But wasn't that the prime argument for the US previously?

"Disregard the wars that the US gets into, have you seen their cars and houses?"

And it did work for a long time. People would give you a lot of leeway if you had a nice house and a car.

My comment is currently sitting at -4 karma. Draw your own conclusions (:

Yep, we need more interviews with Putin. Things ArE CoMpLIcATeD.