CDR Salamander lays out the best case to be worried about Russia that I've heard...

Everyone that has visited these pages knows that I feel one of the great misses of the last three decades is how we handled Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In my opinion they were ripe for integration into greater Europe and we could have EASILY guaranteed a safe and prosperous continent for at least a century.

It was not to be and the Russia Hawks (Condi Rice, George Will, Kristol and others) held sway, kept up the drumbeat of them being a threat and successfully led us back to a cold war type stand off.

While I still believe we could move forward with Russia and help lower tensions by working together on the big international issue of the day (terrorism) and a few joint projects (like space travel and alternate energy), its also obvious that the cards have been played and we MIGHT be headed toward bad times.

Salamander lays out the case for why we should be worried here. Unfortunately he's damn convincing.

Side note:  I do wonder though.  CDR Salamander is one of those old skool, cold warriors.  He was playing big boy games in the Atlantic with hard core Russian sub commanders when I was still reading comic books and dreaming of banging my first girl.  Is this nostalgia or an actual thing?  I still hold out hope that we can bring Russia into our camp.