Is Putin Hungry Like the Wolf?

So the Russian President didn't actually use any Duran Duran lyrics in his latest speech, but he does have a known nostalgia for the 80s. Although the Cold War seemed to have thawed out, 80s-style trends, like acid-wash, cut-off jeans miniskirts and arms races between the US and Russia, are making a comeback. Last week, Putin called for renewed, smarter defense spending to make Russia a global superpower again. He called America a "wolf", referencing an old Russian joke about a man and his pet sheep who fall into a pit. When a wolf falls into the pit as well, the frightened sheep begins to cry out. The man then asks his sheep: "What's with the bah, bah, bah? The wolf knows who to eat".

Putin longs for the days when Russia was more like a bear, and less like a man trapped in a pit with his pet sheep (Afghanistan, Iraq?) and, of course, a hungry wolf (that would be us). The wolf metaphor has some bearing to it. 9/11 and the Taliban may have justified the invasion of Afghanistan, but the invasion of Iraq was done out of a ferocious hunger to dominate the Middle East. Cheney and the neocons (like Wolfowitz) knew who to invade and weren't going to listen to anyone. Putin also took a swing in his speech, rightly so, at the hypocrisy of the Bush Administration for calling for human rights and democracy while at the same time rounding up people into secret prisons and committing abuses seen in Abu Ghraib prison. The fact is the Bush Administration has no moral highground to criticize Putin's clamp-down on democracy. Just this week, we have learned that the National Security Agency has been spying, warrantlessly, on tens of millions of Americans. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Perhaps Putin, a former KGB spy, is simply jealous of the totalitarian state that post-9/11 America has become. If Putin had an equivalent to Bush's "War on Terror" and Fox News, just think of all the strategic territories Mother Russia could "liberate". It's like another old Russian saying: If the Bear is hungry, the Bear will eat. Ok, that was actually Steve Pontius from Jackass after being asked whether he likes boys or girls. The point is that Putin would love for Russia to rise again. America, in his eyes, is a tired, stuffed wolf, and Putin sees this as a chance to get out of the pit. Maybe Putin might even try to capture the wolf, using a little birdie to distract him while Putin catches him in a lasso. Well this is another Russian fairytale, Peter and the Wolf. I think the geopolitical Putin and the Wolf may be a tale yet untold. But maybe this is the analogy Putin really was hinting at. Iran would be the little birdie, Iraq the duck inside the wolf's belly, and Putin as the little Russian boy who captures the big, bad wolf at the end. Putin can dream, can't he?