Friday, July 28, 2006

We can't call all the shots

Not even in the Western Hemisphere any longer. In May we 'prohibited' the sale of arms to Venezuela. Many nations agreed to abide by our 'edict'. Russia, however, has decided to sell 100,000 Kalashnikovs as well as 30 helicopters and 30 fighter planes to Venezuela.

This is just one more example of Russia's return to the world stage. Certainly, that return has been bolstered by Russia's energy resources. However, the word in Moscow is that the deal with Venezuela is primarily a 'tit-for-tat' whereby Russia is getting even with the US for supporting former Soviet states that now oppose Russia. Apparently, Putin was miffed that we had invited the president of Georgia to the White House just prior to the G-8 conference in Moscow.

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