The Bear Growls

The question now is whether the bear is wounded by its increasing international isolation, or is it still hungry to reestablish hegemony in its self-declared sphere of influence. "Mmmm, Georgia was good. How about a piece of Poland for dessert?"

Perhaps 'Puter gives the current Russian command structure too much credit, but it would be extremely unusual for a general to threaten nuclear strikes on a nearby country, one Russia formerly brutally occupied, without the support of his political leadership (i.e., Vladimir Putin). As The Times of London reports,

General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the Russian armed forces' deputy chief of staff, issued the extraordinary threat in an interview with Interfax, a Russian news agency.

“Poland, by deploying [the system] is exposing itself to a
strike - 100 per cent,” he was quoted as saying, before explaining that Russian military doctrine sanctioned the use of nuclear weapons “against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them.”

So the Russian military believes that the deployment of the United States' missile shield in Poland is a casus belli? It is striking (no pun intended) for a Bush 43 designated partner in peace to threaten another country at all, much less with absolute annihilation through nuclear holocaust.

There's only one good thing one can say about the quickly spiraling out of control situation with Russia. Now no serious American can entertain the notion that Russia has good intentions toward the United States or her allies. The Rodina's facade has crumbled.