What You Reap=What You Sow

We've seen a lot of comebacks the last few years. A war in Iraq. A President named George Bush. Leg warmers. And now, apparently, The Cold War arms race is back!

MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia is developing a new form of nuclear missile unlike those held by other countries, news agencies reported.

Speaking at a meeting of the Armed Forces' leadership, Putin reportedly said that Russia is researching and successfully testing new nuclear missile systems.

"I am sure that ... they will be put in service within the next few years and, what is more, they will be developments of the kind that other nuclear powers do not and will not have," Putin was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency.

That sounds great! The US media has ignored Russia's slow descent into totalitarianism up until now, and I don't think this will wake them either. But clearly, the largest country (by landmass) on Earth is one place where freedom is most definitely NOT on the march, and one can look at it as a model for what could (what am I saying could? Is!) happen here. Putin has systematically crushed dissent, used state power to edge aside rivals, and turned the Duma into a chorus of yes-men. And now, in the name of terrorism, they're building new nukes. Which, by the way, we're doing here too.

According to California Peace Action, the Senate Appropriations Committee is expected as early as today to take up an "omnibus" appropriations bill, which will include President Bush’s request for $27.6 million for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, or nuclear "bunker buster" and $9 million for Advanced Concepts, or so-called "mini-nukes" research. At the CPA website (link above), you can write your Senator to oppose this legislation.

Russia and the United States are hurtling down a familiar path, not necessarily in concert with one another, of arming themselves to the hilt while silencing anyone who disagrees with them. Welcome to "The New Freedom."