“We are all ready to look at the possibility of operating in the sphere of peaceful atomic energy,” said Vladimir Putin yesterday, at the start of his talks with Hugo Chavez. Russia can send strategic bombers and large warships into the Western Hemisphere, but there will be nothing so destabilizing as transferring nuclear technology to the Venezuelan leader.

The international community has failed miserably in handling the theocracy in Iran and the family dictatorship of North Korea, and the last thing we need is another nuclear rogue to bedevil us. A Chavez with the bomb–last November while in Iran he joked about firing one off at his opponents–would trigger an arms race with Brazil and Argentina and certainly unnerve the rest of the Western hemisphere.

Is this payback for America’s reaction to Georgia? Perhaps, but Putin had, before the invasion, been aggressive in selling nuclear technology to Tehran. Moreover, he has tried to make sales to the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which see a nuclear energy consortium as a hedge against Iran. You can be sure that, whenever a hostile or unstable nation has started to talk about a nuclear program, Russian atom salesmen have already been there.

So where is the Bush administration while Putin threatens to send Russia’s nuclear technology to our corner of the world? I simply do not know. I would like to think that the President is initiating private conversations with the Russians on this matter, but there is no evidence of this. In any event, the transfer of potentially destructive technology is not a matter for quiet diplomacy for three reasons. First, diplomacy–quiet and otherwise–does not work with the Kremlin these days. Second, Putin has gone out of his way to raise the matter in public, so a public response is called for. Third, the subject is literally a matter of life and death for every man, woman, and child in this hemisphere.

Dubya, however, has lost his voice. Yes, he has other disasters to deal with today, but he nonetheless has an overriding obligation to defend the United States. As geopolitical analysts will tell you, when one thing goes wrong for a hegemon, other things begin to fall apart as well. So he might as well deal with Putin and Chavez today, because they are only going to make things worse for us tomorrow.

We should not be surprised. Mr. Bush seems unable to push back against large autocratic states in which he has placed his trust and our security. Until he finds his voice and his courage, villains like Putin and Chavez will continue to pick apart the international system.