What Putin Saw In Dubya's Eyes

As Bush was famously declaring back in 2001 that he had looked Russian president Vladimir Putin in the eyes and gotten a sense of his soul, Putin may well have been doing the same with Bush and keeping quiet about what he saw there.

Not any more.

MUNICH, Germany - Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Saturday that the United States' increased use of military force is creating a new arms race, with smaller nations turning toward developing nuclear weapons.

Speaking at a conference of the world's top security officials, including the Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, Putin said nations "are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations."

"One state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way," he told the 250 officials, including more than 40 defense and foreign ministers.

"This is nourishing an arms race with the desire of countries to get nuclear weapons," Putin said, but did not elaborate on specifics and did not mention the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Specifics? Try this:

Russia has unveiled plans to replace nearly half the army's hardware by 2015. Welcomed by some as a long-overdue necessity, others question whether the plan can really be carried out. VOA's Lisa McAdams in Moscow reports.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told lawmakers Wednesday the government planned to spend nearly $200 billion on the military upgrade. He said it would allow Russia to maintain its nuclear deterrent, while developing its conventional forces.

Ivanov told lawmakers the plan calls for the purchase of more than 50 new Topol-M missile complexes, 50 new bombers, and 31 ships. He said it also envisions fully re-arming 40 tank, 97 infantry and 50 parachute battalions - a level of purchasing not seen since the Soviet Union's collapse.

Ivanov said Russia's oil revenues now give it the chance to reach what he called, "a qualitatively new level in military procurement." At the same time, Ivanov voiced doubt that Russia's industry could produce the quality weaponry required by the Russian military.

The Russian procurement process is just as corrupt as the American one and even more inefficient, so it's moot how much of this will actually come to pass. Still, did the neocons and their enablers really think the rest of the world would sit back and let them establish their American hegemony without coming up with plans of their own? Maybe so, in which case it is hardly surprising, with that level of idiotic wishful thinking, that everything they've touched has become a quagmire for America.