* Anyone else miss the Cold War? Back when both sides had a key component in common: Nobody wanted to die. That kind of leverage is obviously incongruous with a “martyr” mentality.
* One of the ironic downsides of the whole Ukrainian-Russian-Czar Vladimir mess is that the West needs Putin in any global confrontation with jihadis who have perverted Islam and represent an existential threat to all in their path. We really miss Mikhail Gorbachev.