When I listen to the shills on PBS, their usual AEI treadmill "experts," trying to shape the dialog on the So. Ossetia/Abkhazia conflict--as well as the lies of our govenrment spokespeople--I think that Americans must have a very short memory span for history, and the terms of the beaten Russian Federation's "cooperation" after the fall of communism. The Soros-funded BS in Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan is coming home to roost. Kosovo is coming home to roost. And then I have to listen to Big John McC opine that "in the 21st century you don't invade other countries..." This is truly obscene, twisted and assumes Americans are simply dupes and idiots, whether useful or not.

If the neocons keep us on the warpath, and we nationalize our financial system by beggaring the US taxpayer for generations while the Russians and others nationalize their energy for control and profit, American will indeed be deeper down the drain than at any time in the last 75 years, about the same time one of the lousiest systems ever, thug-run "communism," lasted.

Keep slugging, Mr Buchanan.

Polls in China and Russia? You can't be serious. Let me guess: the respective questionnaires read as follows; 1) Are you happy with the country's direction; or 2) If you are willing to express unhappiness with your country's direction, please write down your name and address, along with those of your children.

The same polling template is used in the ever-egalitarian Mideast, the whole of Africa and far away regions like Shangri la.

Meanwhile, those ultra-peppy Chinese and Rooskies, ever agog over their teleocratic milieu (three cheers for the majesty of The Party), smoke, gamble and drink like there's no tomorrow.

Regarding Russia's confrontational stance to the west, this might be due to a perceived military threat. The Russians were promised, after peacefully letting go of Eastern Europe, that NATO would not move eastwards. Now the US is pushing for inclusion of Ukraine and Georgia into NATO. So who is being confrontational to whom?

Under Hitler economic conditions and the standard of living for the great unwashed were greatly improved in Germany. For this to happen it was not necessary for the leader to have a great or in-depth knowledge of economic theory. But Hitler did know that his people could only improve their lot through the "work with their own two hands".

And all this was achieved without an ounce of gold in the German national treasury. At that time most of the gold was in USA possession, and they were in the middle of a great depression.

As a high school student I was subjected to movies depicting Hitler's "rants to conquer the world" during "history" lessons. Well, in university I studied German as an elective and listened to Hitler's speeches in German.

Would you care to venture an opinion as to what the RECURRING theme of Hitler's speeches was? He told his people that economic improvement would only be achieved through working with their own two hands. Simple, what?

Compare this with the garbage and platitudes we are being fed now by out "leaders". (They are not leaders, but rulers).

I would venture the opinion that all that is necessary for economic success is that one spend less than one earns, ie. applying the same rules that the average Hausfrau intuitively understood.

This simple guide line applies not only to individuals but also to corporations and countries. There is nothing wrong with borrowing to purchase permanent or income-producing assets at a reasonable price. But borrowing to buy groceries or price-inflated assets is the road to financial disaster for the individual and countries.

H.F. Wolff

'Chinese are smart hardworking people and it would be interesting to see how China develops in the future. There space program already surpasses Russia’s.'

The Chinese have placed two people in low-earth orbit. Their space program does not in any way surpass the Russians. The chinese are hard-working; made so by the threat of execution or eviction. Any greatness in them is long-ago spent/squandered. Let us see them for what they are, a mass of scared slave laborers. That is all.

China will never conquer the world. They cannot even conquer themselves.

Thank you.

Citizens of the US have to be the richest in terms of material things, yet they are not satisfied.

The citizens who are most optimistic and energetic are those with a cause they believe in even if it means sacrifice. That's what Hitler gave the Germans.

The most energetic and enthusiastic people today are the ones whose cause is jihad.

I'm surprised at Buchannan’s comments about Russia seeing how nearly all of it is western propaganda.

Justin Raimondo of antiwar.com did some good investigative reporting on the Litvinenko farce and the Ukrainian poisoning dioxin farce as well.

Russia is more democratic now than during the 90's when a western backed mafia oligarghy controlled every aspect of Russia its economy, media, duma parliament and president which they got through theft and murder.

All the so called independent media are essentially anti-putin propaganda newspaper and radio of the former oligarchs. Berezovsky still owns Komersant in Russia.

Democracy is a farce when an ethnic minority in the US comprising of less than 2% of the population controls all of the media, majority of political finance, book publishing, government appointees, judges, academia even the license to print money and ownership of central banks. Some website moderators will not even post comments critical of this ethnic group.

With there control of media we get opinions exclusively from there permitted perspective. That why in the US things like the attack on the USS Liberty, anti-immigration, critical view of Israel, propaganda leading up to the Iraq war and the forthcoming Iran war and who’s interest it serves.

It’s the same in Europe ( Britain France, Germany, etc).

Perhaps even were not exactly getting an unbiased historical accurate viewpoint on Hitler and why he was so popular with Germans.

but they're terribly greedy and corrupt. You can't trust a Chinese man any more than you can a Nigerian. And corruption is bound to take its toll on the economy.

Daniel,

I'm no fan of democratic capitalism, but you're very right that these [supra-]nations are thriving off rivalry.

"Moscow is today more nationalistic, less democratic and more confrontational toward the West than it has been since before the fall of communism."

Well, perhaps if they didn't have the imminent threat of US global hegemony on their doorstep, perhaps "democratic capitalism" would be on the rise in these countries. Considering Russia just came off of an oppressive communist past, I think they are doing just fine. Unfortunately, we are headed to where they used to be.