What a remarkable piece of writing in Putin's Editorial at the NYT

[donna123]

62. Putin is laughable

What is wrong with exceptionalism? Shouldn't that be something to strive for? It certainly does not mean all Americans are exceptional, look at the tea party, if they are exceptional, it's being exceptionally nutty. While I applaud the NYTimes for giving a forum to others, Putin is so full of ish, the editorial just makes me want to refute every point he makes, just out of principle. Putin, who needs to take his shirt off, to display some symbolic virility, which actually only serves to show weakness. Please.

I also do not understand this phrase that the US is not the world's policeman. If the US is not, who is? NATO? China? With great power comes great responsibility. The US is not Cambodia. Does the world not need a nation or nations to lead when other nations cannot? Yes, this can often engender resentment and ire from others because they see this as meddling but in a situation such as what happened in the balkans, was that not the right thing to do? The UN cannot lead.

A little off topic but can someone explain this thing about Iran getting nuclear weapons. I understand we do not want nuclear proliferation, I am not for that, but if Iran got nukes, what do people think would happen? That they would nuke Israel? If they did that, Israel and the US would probably nuke Iran out of existence, I think Iran knows that. Is it that if Iran gets nukes, they will give it to Al Qaeda who could then build some limited dirty bomb? Couldn't Al Qaeda get that from other sources, like North Korea? Is it if Iran gets nukes, then Iraq will want them too and so on and so on? That I can understand, I would not want one country after another to get nukes. Israel seems the most concerned about Iran getting nukes, but again, I would think Iran would know there are only downsides to attacking Israel. I do not understand.