American ignorance and stupidity are not limited to replacing containment with pre-emption. It exists in virtually all parts of American government agendas. From the NY Times of 31 May 2007:
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Rice Clashes With Russian on Kosovo and Missiles
The United States and Russia, with relations between them at their most contentious since the collapse of the Soviet Union, openly sparred here on Wednesday at a meeting of foreign ministers of the Group of 8 industrialized nations.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, accused the United States of starting a new arms race and implicitly threatened to veto any United Nations Security Council resolution that, like the one proposed by the United States and its European allies, would recognize the independence of Kosovo.
Even as the White House and the Kremlin were announcing plans for a rare kiss-and-make-up meeting between President Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin, their top diplomats were clashing here ...
Their clashes are indicative of a chill in their countries' relations. In February, Mr. Putin delivered a blistering speech accusing the United States of undermining international institutions and making the Middle East more unstable through its clumsy handling of the Iraq war. ...
At the meeting on Wednesday, Mr. Lavrov repeatedly questioned why the United States was so intent on resolving Kosovo's status when other areas of the world were in dispute.
"Lavrov said, 'Why don't we solve the case of Western Sahara first?'" said a European official who was at the session, speaking on condition of anonymity under customary diplomatic rules. "He even brought up Abkhazia," the obscure Black Sea region that has been trying to secede from Georgia.
And every time Lavrov said something, Condi would jump in, the official said. "It was like tennis."
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In an earlier meeting of major nations. Putin requested to talk frankly. He warned that the US was repeatedly doing things that threatened to restart the Cold War. Truth be told - Putin is right.
Quote:
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A senior Bush administration official acknowledged that the administration, in more than six years, had not figured out how to manage its relationship with Russia.
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Duhhhhh. Clinton, George Sr, and Reagan had no problem. All were smart enough to even recognize the power of containment and the dangers of pre-emption. Clinton effected regime change when the regime was massacring its own people - twice and without military invasion. George Jr is even losing both wars that he created.
George Jr terminated the anti-ballistic missile treaty unilaterally. He is attempting to do same to the nuclear test ban treaty and the non-proliferation treaty. He destroyed an agreement that would have brought N Korea into the world. He destroyed relations with Syria, What could be better than all this? Restart the Cold War. But then wacko extremists are so suspicious that Condi Rice even mistakenly called them the USSR in a public statement. Putin has every reason to fear a US incompetence to restart the Cold War.
The only nation that keeps the US from unilaterally releasing (Pearl Harboring) a nuclear war is Russia. Would Cheney think twice before ordering a pre-emtive nuclear attack. Obviously not.