Posted on 02/24/2022 1:05:37 AM PST by Nextrush
...We have treated Russia with amazing stupidity. Now we pay the price for that. We had the chance to make her an ally, friend and partner.
Instead we turned her into an enemy by insulting a great and proud country with greed, unearned superiority, cynicism, contempt and mistrust.
I have to endure, often several times a day, listening to people who are normally pefectly sensible and reasonable, raging wildly against Russia and Russians.
Once, I was just like them. I had the normal anti-Russian prejudice of so many Western people.
But, by great fortune, I am not like them now. I lived in Russia. I knew Russians as friends. I learned to distinguish between what was Russian and what was Communist.
And I saw something most people will never see--a pivotal event in history, when we could have changed the world for the better.
One of the most joyful moments of my life was the day Communism died in Moscow...
Then came the brilliant American diplomat George F. Kennan, a man nobody could accuse of being soft on Communism.
But, unlike so many others he could tell the new transformed Russia apart from the old USSR.
Kennan had been the architect of the USA's policy of containment of the USSR. He came out of retirement to deplore Bill Clinton's support for pushing NATO east. I quote his prediction at length because he was so right.
"I think it is the beginning of new Cold War,' said Mr. Kennan, "I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies.
I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else.
This expansion would make the Founding Fathers of this country turn over in their graves...
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
All have sinned as my faith tradition teaches me.
So why do we go about saying in war after war in modern times one side is Uber Evil all the time and the other walks on water like the Lord.
In Libya and Syria the jihadists backed by the USA were no better than Qadaffi or Assad.
In World War 2 yeah the Nazis were actually more evil and needed to be defeated and yeah Communism in the Cold War but its sad we fought World War One to create all the messes that followed like the Nazis and Communists.
Too many folks with heads in sand still fighting World War 2 and transposing it on the modern world.
But a bottom line is this the notion that a woke, politically correct Western world with its COVID tyranny record of the last two years is morally superior to Russia is preposterous.
Our system of 5C-Cultural Communism Corrupt Crony Capitalism is rotting from within.
Thank G-d the Higher Authority has the final say on all matters.
Read the full column here as Mr. Hitchens gets in George Kennan (Containment of the Soviet Union Policy Maker) saying the notion of expanding NATO eastwards (Which Putin speaks out about regularly) would cause trouble.
Kennan thought the idea first pushed by Bill Clinton was bad.
It’s like the Versailles Treaty, sure you can say how it contributed to WWII, but once the bombs started dropping it really didn’t matter all that much anymore.
“We” = The Democrats
You’re right.
Democrats have hated Russia since it stopped being communist. They wanted Russia as an enemy they could cast all their blame on.
Everyone has a plan till you punched in the nose with Russian tanks.
Its a hot war now, what we gonna do about it? Nothing.
The west is impotent, sanctions mean nothing when the missiles start raining down.
I find much to agree with here...
It’s sad that we acted the part of arrogant fool after the fall of communism in the Soviet Union..
The dems will never forgive Russia for abandoning communism...because the dems are communists.
FDR wanted in the war against Hitler and he tried sending destroyers to escort the convoys and a destroyer even got sunk in the middle of 1941 out in the Atlantic.
He achieved his goal through the backdoor of German allied Japan being pushed by sanctions into attacking the US and allies in December 1941.
World War I wrong war that necessitated the second one. We had to fight Hitler then oppose the Soviets but now rage and fight Russia no.
Kissinger wanted to play Russia and China off against each other but the “Liberal Conservatives” the Neoconservative foreign policy elite now are trying to fight both at the same time.
Who cares what Peter Hitchens says???
He’s a known anti-Western activist who dislikes his own civilization.
This weird self-loathing is a sadly common thread throughout the West.
This is, of course, not to say that the West is beyond criticism. The DeepState planned the Iraq war from start to finish and have caused us pain and expense.
Russia is one big DeepState.
You obviously know nothing about the man.
Uh, no.
““We” = The Democrats”
Spot on
I like Peter Hitchens on a huge array of topics. On this, he is terribly wrong. There is no military threat to Russia from Europe, whether from NATO or any other organization. To the extent there is a military threat, it’s from China. This is not just a question of intent, which is hard to divine, but of capabilities. NATO can barely defend itself against Russia. The combined European NATO air forces are 1/2 of Russia’s. Much of NATO’s equipment is outdated. Most of Russia’s gear is cutting edge. NATO’s armies are jobs programs with some defensive capabilities, but very limited offense. Russia’s military is a finely-honed instrument designed for one thing - to take land from its neighbors. Apart from the US, NATO’s military is designed to shuffle around and look productive. Just look at the way Europe needed American logistical support to mount a piddling air campaign over Libya. And Europe is right next to Libya.
Putin has seen the numbers and knows the score. He is invading Ukraine not because NATO is strong. He’s doing this because NATO is weak. In other words, he’s a lying sack of shit who was just biding his time until he could run with the big dogs of Russian history like Peter and Catherine, both of whom had “The Great” added as appellations, because they added to the lands they had inherited.
The West as a whole is morally weak.
Stolen elections have world wide ramifications. I can’t wait to hear what kind of BS is going to spew from occupier Bidens mouth next week at his state of the union.
Our woke PC elites are making us weak, that is for sure. Does not change the fact that Putin is an evil man.
Sanctions should’ve been in place long ago. We should’ve been arming Ukraine long ago too.
All that can be done now is to make arrangements to recognzie a Ukranian government in exile and help Ukraine make this a horrendous quagmire for Putin.
Killing Russian invaders is the only thing that stops them.
This war seems mighty convenient for the Biden Junta. I wonder want kind of deal Biden’s handlers made behind the scenes .
[The West as a whole is morally weak. ]
Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions.]
Our problem is with every category of non-defense government spending. *That* is out of control.
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