Gee, eight?

Whatever one's opinion of Putin may be, it's hard to deny that he knows how to conduct his nation's diplomacy, in contrast to the US's crew of mealy mouth losers.
His proposal for a joint US-Russian radar defense system moves the ball back into play, and does so in a way that's hard to refuse without proving the Russian's point that the radar missile system was directed at them.

On the global warming front, Merkel caved and Bush gave nothing but words. The lack of European courage, not to mention leadership, in all facets of world affairs is stunning. The end of the Cold War and the growth of the EU should have done the opposite, but the failure of democratic alternatives in Europe has made their subservience to the Anglo alliance complete.