Exactly. Just bearing in my mind that many Heads of State are quite unhinged and feel they have a mission. On the Russian theme Tsar Alexander I had a notion that he was divinely sanctioned to rid Europe of ‘the devils’ and Napoleon was the Antichrist.

Tolstoy makes good use of this with over-exaggeration of Alexander and the church’s notion about Napoleon and his unholy position in War and Peace.

I disagree strongly. I was in West Berlin at the time of the Berlin Crisis and the erection of the Berlin Wall. I saw in person how cruel, repressive and expansionistic the Russians were. The communist regime may be gone, but Russian authoritarian, ultra-nationalistic and expansionistic tendencies of the Russians remain.

Putin and many Russians still are angry and resentful about the breakup of the empire of the USSR and the loss of world status that they once had. That is why they are bent on creating chaos in the world -- so that they will be considered a major power again. If you are not mindful of that, you simply do not understand international relations.

@wordywalt I will be the first to admit I don’t understand international relations so thanks for enlightening me

@wordywalt That’s s a good point actually. The soccer thugs are a type of their own. Apparently they scrap in the forests regarding club affiliations and then band together at international matches.

I read somewhere recently that they declare themselves as Putin’s foot soldiers and the Kremlin is inclined to encourage this nationalist fervour.

@wordywalt Even if what you say about Russia is 100% correct, I don’t see why it should be the role of the US to control them. Europeans are fully capable of defending themselves. Suppose Russia or China sent fleets into the Gulf of Mexico to monitor and meddle in the immigration problem or something like that. We wouldn’t like that at all.

@WilliamFleming We don't want to control them. We want to contain their malev0lent misdeeds and make them pay a price for their expansionism. And we must work with Europe in doing this, not abandon or alienate our European allies..

@wordywalt I’m not seeing a lot of expansionism. They took over Crimea for good reasons: Crimea has traditionally been a part of Russia and a lot of Russians live there. The majority of Crimeans prefer to be part of Russia.

Eastern Ukraine is a more ticklish subject. A lot of Russians live there also and they are agitating to secede. That is a problem to be dealt with by the parties involved, not the US. I do not oppose limited military aid to Ukraine, but we must ultimately accept whatever the local people work out.

If Russia moves on Poland, Germany, France, etc. I’ll be on your side, but at this point that seems very unlikely to happen.

@.Both the Ukraine and Georgia were ethnically non-Russian areas which were conquered and became part of Russia and later the USSR. The ethnic Russians living there today were placed there by the conquering Russians. They were NOY native inhabitants.

At the end of the break-up of the Soviet empire Ukraine and Georgia both became FREE and independent countries. Under Putin, the fact that ethnic Russians live in those two nations today is being used by Putin as an excuse to attack the two countries and re-assert dominance over them. Those actions are nothing more than outright expansionism. You cannot legitimately label it anything else.

@WilliamFleming Putin's behavior you trying to sweep under the rug is exactly the same behavior which Hitler showed with Czechoslovakia in 1936 ..