Well, I don’t have all day to expain it, so I suppose I’ll just direct your attention back to my previous comment, and ask how a nation with such a character could possibly be better if it were stronger – keeping in mind such specific actual examples as, say, the Russian responsibility for Iranian nuclear “program.” I don’t pretend to know all the consequences of Russia’s reduction to its Great Russia heartland, but presumably it would monopolize all industry and military installations in territory previously under its control (recall that Russia could give much, much less of a sh&t what the international community says than the USA). Without any oil and nuclear weapons, the Muslim steppe people would be just as they are – roamin’, sheepin’, ululatin’, beatin’ their b&tches, arguing about whether Muhammad ate with his left hand or his right hand on Sundays when the moon was half full and goat was being served cold rather than hot, and so on. Moreover the little petrol-station states of the Arab and Islamic “world” would be forced to punch more at their weight – which is to say, not at all. There would be no Uzbek/Kyrgyz/Tatar position vs. the USA against which to triangulate and impose their idiot little quarrels on our need to monitor the loathesome tribes of Swat. In short, the entire Asiatic landmass would be far far more interested in beating each other into deeper idiocies, as has been their timehonored traditions. We need these people to NOT be able to project their tribal ambitions out into the rest of the world – and this includes, foremost, Russians.
