US

Well, Condi is obviously doing something right as she has royally pissed off Pravda.

A choice sampling:

{...}So instead of mouthing off about NATO and Russia, how about you shut the hell up, put a sock in it and go back to inflict yourself on your students? Rumour has it you were pretty much hated in academic circles as well, perhaps not as much as in the area of diplomacy, which your very presence insults.

You, personally, are the reason why Washington has been divorced from the international community; you, personally are the reason why so many millions of people hate the idea of the United States and all it stands for; you, personally, are responsible for driving a wedge of sullen hatred into the hearts and mind of the international community. You have done more damage to your country, to its international standing, to the history and the noble precepts of your founding fathers than any other American in history.{...}

Is is just me, or is this "editorial" more reminiscent of a blog post, rather than the opinion column of a newspaper? 

Of course, it is Pravda we're talking about here, but hell.  One would think even they would have better standards for editorial writers than some blogger in the "Insignificant Microbe" section of the Ecosystem. 

Keep up the good work, Condi!  I, for one, am proud to have you pissing off the Russians!  Someone needs to teach those pissants a lesson, and you're just the girl for the job.

{ht: Ace}

Why, you finally get with the program and go out and buy a gun. 

Or in Poland's case, you let the US set up their missile defense system in your backyard, and get a battery of Patriot missiles in return. 

They've been working on this deal for over a year now, and if you think the current events in Georgia didn't have anything to do with Poland's hasty reversal, you, my devoted Cake Eater readers, need a good lesson in geopolitical theory.  

Poland's government changed during the winter and the new Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, wasn't too keen on the deal, set up originally by President Kacyzinski, and his twin brother, the former Prime Minister, who are more than a little whacko about the threat from Russia and have put Polish society through an anti-commie witchhunt for the past several years.  (yeah, Polish politics are that confusing.)  If Tusk was going to do it at all, he wanted more bang for his buck, to make it worthwhile to antagonize Russia in such a way---and he got it, in the form of Patriot missiles, and a mutual defense agreement, wherein the US will come to their aid if Poland suddenly gets in trouble, above and beyond any NATO promises to do the same.  Of course, the Poles are obliged to come to the US's defense, should, you know, someone decide to invade here, but you get the gist.  What has happened in Georgia has them running scared.

There's just one thing, though, that gave me a good chuckle out of all this.  Dana Perino, White House Spokeswoman, said that this deal, "was not an attempt to antagonize Russia."  BAH!  Who are you trying to kid, lady?  Of course it was intended to antagonize Russia.  Forget the cover story about setting up missile defense in Poland to protect us from Iran, this is all about Russia, baby.  And it's about time the Russians learned they're going to have to pay a price for what they did in Georgia.  That means a missile defense base in Poland, and in the Czech Republic.  That means Ukraine will shortly be ushered into NATO.  That means Russia will be kicked out of the G8, and won't be allowed into the WTO.  That means, potentially, a shortage of western investment into building up Russia's oil and gas infrastructure, which is probably just fine by BP, Royal Dutch Shell and any number of other oil companies due to Putin's tendency to let them build things up and then appropriate their hard work for the benefit of Rosneft and Gazprom, the Russian state oil and gas companies.  The days when the former Soviet satellites were unable to rely upon the West for help in dealing with Russia's imperialistic whims are over with.  It should be interesting to see just how pissed off Vlad gets at this development.   But he brought it on himself.  He, apparently, needs reminding that what he thought was his backyard isn't his anymore.  

As a related aside, it's kind of funny how the past couple of days have brought that red-headed stepchild of international relations theory, the Domino Theory,  back into favorable use.