The American Spectator

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p> PUTIN'S POISONS br> Re: Ben Stein's A Scary Russian Bear : /p>

Ben Stein's thoughtful -- and alarming -- article about Russia's increasingly aggressive behavior is an apt reminder that other, serious threats exist besides Muslims and radical Islam. In fact, this concern is really a product of the Clinton years, when it was proclaimed -- contrary to all historical experience -- that the threat came from loose networks of Islamic extremists. This was accompanied by a refusal to consider the possibility that one or more hostile states may have penetrated and inserted themselves among such networks, including al-Qaida.

p>Stein's words are an appropriate caution. We can reassess our current understanding of the threats we face and recover our prior understanding of the primacy of states in international affairs -- or developments will likely oblige us to do so later, when the dangers will be much greater and we will be less able to deal with them. br> -- Laurie Mylroie /p> p> Ben has to put in the obligatory put down from the right for France in his article about European dependence on Russian oil. Perhaps he doesn't know about 90% of France's non-auto energy needs are met by nuclear power in which she has been a leader for forty years. That's not to say his comments about the rise of Russia are ill founded, an issue, along with the rise of China, we should be much more concerned about than "Islamofascism" and all the other myths much beloved of writers at the American Spectator. br> -- John Ellis /p>

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