Posted on 02/24/2005 3:11:35 PM PST by duckln
Democracies & double standards Posted: February 23, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2005 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
"Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together," Edmund Burke admonished the haughty rulers of the British Empire of his time.
Our American empire is suffering from a similar want of wisdom and plenitude of the hubris that cost George III his 13 colonies.
Consider how this generation of politicians is undoing the great work of Ronald Reagan. When Reagan took office in 1981, the Soviet Union of the aging autocrat Leonid Brezhnev was an "evil empire" that stretched from the Elbe to the Bering Sea with thousands of nuclear warheads targeted on the United States. The Red Army had recently occupied Afghanistan, and Moscow had established imperial outposts in the Middle East, Africa, the Caribbean and Central America.
Yet, the year Reagan departed, 1989, the Soviet empire threw open its prison gates, released the captive nations of Eastern Europe, then peacefully dissolved itself and let 14 republics, many of which the czars had ruled for centuries, become free and independent states.
Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin became strategic partners of American presidents. For once communism had been exorcised from Russia, there was no ideological, ethnic or territorial conflict between us. For we live on different continents in hemispheres separated by the world's largest oceans. Moreover, Russia belongs with the West. As Solzhenitzyn wrote, Mother Russia was "the first captive nation."
Both of us also have a vital interest in balancing off a rising and possibly revanchist China and resisting an Islamic fundamentalism that seeks to drive Russia out of the Caucasus and America out of the Middle East.
Thus, as there is no relationship more critical to the security of the West than that between Washington and Moscow, it is with near-despair that one reads the front-page story in the Washington Times: "Senators Seek to Sanction Russia: Say Putin Acts Autocratically."
Who are the senators? They are those twin protectors and proctors of global democracy, Joe Lieberman and John McCain, and they want Putin sanctioned by having the world's industrial democracies, the G-8, suspend Russia's membership, which would be an insult and humiliation.
Putin's crimes? Says McCain: "Mr. Putin has moved to eliminate the popular election of 89 of Russia's regional governors, has cracked down on independent media, continued his repression of business executives who oppose his government and is reasserting the Kremlin's old-style central control." Says McCain, "The coup is no longer creeping – it is galloping."
But a question arises: Why are these internal matters of the Russian republic any business of John McCain's? Putin is the elected president of Russia. Who elected McCain to anything outside of Arizona?
During our Civil War, Lincoln blockaded Southern ports without the approval of Congress, suspended habeas corpus, sent troops to prevent a free election in Maryland, sought to arrest Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, shut down newspapers, shot down rioters on the streets of New York and made himself dictator of the Union. Was that any business of the members of Britain's House of Lords? Just who do we Americans think we are?
Whether Russia's governors are elected or appointed is none of our business. As for the jailing of oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, or any of the others in that den of thieves, that is no more our concern than TR's smashing of the trusts or Truman's seizure of the coal mines or Bush's incarceration of Martha Stewart was or is any of Russia's business. As for President Putin acting "autocratically," can Sen. McCain recall when Russian rulers have acted any other way?
Why are McCain and Lieberman bullyragging Russia but not China? After all, Putin was elected, but Hu Jintao was not. Russia has an elected legislature with opposition parties. China has never held a free election. The Russian people have freedom of religion. China persecutes Christians. Russia threatens no U.S. ally. China threatens Taiwan. In a recent issue of Parade, a list was drawn up of the world's 10 worst dictators based on their human-rights violations. Hu Jintao was fourth from the top. Putin was not even mentioned.
If Russia is to be insulted by being kicked out of the G-8, why not adopt a single standard and remove Most Favored Nation trade status from China, which enabled her to run up a $160 billion trade surplus last year at our expense?
Since Reagan achieved the rapprochement with Russia, the United States has pushed NATO up to her borders, bombed her ally Serbia for 78 days, interfered in elections in Georgia, Ukraine and Belarus, and begun a pipeline to cut Moscow out of the Caspian oil trade.
Now, Russia is now going her own way: selling SAMs to Syria, AK-47s to Venezuela, missiles and fighter aircraft to China and aiding Iran in completing its first nuclear power plant.
Of this generation of leaders, it may be said in epitaph: They were too small to see the larger world. They frittered away in a decade what others had won in a half-century of perseverance in the Cold War.
Another brilliant aricle. Go Pat Go.
