Posted on 04/16/2014 9:08:34 PM PDT by dangus
No, Putin isn't re-building the third Reich: Chamberlain isn't a historic villain because he did nothing after Hitler seized neighboring German-speaking territories. He's a historic villain because he did nothing after Hitler blamed Christianity for poisoning Europe with weakness, swore to destroy the Jews, build a master race, set fire to the Reichstag, seized all police powers, built concentration camps and THEN invaded German-speaking lands.
No, Putin isn't re-building the Soviet Union: He has implemented a flat, low tax rate, struck the authority of local commissars to impose taxes, decriminalized tax disputes, decentralized agriculture and industry, seen the numbers of abortions decrease 83%, and championed Christianity in the public square.
No, Putin isn't building Aleksandr Dugan's Eurasia, a concept that sounds almost as if it were written by the C.I.A. to justify paranoia and panic. Dugin has been called a trusted advisor to Putin. In fact, Dugin and his allies have been enemies of Putin since before the fall of Gorbachev. Dugin is to Putin what Pat Buchanan is to Barrack Obama, what Rev. Wright is to George W. Bush. Dugin's Eurasia is a communist-Islamicist alliance, whereas Putin has been deeply ingratiating himself as a devout Orthodox Christian.
One thing everyone who has met him, whether Bush supposedly seeing into his soul, or Clinton's loathing the sight of him, is that Putin is a pragmatist, not a crazed ideologue like Hitler, Stalin, Dugan or Zhirinovski. Even his Christianity is pragmatic: He's no like King Henry IV of France, who feigned Catholicism because one mass was a small price to pay for Paris. No, he believes in Christianity because he believes it works. While this sounds grating to the Protestant ear, bear in mind the Orthodox revere Emperor Constantine as a great saint. Western Catholics and Enlightenment-era Protestants might even call it "Natural Law." And the re-Christianization of Russia is progressing rapidly. (If you're such the believer that works and justice have nothing to do with Christianity, it's at least the re-Orthodoxidation?)
In 1991, only 30% of Russians considered themselves Christian. In 2001, that number increased to 51%. Today, the same poll says 73% do. Another poll says 82% of Russians consider themselves Christian. Millions of Muslims have converted. (2 million had by 2005, and reports say the rate of conversions has increased.)
Christian morality is coming back, and Putin's government is leading the char gem crusading against abortion, childlessness, divorce, and alcoholism. As I mentioned, abortion is down an astounding 83%. But parenting is also up more than 50%. And life expectancy has risen 5 years in just the last 8 calendar years.
Putin cannot achieve his goals largely by military annexation. He needs to keep a Duma that supports him, and the leftists coalition of socialist, communists, pensioners and Eurasianists have closed the gap on his right-wing alliance. He can't afford more opponents, politically, economically or militarily. In fact, Russia so far has declined to annex South Ossetia, Transdneiper, Nagorno-Karabakh or Abkhazia; Crimea was an exception because it had been so long Russian and was so dominated by Russian people. He also must seduce allies to his side, and one is seldom seduced by another who has been seen raping a third. If the Donbas region of the Ukraine (Donetsk, Luhansk, etc.) becomes part of Russia, Putin must be able to convince Russophiles that they did so willingly. Any further intrusions into the Ukraine will come years later, should other oblasts (counties) decide that annexation has profited the Donbas.
Putin has defended Christians in the Middle East while the West has sided with Islamicist radicals. Putin will continue to seek a constructive relationship with Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt. (Yes, Israel is turning away from America as a fickle ally who punishes her friends and coddles her enemies.)
The Eurasian Economic Community consists of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, and will likely soon include Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgystan, Moldova and Tajikistan. Kyrgystan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan are majority-Muslim nations with sizable Christian minorities, like Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. Putin's involvement in Egypt, Israel and Syria demonstrates that the Christian communities in these nations will have a defender. Russia may well be Christianity's best shot for maintaining a foothold in the Islamic world.
