Cloak and Laptop

The cloak and dagger games of days of yore have seemingly been replaced by a spying somewhat more subtle but ultimately no less destructive. Eleven alleged agents of the Commonwealth of Independent States seem to be up to old Soviet-style games. But who would expect otherwise? Nations do not have "friends", only interests. No nation will ever love another polity, only fear it- which is a pretty compelling argument against turning wars into nation-building exercises as we see Team Obama now attempting in Afghanistan. Russia will always be Russia and the people of Afghanistan will never turn against their Muslim brothers to embrace we infidels. Sometimes you have to burn the village not to save it but to scare an enemy into compliance or submission, and Putin and Medvedev are not nice guys, but tough guys determined to advance their national interests as Obama is just too weak (or naive) to do.