keith, the thing about the Russians is, everyone knows what to expect –you just don’t leave anything up to goodwill, and you can count on them being always the same. USA OTOH, with our biannual November revolutions and checks and balances gov’t (open congressional hearings for the other party’s time in office’s spooks????), and free press (sorta, it ‘breathes’), is a whole different animal to ally with.

Back when the operative axiom was ‘politics stops at the water’s edge’ things were FAR different.

Clinton buried all that, with his ‘permanent campaign’ and ‘war room’, though i believe even he was predated by the Turkish general who said, “The problem with the Americans is they’re always stabbing themselves in the back!”

Keith, i recommend (FWIW!) all the Nyquist you can stand –the guy’s been a prophet since 9/11/01 –just look at the titles alone in his archive –plus his stuff is about almost mechanically predicting the future based on the text of the past, accessed via interviews and transcripts of and with the faceless deep operations players, and their obscure oddball books and articles –stuff that we’ll never otherwise know exists. but he ain’t no joy-joy, no sirree.