Bush Uses Words, Not Threats, With Putin

Today Putin and Bush announced that they have a common framework for getting past this nasty missile business in Europe. So all these Russian remarks about Europe becoming a pancake were posturing, which is what you would have to expect. After all, Russia would be destroying themselves in destroying Europe. And I doubt they are prepared for another European war.

Without a doubt, though, Russia has felt very threatened by Eastern Europe's military cooperation with NATO and the U.S. They have made this plain over the last few weeks by their complaining loudly and publicly that Russia is abiding by treaties limiting missiles and no one else is.

But now that President Bush has found the value of talking instead of name calling, he and Putin have established the beginnings of a dialog on military cooperation against common threats. What are these common threats? A nuclear Iran, a Middle East meltdown, and an aggressive China. Those are my guesses. So much for the cold war military contractors were hoping for.

Click on the title to this post for the transcript of Bush's and Putin's public statements.

Compare the Two Stories

My God, Econo-Girl hasn't been this surprised since Pravda called U.S. intervention in Kosovo "unwarranted."

In doing research on Putin's speech before the 43rd Munich Security Conference, Econo-Girl has found three great articles, all linked on Google News. The nature of what happened at that conference is important enough to warrant several posts.

From Xinhua's China View, (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-02/10/content_5724866.htm), a direct reporting of Putin's remarks on the effects of unbridled U.S. military aggression on the insecurity level of the world.

Excerpt: "We are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations ... the United States has overstepped its national borders in every way," said Putin at a high-profile security conference in southern German city of Munich.

"The legitimate use of force can only be done by the United Nations, which cannot be replaced by EU or NATO," he said."

Putin went on to say the insecurity caused by U.S. use of force leads other nations to want nuclear weapons. The content of Putin's speech will be addressed in other posts.

Now look at another article on the same conference: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L10161072.htm. You will notice that Putin is not mentioned at all. The stated purpose of this newswire is to "alert humanitarians to emergencies." The writer talks about how diplomats are whispering in hallways about offering incentives to Iran to behave itself. A few blunt threats did that just fine before the conference was over.

If humanitarian emergencies is your focus, why would you ignore Putin's insight on global destabilization? Econo-Girl is no Putin fan, but he raises some very interesting points that are very much worth discussing.

The People's Daily Online (http://english.people.com.cn/200702/11/eng20070211_349165.html) quotes Putin as saying,

' "We should not corner Iran into a hostile environment," Putin said at a high-profile security conference held in the southern German city of Munich.

There is no evidence, after all, that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, he said.'

If you are writing an article about diplomats drafting incentives to get Iran to stop its nuclear program, wouldn't a mention of the above comment be fitting?

The comparison of news articles from various news outlets is an analysis all its own. Thank God for the Internet and ready access to the People's Daily.