In my experience nearly every president has come into office convinced that the foreign policy mess he inherited is largely the fault of his predecessor and has left office disabused of that notion, largely reaffirming the decisions of his predecessor.

Which, in turn, is precisely why I made the prediction last January about how Obama would vindicate Bush's WOT policies.

In terms of Russia, however, perhaps somebody can explain to us why this thing today was anything but a lose /lose situation for the US.

It's laughing.
At us.

Well when they read your stuff, sure.

Dave, what is your take on Russia allowing our overflights for the war in Afghanistan?

First off, it's a good things for us. It makes things easier than it otherwise might be. From the Russian point of view I think they're making necessity into a virtue. They'd already lost the bidding war over the Manas base in Kyrgyzstan so we couldn't be shut out one way or another. May as well get whatever points are available for the move.

Well that's good because if Obama and the Russians agree at the start they can move on from there.

As Obama Visits, Russian TV Alters Take on U.S.

Dave, what is your take on Russia allowing our overflights for the war in Afghanistan?

Additionally, it certainly seems to me that it remains to be seen whether Russia views proliferation in Central Asia as a method of extending its reach. If that's the case the likelihood of compromise looks pretty slim to me.