The article is fairly informative.

Identifying Russia's major assets as oil, gas, the arms industry and Putin, looks right.

I disagree though with the premature assessment of a drop in America's standing

"the productive capacity of its economy has further withered and it has become increasingly isolated, with possibly only the United Kingdom and Israel as substantial allies."

America's productive capacity is vastly ahead of any other country and its economic reach/dominance over other countries is also unsurpassed.

The US is in close alliance relations with other powerful countries like Japan, Italy and Germany etc (not just "the United Kingdom and Israel" ). Note that Russia seems to be losing key central European countries to the US/Western alliance, such as Poland, which is now a member of Nato.

Pete
http://spyingbadthings.blogspot.com

Interesting article. Amazing how quickly such a huge country managed to turn itself around.

America may still be the biggest producer, but it's been steadily losing production, what? since Reagan?

I wonder whether the United States could hitch her skirts and spin as fast as Russia has, especially considering she's never had to before.

The US, militarily, apart from success in UN campaigns efforts such as in the Balkans, with low marks for its retreat from Vietnam, and a very poor show in Iraq, would be lucky so far since the 1970s to have scored 3 out of 10.

Certainly future historians will be looking for a scapegoat, Henry Kissinger for the attack on Cambodia, only increasing the problem in Vietnam, and Rumsfeld for the so far failure in Iraq.

To be sure in Iraq one of the most foolish decisions, as shown recently on SBS Cutting Edge, was the foolish insight in early 2003 to disband Saddam's frontline fighting force said to have been more than 250 thousand men.

Though it was the suppressed Iraqi Shias whom GW Bush had been so much expressing to save, it is the Sunni's who are the proven two-timers, having through history been more likely to cooperate with the West than the Shias as proven with the American help with the Sunni Iraqi attack on the Shias of Iran in the 1980s. That is why Saddam's so-called topline fighting force should have been kept assembled by the US, even if only as an interior police force.

With a Russia now rich, and with a re-Sovietised Putin lining up with a massively capitalised China, friendly with a newly scientific India coupled with an empathy with Iran, historians are going to say that the US leaders at the time must have long been lost or probably on the pot

The US is in close alliance relations with other powerful countries like Japan, Italy and Germany etc (not just "the United Kingdom and Israel”).

In 1941 shortly after Japan attacked the American base at Pearl Harbor, Nazi Germany declared war on the US. The US of A then dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. you reckon they’ve forgotten yet?

Ok then United Kingdom and their support for the War on Iraq? nop

Let’s try Israel’s conflict in the Middle East? don’t think so

US's foreign policies have failed horribly and its list of enemies is growing faster then the Chinese economy.

Who does Russia have to worry about? Georgia *ooh scary*

An international success in the Balkans? Are you joking?
And what about Australia as a natural US ally and trade partner?

This l u c k i l y ignored by Australian elitarian minders M. Kerjman had ages ago provided even more on Russian-US-Australia affairs (West-West Perspective: Russia) not much welcomed in a n y European corner understandably:
http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2005/10/248352.shtml

The question remains to what extent Australia will continue her being either sort of an agricultural-natural resources-military-on-first-demand appendix of Buckingham Palace or developing own national productive industries and closer links with the US and Russia as partners in various fields and consumer markets?