The truth in short from a man who spent most of his formative years the son of one of America’s foremost Cold-warriors. Of course you know that it is a truth self-evident that is always better to be dead than to be red. Don’t think that Russia is not still a little red.
Please don’t imagine that we should not be careful whenever dealing with Russia in any way anywhere at any time because we should, and this is not fear mongering or some knee-jerk conservative response to geopolitics as Putin would like to play it, map as chess board—please don’t imagine that we can be too careful. And please don’t imagine you understand Putin or Russians or Russia with your contemporary American acumen about history or European peoples; but also do not imagine that the Central Asians we have been using to gain leverage against Putin and Russia are anymore our friends than Russians are capable of, especially if they are Putinesque actors on the world political stage, that is, Putin’s people in their role as passive assenters to a refashioned old-line hegemony.
The Falling Leaf Review 