Bridges

You know, some day Vladimir Putin will retire from politics. He will go off, shirtless, to ride bears in Siberia. Historians will write fiction about him. Some will call him Vlad the Great. Some will call him Vlad the Terrible. They will all pretty much be wrong. That's what history does.

So. Right now we have Mr. Putin in the Kremlin and we have a choice. We can negotiate with him. Or we can ostracize him. We can work with him. Or we can use him as a convenient excuse for all of our problems. He can be the boogie man under the bed. We can tether our ship to the rock at the bottom of the sea. Cheap, temporary political gain or long term benefit. We have the tools to do either. Every country on earth has a diplomatic corp. And that diplomatic corp has missions in every other country in the world. Every country has a network of connections to everyone else. They're called diplomats. And they are all dedicated to one purpose: Talking.

We talk. They talk. We listen. They do the same. We all learn. We get to know each other. We come to agreements. We avoid that bombing and shooting stuff. Just like Sun Tsu said. To win a war don't fight a war.

Some day Putin will be gone. You know what won't be gone? What will still be here? Russia. We will still have to deal with Russia, no matter who is in the Kremlin. Today. Tomorrow. Post Putin. And who knows who will be in charge then? What we do today becomes what we are tomorrow. Bridges built today are tomorrow's highways.

Why not start talking now? Can't hurt.