President Putin's gamble

As the United States, backed by Britain and other allies, launches its strikes against the Taliban, Osama bin Laden and terrorism in general, attention may shift away from other members of the “world-wide coalition”. One assumes their support will still be needed politically and logistically, but temporarily they will become less important. They will remain so, until the United States will have to make decisions about war aims and whether keeping the “coalition” together is more important tha...