Sabre-rattling towards election day

The markets are scratching their heads at the US's recently penned agreement to stick some missile interceptors on Polish soil. This after we send Condee to Georgia for photo ops with Saakashvili and W acted all tough admonishing Putin and the one he calls "Mr. Med-viyedev" (he's gotten closer over the months) for their aggression. Election run-up for a war hero, anyone? Take our minds off the economy? Bush has such a gracious gift for foreign policy adventurism and dramatics, does he not?

No but seriously, why do we want missile interceptors in Poland? Do we really think Putin's Russia poses a serious threat to Western Europe? He may want to recreate Russia and the Soviet Union's glory days within its traditional bounds, but I don't think he's expansionist or aggressive towards anyone who doesn't own a Russian oil company or pipeline.

Putin is loving the attention. Paul Farrell had a piece on Marketwatch last week where he talked about how much Americans secretly love war. Well, the Russians make no secret about it. There are huge war memorials that people revere, and they have a national holiday commemorating victory in WWII, and so on. Afghanistan and Chechnya have dimmed the luster only a touch. War doesn't threaten the Russians, that's when they think they're living life properly.

There is an observed truth that two countries with McDonalds restaurants in them have never fought a war. Lets see how that goes.