To Russia with a Snarl

Part of the reason for the apocalyptic thoughts of the weekend were news reports of Dick Cheney in Eastern Europe, snarling at the Russians. This seems to me like such a bad idea right now. The Iranians are terrifying everybody with their "ya, just watch me" quest to join the league of nuclear nations. So far Russia and China have been pissing around uselessly on the lawns of this house of crisis while Europe and the US are out on the street yelling and shaking their fists at the man on the front steps yelling back.

But I figure who has the most to worry about a nuclear Iran than Russia? Mostly because who is the closest neighbour out of the big powers to this hot spot? Russia, of course.

The US could realize that while Russia has an extreme interest in Iranian oil, it also has an extreme interest in not having nuclear war on its back doorstep. So the US could have a discrete confab with the Russians and work something out where Russia stops bringing Iran housewarming gifts, but does it without visibly moving in with the West and thus losing all kinds of face and credibility.

Is this what the US is doing? No, of course not. Instead, the Bush administration sends Dick Cheney to stomp around castigating the Russians for their human rights record and berating them for playing nasty geopolitical games with gas and oil. All the while sucking up to the Kazakhstanis and encouraging them to build pipelines that will bypass Russia and bring the fruits of their huge oil fields directly to the West. According to the NY Times, the Kazakh president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, won a third six-year term in December 2005, with 91 percent of the vote, and two opposition politicians have been murdered in six months. Now there's the shining beacon of democracy and civil rights the US really wants to team up with!

Of us all, the Israelis have the most to lose. They must be very nervous right now. Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, spends large amounts of his time declaring his burning desire to wipe them off the map, and their bestest ally, the US, is bungling the response to this latest scary fanatic. Sabre rattling, diplomacy of alienation. Does this feel like deja vu all over again?