If he's really ambitious, Putin may hope that the whole of the Orthodox world may be attracted to Russia, and to expand the Russian-led customs union to Greece, Romania, Serbia, etc. But military aggression would be deadly to such ambitions.
Russia abolished serfdom before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, so don't misread me. But what Putin wants is a modern Russian Empire. And if his methods aren't evil, I'm pretty sure that's not a bad thing.
"On a rather disquieting note, Russia saw more pregnancies end in abortion than live birth last year. There were 1,022 abortions per 1,000 births, according to state statistics. The runner-up, Romania, only performed 684 abortions per 1,000 births."
That's from Russia's official news agency.
I missed the part where the Germans attempted another Anschluss. Or tried to re-annex the Sudetenland.
Well I suppose you could think of getting East Germany as a kind of Anschluss.
The numbers vary wildly as to the actual number of Russian troops; IISS estimates from four years ago cite about 1.04 million active duty and another 2.02 million reserves.
Take a look at what the League of Expellees are up to. Merkel likes to meet with them a lot.
By that definition, the freeing of the Warsaw Pact states was a kind of American Anschluss. Are you sure you wouldn't be more comfortable as a citizen of the Polish province of the Russian Empire?
“American Anschluss”? Since when did Poland become a US state or territory? I didn’t know that we could spend US dollars for pierogies in Warsaw.
When Germany starts massing troops on the Czech Republic's borders and complaining about Czech treatment of ethnic Germans, who have started taking over government buildings, then it will be time to start worrying.
Adolf didn’t start with masses of troops either. He had to build up forces too.
dfwgator is that rarest of creatures - a Polish Russophile. I'm no Russophobe, but I think the Russians have a lot to atone for. They equaled the Germans in their atrocities, but unlike the Germans, have not only spent no time atoning for their wicked behavior, they have reveled in it.
My experience with Germans is that they are diffident to a fault. In contrast, Russians are both self-righteous and arrogant to a fault.
Bottom line is that today's Germans, like the Japanese, are harmless. Russians, on the other hand, think the wrong side won the Cold War.
Nobody is harmless. Germany is the country in third place in terms of worldwide military deployments; not exactly harmless. Japan has been making moves to revoke Article 9 for quite some time now, and Red China’s moves against the Senkaku islands are but one of many excuses.
EU leaders are currently in the process of accelerating military buildup in response to Putin. They’ll rally around the one EU country with the most military experience.
I remember that in the mid-80s, the AVERAGE Russian woman had had seven abortions.
No. The Russian serfs were liberated in 1867. The Emancipation Proclamation was published during the Civil War.
Oops! My mistake. They were liberated in 1861, not 1867. The article is correct.
All this Putin love is fking disgusting. I hate Obama, but Putin is an evil little man so is a huge amount of Russians. Alot hate us regardless of Obama. So tired of everybody saying they are christian when they back Iran fully. They would have zero nuclear program if not for russia. Also people seem to forget the whole Gog and Magog prophecy. If you are a real christian you know they are many false ones in the last days. Russia is no friend of Israel or Christ in the end times..I dont like the way our country is headed but I will never jump on the Putin bandwagon. Those people are fools.
smells like... reset
overcharged reset
remember to thank every libtard you run into for restarting the cold war.
then do everything you can to make their lives miserable.
There is a contingent here on FR (and around the US of A I suppose) that fears what is happening in Russia. Maybe with good reason.
When Reagan told Gorby to "tear down this wall" and they eventually did, what did people expect Russia to do? Wither and die? Putin is rebuilding the only way that is possible. Just like all superpowers in history they are being aggressive both economically and territorially. That is how one becomes a superpower. Until we get leaders that understand that we will decline.
I find it ironic that the same people that applaud Reagan's dismantling of the Soviet Union are the same people that don't understand that Putin is rebuilding HIS country. Why shouldn't he? He sees what Obama and the left are doing to the U.S. and doesn't want that to happen in his country. I guess to some patriotism coupled with survival should only be an American belief.
What did you expect Russians to do after "losing the Cold War"? Wither and die? Become a welfare state to Europe?
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