Bush/Putin Share Ancient Vision Of The World

For a long time I could never figure out why President Bush and President Putin got along so well. Now as they finished their last meeting together as world leaders I think I finally understand why the leader of the United States and Russia seem to be such good friends. That reason is, they are just alike in their ancient thinking of the world. While President Bush has progressed his thinking further than his counterpart in Russia when it comes to the war against terrorism. Both of these men seem to be stuck in the past as the world around them has moved forward. These two men have something in common and that is a severe stubbornness when it comes to getting their way both back in their own counties and in worldwide negotiations as well. Both President Bush and President Putin usually get their way because they never back down from their original beliefs, even if those believes are proven wrong over time.

Now President Putin and President Bush will be leaving the public stage soon. While President Bush will be completely leaving the US political scene, President Putin will more than likely still be running his country via a proxy President. Most Americans of both political party's have grown very tired of the Bush administration and that weariness is not just because of President Bush's stubborn policies in Iraq. On almost every issues that come before President Bush he has an idea of how that issue should proceed and he stubbornly refuses to compromise with Democrats and usually, in the end, he gets his way. The problem with this approach of President Bush is that his judgment does not seem to be good when it comes to solving major problems both abroad and right her at home. The leadership style of President Bush would never be successful without weak kneed Democratic and loyal to a fault Republicans making it happen.

This almost brotherly bond between President Bush and President Putin has lower tensions between the United States and Russia, but that too is not as big of a deal as it once was because most people do not see Russia as public enemy number one in the United States like they were before the former Soviet Union was dissolved. In this weekends talks between President Bush and President Putin, the number one item on the agenda was President Bush's desire to make a US missile defense shield a reality for the United States. Of course, Russia sees this action by President Bush in old cold war terms and my thinking now is that President Bush must think so as well. While President Bush claims that the US missile defense shield system is not designed to protect the US from Russian nuclear missiles, but instead from rouge states - Putin is not buying into that thinking because both Bush and Putin are leaders that grew up in a cold war world.

One can only hope that the citizens of the United States and Russia are making better choices when it comes to our next President's. While Russia is probably in for more of the same as President Putin continues to pull the strings from behind the scenes - the United States has a chance to make a clean start when President Bush leaves office in January. My hope is that the next President, no mater who he or she might be, will take US foreign policy in a different direction than President Bush. While I initially supported President Bush in his first and second election as our President, his leadership style has taught me that his brand of leadership is not something I want to see repeated in our next President. While I hope that the US does not drift too far to the left in an Obama or Clinton administration, it is time for real change in America and for the people of this great country to have a real leader and not just an extreme ideologue making important decisions.

Bush/Putin Share Ancient Vision Of The World