The nadir of US-Russia relations came with the Georgia Abkhazia/South Ossetia war. Mikheil Saakashvili, the US-backed numskull from the Rose Revolution, decided to shell Russian troops. The Russians told them to cut it out. The Georgians didn’t. The Russians invaded Georgia and put an end to the shelling. Saakashvili was hoping the Americans would send in the Marines for a shooting war with the Russians. You’d never know our Georgian proxies started this war from listening to the American media, who were madly whooping for the Georgians. Fortunately, some adult decided that fighting World War III because we put a gun-happy bubblehead in charge of Georgia would be a poor use of American resources. The American media wailed that Soviet tyranny had returned. After about two months the Russians withdrew, just like they said they would.

The Western media has hailed the color revolutions as a blossoming of democracy in former Soviet states. The Russians perceive them as hostile American interference in their local affairs. Georgia had been part of Russia since 1801. Eastern Ukraine had been part of Russia since 1795. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is based in Sevastopol, which is a city in Ukraine. Kiev contains the spiritual center of Russian religion, and the Kievan Rus were the cultural origin of the Russian people. The Russians have more interests in Ukraine and Georgia than we do. If the Russians or Chinese were meddling in Canada and Mexico’s political affairs, we might suspect them of ill intentions. Naturally, the Russians resent our preposterous attempts to interfere with matters on their borders.

While candidate Romney’s magical underpants are in a bunch over Obama’s Russia policy, US-Russia relations have improved over the last three years. Obama managed to wring a nuclear reduction treaty out of the Russians. The Russians have saved our bacon in Afghanistan by allowing us the use of their airspace to ship supplies to fight the Taliban. The Russians even allowed US troops to march in their 2010 Victory Day parade. They’re still bent out of shape at the US for our recent treacheries, but things have realistically never been better.

Romney’s plan to further alienate the Russians serves no purpose other than pleasing the crackpots who run our senile military-industrial complex. The Russians aren’t going to invade anyone. They can barely deal with their vast internal problems. The Eastern European missile-defense system “against Iran” is useless and it would make the Russkies happy if the US would abandon it, or at least let Russian inspectors visit. While people complain about the Russians possibly assassinating people, complaining about it seems rather odd as the US presently reserves the right to openly assassinate its own citizens.

Russia is not the Soviet Union. Russia is more like France, with more natural resources and worse food. The sooner our politicians realize that the Russians are more like Frenchmen with a peculiar affection for beets, the saner our policies will be.