The Emerging Giant

Is... drum roll... Russia!
The Asia Times, one of the best international news sites, has a two part article on the emergence of Russia from it's seemingly imminent collapse in the 90's. Part I gives an excellent summary of the steps the US took to drive Russia to the brink, and the counter-steps by Putin to maintain and advance a viable state.
Part II describes in some detail its current activities in energy and defense in response to ongoing US efforts for 'full spectrum dominance' and 'nuclear primacy'.

In an earlier post (Control Freaks) I linked to another ATimes article that described Russian and Chinese moves to counter the string of bases the US has constructed across Central Asia. The Iraq War should be looked at as part of that strategy, and that's why the US cannot withdraw from Iraq without giving up on its plans. Iraq was to be the cash cow and the military structure that was to enable the rest of the plan. The Cheney strategy's raison d'etre is to guarantee not just US access to the energy resources, but the control of these resources by the US and its oil companies, not the governments of the 'Stans or that of Russia for that matter.