W and Vlad meet and talk

President Bush and President Putin exchange views on missile defense systems and other topics. But all is not well. What is Vlad thinking?

You talkin' to me?
Did I hear you right?
Are these things working?
I really need to go to the can. (Raising two hands, not just one.)

In a closed meeting with NATO leaders, Putin was described by officials as both combative and thoughtful, criticizing NATO's promise to eventually make Ukraine and Georgia members. "NATO cannot guarantee its security at the expense of other countries' security," he said, according to one official, and complained that some NATO members, presumably those formerly under Soviet occupation, "went as far as total demonization of Russia and can't get away from this even now."

In one of his odder comments about relations with NATO, he told reporters: "Let's be friends, guys, and be frank and open."

Another view of NATO-Ukraine

This is a great picture. The man's views are quite clear.

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YOUR PICTURE GALLERY IS NOW LOADING... Pope Benedict XVI blesses the faithful after celebrating a mass in St Peter's Square, Rome, to mark the third anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II. Police try to drag protesters away as Tibetans protest outside the Chinese Embassy in Katmandu, Nepal. Demonstrators at the Dutch consulate in Indonesia protest against a film on Islam by a Dutch MP. A service of thanksgiving for the life of late New Zealand-born climber Sir Edmund Hillary is held at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, England. A Palestinian man stands in the remains of his house, which was demolished by bulldozers on the outskirts of Jerusalem. A man stages an anti-Nato protest in Kiev. More than half of Ukrainians oppose membership in the Western military alliance.

Bush Lobbies for NATO Expansion

NATO was made to ward off the Soviet threat. Then the Soviet Union ended, and NATO looked for a new mission, instead of being disbanded. A standing military force looks for work. Didn't George Washington say so?

Witness what Bush says: "See, NATO is no longer a static alliance focused on defending Europe from a Soviet tank invasion," he said. "It is now an expeditionary alliance that is sending its forces across the world to help secure a future of freedom and peace for millions."

Expeditionary? Makes me shudder. To me, it has implications of looking for places to go to. It seems to replace diplomacy.

[Some] observers say that -- judging from how the U.S. expansionist view keeps winning out -- nothing can reverse NATO's trajectory. Beneath the surface in NATO debates, "we've seen incremental change over the last couple of years that...indicate to me that we are ultimately moving towards the more bold, ambitious vision," said Julianne Smith, the Europe program director for the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Right now what happens is a big, bold, ambitious proposal is put on the table, often by Washington, then it's walked back ever so slightly, and then it creeps back onto the NATO agenda."

Mission creep. It just gets bigger, without enough check.

NATO's involvement in Afghanistan "has morphed far beyond what was initially agreed upon," says Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, of the Council on Foreign Relations. "And there is a big strain on the alliance over whether this is something that can be sustained."

Bush endorses NATO expansion

An interesting geopolitical item.

Ukraine Gets Support From Bush Bush is putting his full weight behind the desire by Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO, and declared that Russia won't be able to veto former Soviet states joining the trans-Atlantic military alliance.

Imaginary enemies

Maybe the way to get snipers off the center of discussion is to attack the Reverend. Spin, Senator, spin.

Roger Cohen: Imaginary snipers, real challenges
International Herald Tribune - 3 hours ago
By Roger Cohen Those of us, like myself, who first went to Bosnia at the start of the war in 1992 and then, in 1994 and 1995, endured Bill Clinton's circumlocutions as we sat in an encircled Sarajevo watching pregnant women getting blown away by ...
Video: Video Belies Clinton's Bosnia StatementsAssociatedPress

Roger Cohen has some tough words for the Clintons. Both are in for raps on the knuckles and upbraiding for their temerity and obfuscation.

Here's some news for Hillary Clinton: The Bosnian war was over in 1996. Those of us, like myself, who first went to Bosnia at the start of the war in 1992 and then, in 1994 and 1995, endured Bill Clinton's circumlocutions as we sat in an encircled Sarajevo watching pregnant women getting blown away by shelling from Serbian gunners, know that. Only after the mass murder of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica, three years after the initial Serbian genocide of 1992 against that population (and one year after a genocide on his watch in Rwanda), did the gelatinous Clinton develop some backbone. NATO bombed, Richard Holbrooke did his brilliant work at Dayton in November 1995, and the guns fell silent in Bosnia.

First, the facts from someone who was on the ground where the snipers Senator Clinton misspoke about having to dodge. Then opinions about things, including gelatinous Bubba's circumlocutions, and her wife's, the Senator's misstatements about the war.

It was over, although she recently recalled "landing under sniper fire." It was over when "we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base." Oh, please.

This is, as Mr. Cohen states, a significant issue: Hillary Clinton's transference is intriguing: Suffering Sarajevans ran from snipers during the war her husband let fester. Invented danger, supposed to showcase bravery, may instead betray guilt. But I'm not going to psychoanalyze the Clintons. I don't have the space to plumb such unquenchable ambition. Few do. Anyway, she now says she "misspoke" about Tuzla. End of story, you might say. But I'd say it's the beginning of another, more important one.

I agree; I say the Senator is lying. Mr. Cohen's entire article is magnificent, insightful, informative.
Clinton made up Bosnian sniper fire in an attempt to show that she's tougher than Barack Obama; that she's a hardened, seasoned, putative commander-in-chief ready to respond to crisis when the "red phone" of her fear-mongering ad rings. John McCain's own recent "misspeaking" about Iran, placing (Sunni) Al Qaeda in (Shiite) Iran, also smacked of muscle-flexing: He wanted to signal toughness to the mullahs in Tehran, where Obama has suggested he'd seek dialogue. But what the United States, and those that look to it, need now is not more braggadocio from the White House. We've had a seven-year dose. That's enough. What's needed, rather, is some new, creative thinking about a changed world in which authoritarianism is enjoying a renaissance and America and its allies need to work together to spread peace, prosperity, freedom, equity, security and, yes, democracy. U.S. hard power has not worked. The Iraq invasion was bungled. European soft power is insufficient.

He quotes Constanze Stelzenmüller of the German Marshall Fund in an important recent essay called "Trans-Atlantic Power Failures," a "European Union with 27 member states and a total of 1.8 million men and women under arms" is incapable of pacifying little Kosovo ("one quarter the size of Switzerland") on its own.

NATO, quoting Ms. Stelzenmüller, Mr. Cohen states has to find "the right mix of idealism and realism," and a new cohesion, if one-pipeline Russia and one-party, Tibet-tormenting China are not to prosper with authoritarianism-for-export.

Foreign policy debate in this election campaign has been paltry. I'd like to hear something about GWOT - the "Global War on Terror" - the heart of U.S. national security strategy. It amounts to war without end because "terror" is a tactic and tactics don't surrender. GWOT should be abandoned: It's externally divisive and internally treacherous. Al Qaeda can be beaten sans GWOT.

Obama, in his speech on race, did important things. He confronted reality, thought big, probed division, sketched convergence. He took Americans and many people beyond U.S. shores to a different mental place. Imagine that capacity applied to GWOT, Iran, Russia, China and Israel-Palestine.

If you don't like the sound of that, there's always seasoned swagger of the kind that runs from imaginary snipers.