Did you watch the US Embassy in Belgrade burn? Did the spectacle appear ominous?
The mostly-Muslim, mostly Albanian area of Serbia called Kosovo, over which President Clinton went to war to restrain Serbian ethnic-cleansing, has declared independence from greater Serbia. The US and most of Europe immediately recognized the new country and government.
Serbia, was not so happy.
And neither was Russia who sees the US and Europe rapidly winning former Soviet states over to their side.
Most understand that the Serbian government allowed the riots and the burning of the US Embassy.
"We have made known to the Serbian government our concern and displeasure that their police force did not prevent this incident," President George W. Bush's spokeswoman said....
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana stressed that Serbia had an "obligation" to protect embassies, and said talks with Belgrade on an accord that could lead to Serbia joining the 27-nation bloc would be put on ice.
I don't think Serbia much cares about joining the EU anymore and Serbia's close ally, Russia, couldn't be more ecstatic about having yet another of it's former states joining "the enemy".
More importantly, Russia is the Puppetmaster orchestrating this unrest in the heart of Europe.
Russia supplies missile and nuclear technology to Iran. When the US attempts to deploy a missile shield to Europe to protect them from Iran, Russia balks, claiming the missile defense is really targeting Russia.
Well, if you ask me, that's revealing if you consider Iran a proxy of Russia.
Russia supplies arms to America's enemies in Syria and Venezuela
Russia has made a strategic military alliance with China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
And now Russia is fostering unrest in Europe which, if maintained, will further occupy NATO troops on European soil, providing less resources to quell Islamists in Afghanistan.
How will the Obama deal with Russia and Putin?
We already know that Democrats tried to cut funding for the missile shield, the very system that was just proved in a real world situation as being effective
This is not a situation for platitudes. Russia is seriously orchestrating a play for dominance, using the Islamist wild card whom they only barely control as their proxy.
This is very nuanced and complex global situation and from what I can tell, his Foreign Policy team is not up to the job.
Can we trust an inexperienced newcomer to the global sandbox with the challenges the next President will face?
The Change he brings could very well be the Change we have been trying to avoid since the end of the Second World War.
