Russians have a fascination with Americans.  In my experience, people in the former Soviet Union are eager to see and talk to Americans.  Large attentive audiences come to hear US experts because they appreciate American ideas.  Ordinary Russians contend our nations should be friends.  They respect our inventions, our entrepreneurial spirit and, especially, our victory over [...]

When does love of your people become labeled terrorism? Many Shiites and Sunnis perform violent acts that nearly everyone outside their societies denounces as terrorism.  American revolutionaries, determined to create a free society, performed acts some would call terrorist.  Jews, determined to create a homeland for themselves after the second world war, performed acts out [...]

It’s hard to find anyone saying anything good about Russians nowadays.  Yet almost to a man, Russians all agree they love America in one respect.  They love its inventions.  One time in Ukraine my translator was waxing poetic about his American razor where a piece of plastic came down between the two blades and cleared [...]