"She spoke of her childhood, of her father who was a pastor, of the (communist youth group) young pioneers, of her school life. And I have to say I got a glimpse into her soul, into how she feels," he said.
....
His comments echo ones he made about Russian President Vladimir Putin five years ago. "I was able to get a sense of his soul, a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country," Bush said then.
His relations with Putin have since soured as Washington has grown increasingly critical of the Russian leader's record on democracy, human rights and press freedom.
That's the real problem, from the more practical standpoint -- he's just not a good judge of character to begin with, as his relationship with Pooty-Poot has amply demonstrated. It's deteriorated to the point where The Decider's sidekick, Shooter, has been sent over to Lithuania to rattle a few neighboring cages:
At the "Common Vision for a Common Neighborhood" conference in Vilnius yesterday, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney gave a programmatic speech on relations between the West and Russia. He criticized the Kremlin's domestic policy ad accused Moscow of "blackmail," "intimidation," "undermining the territorial integrity of its neighbors" and "interference in democratic processes." As the G8 summit in St. Petersburg approaches, Russia is being given the choice between "returning to democracy" and "becoming an enemy."
Now, Shooter's remarks re Aleksandr Lukashenko, the autocrat running Belarus further into the ground, are correct. Lukashenko is nothing more than a tinpot thug, and as such is an anomaly on the continent. His conduct is certainly unacceptable, but it's also one that could be resolved with judicious soft power. Belarus is largely propped up by Russia, but it's a loss leader for them. If there were money to be made there by moving Belarus further along the road to democracy and productivity, they'd roll Lukashenko in a heartbeat. His value as a demagogue, like anything else in this world, has its price, and that price can surely be met with some mild targeting of business and diplomatic ties.
This is one area in which Condoleaka Rice, as an actual Russian expert, could be of some use. But no, instead we get tired homilies about Bush's psychic powers and innate ability to intuit character -- which are clearly all in his head anyway -- and stupid photo-ops where Putin lets Bush drive his Volga around the Kremlin driveway. It does not seem to occur to the usual talking heads and official thinkamators that Putin, who actually does appear to be both intelligent and cunning, may realize that there is not much else he can do to forge any useful relationship with the Americans right now. All Russia was to Bush was a convenient bulwark in his strategery-free War On Terra, which basically meant "let us get into Afghanistan for a few years, and set up temporary bases in torturing autocracies like Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and we'll look the other way on Chechnya. Deal?". So far so good, except Chechnya was a means to an end for Pooty-Poot, not an end in and of itself. That small notion surely escaped a fourth-rate intellect like that of George W. Bush.
But at least he's a great judge of character. Just ask him.
Cheney briefly listed the charges accumulated against Russia. First, the victories of recent decades are being scaled back as the authorities limit civil rights and the rights of the media, nongovernmental organizations and political parties. Cheney continued that Russia's policies are detrimental not only within the country but beyond it as well. "No one can justify actions that undermine the territorial integrity of a neighbor, or interfere with democratic movements. No legitimate interest is served when oil and gas become tools of intimidation or blackmail, either by supply manipulation or attempts to monopolize transportation," Cheney said.
Again, Cheney is correct, but again, for all the wrong reasons. Russia is indeed trying to muscle Ukraine, keep them from getting too uppity. But the fact is, Russia has its own energy and business concerns, and Putin is a pragmatist who, like Bush, needs to take care of the business donors that keep him in power. Could it be that he is leveraging Ukraine in order to secure the Russians' enormous investments in Iranian nuclear technology? Remember, it's the Russians who are bankrolling the facility in Esfahan, who are helping them get centrifuges, who are providing them with technical assistance to keep the program rolling along.
Does Iran want the bomb? Probably. All their neighbors have 'em. The question is whether they want them for deterrence, or for belligerent uses -- or worse yet, to leak them to al Qaeda and friends. This is the source of our discontent with Iran, obviously, and Russia is right in the middle of it. (Don't forget our good friends Pakistan either, whose treacherous, irresponsible behavior made North Korea a nuclear power, helped Tehran some with its weaponization program, and nearly made Libya a nuclear power as well. The media and the administration seem to have let all that go, saving their bluster for weaker, more easily demonized opponents. Doesn't make Pakistan any less dangerous, or prone to allowing nukes to fall into the hands of psychotic death cultists, not to put too fine a point on it. The point is, somehow we find a way to make soft power work with Pakistan.)
So we have better options available to us than merely playing "bad cop" to the U.N., and sandbagging every sotto voce diplomatic overture the Iranians have made. And we have; the reformist government of Khatami made several such attempts, mostly through the Swiss, to reach out to us in a manner that would allow both sides to save face, just to get some talks going. They were repeatedly snubbed, not even given a chance to make an offer. We keep whinging that we want reformers we can work with (even though president is a relatively weak office in Iran; it's the clerics that make all the important policy decisions), and when we get them, we won't work with them.
This is what's so maddening about these people, these Bushie cultists. The figurehead is an incompetent who speaks in broad strokes of revivalist emotionalism, and has neither the intuitive gifts to truly suss character and intentions, nor the business acumen to horse-trade with serious people. And while his staff, most notably Cheney, are very skilled at making it sound like they know what they are talking about, their track record is abysmal.
Unless, as always, you're a shareholder.
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