Posted on 01/06/2022 6:40:18 AM PST by Kaslin
Washington -- At the end of the Cold War, former President Ronald Reagan and his successor, President George H.W. Bush, were two happy statesmen. They had achieved their prized goal, an end to hostilities with the USSR. For that matter, the Russian President, Mikhail Gorbachev, and his successor, President Boris Yeltsin, were pretty happy, too. Gorby was perhaps less happy than his American counterparts, but he came around to accepting that the conclusion of hostilities between America and the USSR was not a bad thing. Gorby, you will recall, had objected when Reagan famously said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." The wall being the Berlin Wall, and it separated East and West Berlin. Still, Gorby came to accept the end of hostilities between the USSR and the West, and his successor was clearly delighted by it. He was no longer going to be faced with bankrupting bills in his military budget -- just as Reagan had predicted.
I met Boris shortly after the wall came down. Before meeting him, I conferred with Bob Gates at his office at the CIA headquarters. Time spent with the cerebral head of our CIA was never time wasted. On that occasion, we had a wide-ranging talk, and among the points Bob made was that Russia was proud of its cultural achievements. It wanted them recognized. The Russians thought of themselves as part of the West.
Bob made the point that while American universities were ashamed of American history, Russia was proud of its history. With Bob in mind, I was quick to tell Yeltsin, as I chatted with him at the White House, that I had listened to a Sergei Prokofiev symphony and read "The Brothers Karamazov" in preparation for my evening with him and his Russian aides. I added that Russia's culture was a great culture and that it had contributed richly to Western culture. He smiled broadly. That was my pitch to be Bush's ambassador to Russia. George did not take the hint.
Now the Russians, under President Vladimir Putin, are again bellicose. Putin is responding to another aspect of his Russian culture. The historian Helene Carrere d'Encausse wrote of it in her magisterial work "The Russian Syndrome: One Thousand Years of Political Murder." The great historian goes on to write, "The history of Russia is first and foremost a continuous history of political murder." When she wrote that line, she was not thinking of Prokofiev or "The Brothers Karamazov," but she was thinking of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great and Lenin and Stalin.
I was also reminded of a Russian warship that almost sank in the Middle East during military exercises that were supposed to demonstrate to the West Putin's increased military prowess. There have been lesser mishaps surrounding the Russians' maneuvers, too. I believe the Russians are about as weak as they were at the end of the Cold War, but I am not so sure. Last week, when our 79-year-old president had his talk with Putin on the telephone, I hope he was forceful but politely reminded his Russian adversary of how the Cold War ended. Putin should not be rattling the saber once again. We are prepared for him.
Yet I am reminded of another thing that the great historian d'Encausse wrote in her monumental book on Russia. A great country never escapes its history. Russia has endured 1,000 years of bloody murder. Win, lose or draw, the Russians are a bloody-minded people. What have we endured? Well, we have endured some 250 years of nation-building, much of it inspiring. We have saved the civilized world at least twice. We have, in those 250 years, ushered in modern times, rendering a massive frontier and the most modern landscape on earth. In practically every one of the sciences, we have been a force for good, but now we come to the last few decades. Increasingly it is seen as the Era of the Snowflake. Particularly with the young men, it is the Era of the Snowflake. Oh, yes, and it is also the Era of the Woke Folk.
What is going to happen if the Snowflakes and the Woke Folks are confronted by 1,000 years of "political murder"? There are scholars studying the Snowflakes and the Woke Folks now, and they are convinced that they are studying the Infantilization of the West. I hope Putin has not been watching.
So, its being a snowflake to not want to send our people to war against Russia....in the winter...for a bunch of corrupt idiots?
If that is a snowflake...I think a majority of clear thinking people are snowflakes. There is nothing in the US Interest in Ukraine.
That's true. The media of the US has consistently pandered to ‘youth’. Now, we are seeing the result of that.
Because, if your ‘youth’ are overindulged, coddled, barely educated, criminally misinformed and permitted a gratuitously extended childhood .... there's a problem.
Just the Tsars murdered while Ruling since Peter I.
Peter III, Paul I, Ivan VI, Alexander II, Nikolai II.
(About every other!)
Before that False Dimitri I and II, Boris Godunov, Shuiski.
Lots of crown prices, relatives etc.
“So, its being a snowflake to not want to send our people to war against Russia....in the winter...for a bunch of corrupt idiots?”
We agree it is not our fight and we should have learned by now NOT to support lost causes (Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.).
Russia clearly does not have a monopoly on corruption. Ever hear of stolen elections, hoax vaccines to profit major pharma companies, 30 trillion dollar giveaways (could go on), and a propaganda machine like the national media to cover it all up.
Being a snowflake is making us weak at home. It will translate to other shores.
Being strong is not necessarily facing anyone on the battlefield. That is the lesson we haven’t learned. Snowflake and woke will prevent us from having meaningful influence outside of corrupt behavior or mechanisms.
Because, if your ‘youth’ are overindulged, coddled, barely educated, criminally misinformed and permitted a gratuitously extended childhood .... there’s a problem.
**************
Those youths will someday be in control of the country.
I’ll be dead and glad of it
To the U.S. Press, Gorbachev was the good guy; Ronald Reagan was the bad guy.
I'm sure the Russians would be amused by that considering our nation was founded upon a revolution, we openly are proud of the fact that we have a Second Amendment that gives us the ability to check tyranny in check and given the rampant violence that occurred during the George Floyd riots.
It's simply ridiculous to hold one's ancestors past against a whole group of people.
“I’ll be dead and glad of it.”
Yeah; me, too. I have little optimism about the future of my country. It will get VERY ugly when today’s yutes become the nation’s leaders.
“Russia has endured 1,000 years of bloody murder. Win, lose or draw, the Russians are a bloody-minded people.”
I wouldn’t necessarily say that. Russians are fatalists more than anything.
LOL, Rush used to say Gorbachev gave the media "Gorbasms".
I meant Ukraine. We know they are corrupt because they paid off our President. Russia is a mess. If we opened our oil resources again, Russia would be using push carts, not cars.
Tucker said it looks like he’s got a welding helmet on. LOL
Opps sorry...meant that for another poster. My bad.
I prefer, "Vodka fueled stoics."
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