008

That over the course of this rediculous war in iraq and others The US has probably depleted it's arsenal to huge degree and enlistment is not favourable unless they start to draft. And draft would incite some pretty serious anger.