Opening an Eastern Front?

I trust Vladimir Putin as much as I trust George W. Bush. Perhaps less. That's why the thought of the Russians opening a second front on the War on Terror is so frightening. Especially given the way this paragraph from a story in the Toronto Star is worded:

It offered a $10 million (U.S.) reward for help in hunting two separatist Chechen rebels, and a top Russian general said the military will strike "terrorist bases in any region of the world" — but would refrain from using nuclear weapons.

I know that it is currently unfashionable to consider root causes of terrorism, but I have to wonder if the Russians have learned anything from our blundering about in the Middle East. And honestly, do we really need another country lumbering about the world with their outsized military trampling anyone they consider to be terrorists or terrorist supporters or anyone even contemplating terrorist related program activities?

And consider this; our military is the best trained, best equipped and - honestly - the most compassionate army in the world (in general); and we had abu Ghraib. Imagine the Russian Army, which brutalizes its own soldiers, holding prisoners in some out of the way break-away province of the Balkans or the Trans-Caucasus or elsewhere. Consider the damage that our best-in-the-world smart weapons have done to the civilian population in Iraq and Afghanistan, now imagine the less than high-tech weapons, poorly maintained by abused conscripts of the Russian Army and Air Force being unleashed in the confines of a city.

Bush's doctrine of "pre-emptive warfare" is loose upon the earth. Imagine the horror.