Recently, Russia and Georgia engaged in a short military conflict that can be at best called a one-sided war and, realistically, probably should be dubbed a glorified exercise on the part of the Russians. Given that Russia of recent years have become progressively more hostile to the West, you'd think that this war would cause a surge in united diplomatic efforts from both America and its European allies. Not so.

In fact, rather than take a responsible approach to the current problems created by a Nationalistic and increasingly aggressive and authoritarian Russia, the current administration seems content to execute another plan straight out of Ronald Reagan's Cold War playbook. Namely, the United States have recently began talks to construct a missile defense system in Poland, nominally to protect against Iranian aggression, but really aimed at containing Russian power.

This move not only displays tell-tale signs of lack of understanding of Europe and its current climate, but also shows incredibly poor timing on the part of the administration. Not only are the Europeans ill-equipped and unwilling to present an unified face against the growing menace right now, but the combination of current economic and political conditions in some European countries make the move to adopt such a militant stance downright irresponsible.

Germany, the economic and political heart of continental Germany, for example, is currently experiencing a severe economic downturn and the ruling Social-Democrats are desperately trying to hold onto power. Given that the majority of the German fuel supply comes from Russia, one can easily conclude that further boat rocking by the Americans would more likely lead to an alienation of Germany than it would a containment of Russia.

Even worse, important former soviet-bloc nations like Ukraine are experiencing deep political trouble and disunity. These politically unstable nations are poor choices to serve as buffer nations, and American actions in Eastern Europe would likely further divide these countries into Pro and anti-Russian camps.

Really, the question I have with this current course of policy in Europe is the same question I have of many Bush Administration foreign policy actions - what are we trying to accomplish, exactly? To me, the current course of American policy seems reminescent of the days of Reagan in a world that has long since left Reagan behind. Europe can no longer be divided into East and West, Us and Them, for these nations are too interconnected by political ties and almost all of them depend heavily on Russian oil. Once again, then, we find our administration trying to fit a ham-fisted, antiquated policy into a modern arena, and once again, we'll most likely be met with failure. Does it really take this much experience to figure out this is no longer the world of the Cold War?