Weirder Than Usual, Even

I see in the news that El Presidente has met with, shall we say, incomplete success in persuading the godless russkie commies that they're silly to worry about a bunch of American rockets on their front doorstep:

But differences over U.S. plans for a missile defense shield in eastern Europe, which have helped drive diplomatic ties to a post-Cold War low, meant their summit on the Black Sea coast ended with no firm agreements.

A top Bush aide implied that no agreement would be agreed until the inauguration of new presidents in both countries. That would delay progress until early next year.

"This is an area we've got more work to do to convince the Russian side that the system is not aimed at Russia," Bush said after a morning of talks with Putin at the Russian leader's vacation retreat in the resort of Sochi.

Well, all right, suppose "the system" is really intended purely to protect Europe from evil Iranian nuclear (sorry, I meant "new-cue-ler") missiles, should such ever exist. Has the Decider noticed that we're freakin' broke? If there is some great European desire for high-priced and dubiously-effective "protection" from nonexistent Iranian thunderbolts from the blue, maybe those same Europeans could, maybe, do the job themselves? Hey, they've got great big grownup aerospace companies over there, too. Isn't there some rule that says you can only build people missile defenses that they don't want if you at least have the money? (And I mean without borrowing it from the Chinese, too.)

In the deathless words of Walter Sobchak: "Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules?"