Liberalguy

In A Related Story… By Monica Crowley (bio)

Poland, having watched with horror as its biggest threat, Russia, moved tanks, missiles, and troops into Georgia, decided to accept the American offer of a missile defense system. The Poles don’t want to appease the crocodile in the hope that it eats them last. Russia, infuriated, threatened a response “beyond diplomacy.” Secretary of State Condi Rice brushed that aside as “bizarre” and empty rhetoric. I’m not sure how bizarre and empty it really is. Syria, seeing the Russians pull off an invasion of a pro-American democracy, decided to cast its lot with Moscow and just signed a defense deal with it. A Reuters/Zogby poll released today shows John McCain with a 5 point lead over Barack Obama. The grizzled war hero—who had served on the front lines of the cold war, who had seen the brutality of the Russians and their proxies up close and personal, and who served in the Congress through the end of the cold war—-now leads the young whippersnapper who has only a student’s recall of that war. Not a coincidence.