Putin's Legitimate Point

Given the fires the U.S. is attempting to extinguish around the world, many the result of incompetence and not happenstance, why is it fanning a deliberate one in Russia?

At issue is the anti-missile batteries that the Bush administration insists on installing in Poland and the Czech Republic. Earlier this month, the Pentagon yet again crowed over a false test of the anti-ballistic system in which a missile unprotected by decoys was shot down by another missile.

In short -- after more than a quarter-century of development, the technology still does not yet work under authentic conditions. Even if it gets installed, even with hard-fought Russian agreement, North Korea, Iran or whomever will know that the system can be confounded with simple diversion.

Considering the many crucial matters on which to debate Russia (Iran, Iraq, Syria, abuse of petro-power, trans-Caspian pipelines, to name a few), one wonders why Condi Rice and Robert Gates were in Moscow pounding the table on an empty issue.

Moscow makes a practice of provoking incredulity on the world stage. But this is an example of Washington's immature foreign policy leadership.

After six years of repudiated treaties, Gates also kept a straight face while nettling Putin over his threats to withdraw from a couple. ``Europeans are beginning to wonder what the Russians are all about,'' he said deadpan today in Moscow. Read Bloomberg account

The West needs to get serious. Drop the non-issues and talk turkey. Warsaw and Prague will still be game when the system is actually functioning.