In 1939, the French Foreign Minister was trying to get Hitler to combine German and France to rule Europe together. Hitler, of course, had other ideas.

I’m not aware of theis particular aspect, could you give me more precisions ?

Daladier wasn’t the coward that that is uselly related, he wouldn’t have signed the Munich agreeement if the Brits were’nt, cuz the country that had the most experienced German wars were the French, but at this state, he knew that he couldn’t undertake a war without the Brits, but they weren’t ready !

(if you want sources, I can provide them, but in french)

IF Russia is so hellbent on avenging the collapse of the USSR…why are they:

1. Allowing our troops and materiel to transit their country to Afghanistan (oh wait, after eight years it’s now just a dirty trick to keep us fighting over there in the “graveyard of empires”)

2. Buying U.S. govt debt – including at the time of the Fannie/Freddie collapse, Moscow was the 4th largest holder of gov housing backed short term paper. Or do you think Hank Paulson was in Moscow in July 2008 for no reason? It seems the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing, in the sense that one part of the gov had its hands out to the Russians, and the other was helping Misha Saako plot his proxy war against them and feeding his delusional fantasies of easy victory (here’s looking at you, Randy Scheunemann, a real man of genius who tried to throw Palin under the bus after people like him drove the McCain campaign into the ground).

3. STILL propping up the U.S. dollar by buying dollars in intl markets – check the ruble fluctuation rate. Not to mention all those steel mills the oligarchs bought and took a bath on since steel prices collapsed in 2008.

Yes Russia is dealing with a weak horse. But that isn’t necessarily good for Russia. Cheap Afghan heroin is flooding the Motherland, even on a larger scale than the flood of drugs that came in the late Seventies (not that I’m saying that was a conspiracy to weaken USSR…BUT…the Cold War was dirtier than a lot of people here would like to acknowledge, and perhaps the boys of 9 Rota were premature drug warriors…or anti-jihadis, if Oriana Fallaci was right).

I’m glad another commenter here mentioned it, if you don’t trust Soros because he made a billion betting against the Pound and spent hundreds of millions to fund the Left, why on Earth would you trust his stooges in Ukraine and Georgia?

Soros’ problem now is that the Chinese can outbid him for buying Moldova. The cute “Twitter Revolution” which was almost identical to the Rose and Orange Revs failed last year, but nobody noticed. Then BAM! Beijing steps in with a billion dollar loan. Meanwhile, Belarus has been transformed from Kremlin stooge to victim of Russian energy imperialism practically overnight, coinciding with that country negotiating a $10 billion dollar from the EU. So no, they don’t give a crap about your democratic credentials, as long as you’re not in the Kremlin or you have oil in Central Asia or a way to build pipe to bypass Russia…

“cowardliness isn’t a french quality, but rather awareness” history begs to differ….

I lost several members of my family in WW2… and I’m sure when I have to travel to europe or some other god forsaken hole to deal with WW3 my family will shrink again due to your complete and total cowardliness.

Evidence please! This is another bit o’ Russian propaganda. Show me the treaty that the USA ratified making the promise you claim was made.
What is really pathetic is that the Russians are almost always the only ones falling for their propaganda.
Arius, exactly why are you blaming something that happened in 1204 on the USA? I didn’t get that at all.

“The rise of Putin and his friends is well documented.” I’m sure. That, of course, is NOT the same as being factual. More popaganda.
Bush Sr. was manning the Oval office when the Soviet Union imploded. He is the one that did nothing when Yelstin took over as the next Russian despot.
If Russsia was going to weaned away from “The tyrant is dead, Long live the tyrant” government ( absolutism, IIRC ) then there was about a 2 year window in which to talk Yelstin into holding elections and NOT running in them. Bush Sr. didn’t see that, so Pootie had the period while Yelstin was dying to plan his take-over. If it wasn’t Pootie, it would have been somebody else. I doubt he was the only one a plottin ‘n a plannin. He just won. I’m willing to consider that it might not have made any difference. Maybe the Russians are like the Afghanis, and just too thick to understand representative government. You cannot force democracy on people. Democracy is bottom-up. They have to want it, to understand what the advantages are and what is required of them as citizens.
Raoul Castro said it best. Socialism teaches the people to act like little chicks. To lay around the nest with their mouths open waiting for momma ( big government) to drop a worm in. Capitalism means getting out and finding your own worms.