PUBLIC MARKS from OPINIONIST

In recent months Putin’s rhetoric against the U.S. - supported by his notion of the U.S.’s overbearing, hegemonic, influence in global affairs - has risen to a near fever pitch. Is this just good old fashioned Soviet paranoia? After all, Vladimir Putin is a product of the Soviet KGB - as an intelligence officer at the highest point of the Cold War.

As Putin’s official Presidential term of office nears its conclusion - with elections set for March of 2008 - it appears the pressures of diplomatic double-speak and the shackles of friendly innuendo have been released. President Putin took the relaxed - almost unofficial - mood of the Munich conference to lay a verbal volley of criticisms directly at the ‘hegemonic’ United States and its aspirations for ‘global domination.’

Ahmadinejad mind-map bullet points: - Holocaust denier - US/Israel “soon to be destroyed” - “one bomb” will destroy Israel - North Koreans assisting Iran’s nuclear program - Israel very quiet recently - Israel political will and military resources to attack Iran unilaterally? - 2nd U.S. carrier group en route Persian Gulf - U.S. defend Iraq’s Iran / Syrian borders in response? - 2009 term limit, Parliament shortened Ahmadinejad’s term? - ‘Hojjatieh’ ultra-conservative Shia believer of the 12th Imam/Mahdi - Ahmadinejad wants his administration to ‘pave way for 12th Imam’s return - His administration politically weaker; forcing his hand? - Inflation, unemployment, building opposition to his policies - Ahmadinejad even scares Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - Ayathollah’s recent overtures (”goodwill”) to U.S. via Saudi King - Sec. of State - Condi Rice - making trip to Riyadh next week