Active duty units of the US, British, French and Polish military will be marching in Red Square tomorrow in the Victory Day parade:

Never before in history have active-duty American troops been invited to march in the Victory Day parade, according to the United States military. The occasion is the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, a date that carries an almost sacred meaning in Russia. Russian leaders have taken pains to explain that the Americans — along with contingents from Britain, France and Poland — were invited as representatives of the “anti-Hitler coalition.”

It would have been inconceivable that the Russians would have invited American troops, and it would have been inconceivable that the Pentagon would have accepted, just a few years ago.

Rumsfeld and Cheney were trying to recreate the threatening “Russian Bear” for political advantage, and the entire foreign policy of the Bush administration was about unilateralism and boneheaded hostility.