How sloppy. Pat spends the first half of the article talking about Russia -
the Soviet Union of the aging autocrat Leonid Brezhnev was an "evil empire" that stretched from the Elbe to the Bering Sea with thousands of nuclear warheads targeted on the United States. The Red Army had recently occupied Afghanistan, and Moscow had established imperial outposts in the Middle East, Africa, the Caribbean and Central America.
Then he goes on to wonder why we would be concerned that Russia is sliding back into autocracy and totalitarianism?
< pat >"Who is this John McCain person and why would he care what goes on in another country?"< /pat >
Is it just me or is he missing the point of his own article? Or does he think that we shouldn't worry about our neighbors house being on fire until our own starts burning?
Yeah, right.
That's the point. It's not sliding back. He's protecting Russian interests the best he knows how.
Or does he think that we shouldn't worry about our neighbors house being on fire until our own starts burning?
Again, my friend, it's our house that is being burnt down, and we, you, don't even realize it.
If America was taking the same authoritarian turns as Russia, you'd not be so understanding. In fact -
Again, my friend, it's our house that is being burnt down, and we, you, don't even realize it.
- it appears that you aren't.
I think your missing the point of the article. Why are McCain and Lieberman so down on Russia, with and elected government and opposition parties - and utterly mute on China, a thug dictaorship?
The answer: McCain and Lieberman could care less about "democracy." They are both in bed with Soros and the gang of crooks - oligrachs- that Putin went after. The so-called "independent press" they mention were all controlled by the Khorodovsky and the like. Putin stopped the looting, McCain and Lieberman want the lotting to continue. Wrong as he is about Israel and the "Palestinians," Buchanan nailed this one exactly.
I'm kind of disappointed in Putin. I was hoping he would have used these public appearances with President Bush as an opportunity to criticize the two-faced approach of so many people in this administration when it comes to the "war on terror" and its application in Chechnya.
It happened on W's watch, I didn't hear him comment on it. Same in Russia. One man is not responsible for every thing that happens.
Exactly. I'm not happy with w signing the campaign finance reform.
Nor am I happy with the activist courts running the country. Lieberman and McCain have screwed up this country so bad they're the last that should be critical.
McCain and Lieberman are not the only ones down on Russia. I'm listening to Charles Krauthammer right now and he totally disagrees with Pat along with Bill Kristol and most of the conservative pundits......
You got it right.
At least Kristol is being consistent -- he's always been a meddling little pain in the @ss when it comes to U.S. foreign policy. For those of us who don't remember this, he was one of the few so-called "conservatives" who openly supported the Clinton administration's disgraceful war in Kosovo/Serbia.
More specifically, someone Iran taught how to make nuclear weapons, as to avoid it being tracked back to them.
This is to say nothing about their selling weapons to the Syrians and being a general thorn in the side of those trying to fight the War on Terror. They want to drag anchor on us, then expect us to help them? I think not.
So, *boo hoo hoo* about Chechnya, Russia.
You mean neo conservatives. They took down Yugoslavia and now they're after Russia. America is the last thing on their minds.
You sure jump to conclusions!! Clinton gave them to North Korea. Putin is IMHO not that stupid and has done no such thing in Iran.
What "war on terror" are you talking about? The U.S. is on the wrong side of THEIR war on terror!
Jump to conclusions? Putin is following in Clinton's footsteps with this 'civilian use' reactor nonsense. That you would use the North Korean example and fail to see the connection is remarkable.
I'm talking about the international Islamic extremists, loosely aligned with Al Qaida, and fueled off of a Saudi funded world-wide network of fanatical schools and mosques. Heard of it?
We may be on the wrong side of their little war in Chechnya, but that fight didn't exactly start in 2001. There's a long, long history of conflict between Russia and Chechnya, and it's only recently been one of Islamic extremism.
The Russians know that, of course. If they wanted to end the problem, they'd have let Chechnya go the way of Latvia and Estonia long ago. We don't have that option.
I'm talking about the international Islamic extremists, loosely aligned with Al Qaida, and fueled off of a Saudi funded world-wide network of fanatical schools and mosques. Heard of it?
If this is what the "war on terror" is supposed to be all about, then weren't we on the wrong side in the first Gulf War?
Are you comparing Latvia and Estonia with Chechnya? I don't recall Latvia and Estonia committed to terrorism in Russia. Let's discuss this reasonably.
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