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Why I blame the arrogant, foolish West: Our response to this crisis in Ukraine has been to react with mistrust and abuse, and with blatant attempts to worsen the situation, writes Peter Hitchens
DailyMail.com ^ | 2/22/2022 | Peter Hitchens

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 ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Russia
KEYWORDS: billclinton; georgekennan; peterhitchens; ukraine
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To: Nateman

Both China and Russia have enough dirt on Biden and his entire criminal family to put them in jail or be excited for treason.

Joe will do his angry old man but for theatrics and then do exactly as he is told.

1000 more days of our Ahab and pResident Cackles will finish our the term.

Iran will have nukes.

Taiwan will fall.

Our border will continue to be wide open.

Our cities will fall into crime-ridden third world status.

We turned away from God and we are seeing the consequences. Good and bad must suffer.


21 posted on 02/24/2022 2:36:04 AM PST by TigerClaws
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To: Nextrush

The current Usurpation and it’s affiliated supporters need this war to distract from the horrendous crimes they have committed.


22 posted on 02/24/2022 2:44:51 AM PST by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
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To: Nateman

“This war seems mighty convenient for the Biden Junta.”

Yes, high gas and food prices will blamed on Russia non stop going into November.


23 posted on 02/24/2022 2:47:57 AM PST by BiglyCommentary
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To: Nextrush

Fake elections have cnsequences.

I BLAME BIDEN...AND THE DEMOCRATS, BUT MAINLY POS BIDEN.

End of story.


24 posted on 02/24/2022 2:49:17 AM PST by nikos1121
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To: Nextrush

This article is load of crap. We’re supposed to believe the writer when he states that NATO expansion is a legitimate threat to Russia and the reason for Russian behavior, as if NATO invasion of Russia was inevitable. The actions of Russia today — expansionist — are historically consistent with this country and justify all of the West’s mistrust. If you want to know what we’re dealing with read The Gulag Archipelago. Putin is cut from that cloth. Alas, there are always defenders and appeasers of tyrants.


25 posted on 02/24/2022 2:51:52 AM PST by BlueStateRightist (Government is best which governs least.)
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To: Vaden

I disagree. Putin is a lot of things, but evil isn’t one of them. I reserve that term for ppl like Hitler. Of course, the left called Bush and Trump evil so maybe the word has just lost it’s power. In any case, it’s overused.


26 posted on 02/24/2022 2:53:34 AM PST by Prince of Space ( Let’s go, Brandon! )
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To: Telepathic Intruder

That’s not what Russia was to the Dems. It was their Shining City on a Hill and secret benefactor and they together tried to undermine the West.

Then, when the Iron Curtain came down, it became their next big foreign country to pillage once again.

Only after it had been thoroughly ransacked and began to defend itself and the Western tradition did it become a diversionary Enemy #1 while China was its new Shining City on a Chill and secret benefactor as they together further undermined the West.


27 posted on 02/24/2022 2:54:04 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: fella

[The current Usurpation and it’s affiliated supporters need this war to distract from the horrendous crimes they have committed.]


If you think Biden’s numbers are gonna improve from Ukraine getting overrun, I have news for you. Iran falling to the mullahs, and Afghanistan falling to the Soviets were key ingredients in Carter’s failed re-election campaign. The Democrat Achilles heel has traditionally been national security. And right on cue, Biden fails the test again.

All Trump has to do is highlight his genuinely tough on Russia policies instead of using his New York sarcasm/irony nobody outside of New York understands. He ramped up sanctions on Russia. He exited worthless missile and Open Skies treaties that Putin did not live up to, that Biden wants to revive. He struck Russian ground troops for the first time in a century*, killing 200 of them, something even Trump-hating Newsweek acknowledges:

https://www.newsweek.com/total-f-russian-mercenaries-syria-lament-us-strike-killed-dozens-818073

He butters Putin up in public while kicking him bloody away from public appearances with him.

* The last time a president ordered US troops into action against Russian grunts was just after the Bolshevik Revolution. Woodrow Wilson sent the Polar Bears to help the Whites against the Reds.


28 posted on 02/24/2022 2:55:38 AM PST by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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To: JJBookman

Are you sure of that, we invaded 2 countries, Afghanistan and Iraq and stayed there for 20 years.

There hasn’t been a war in the last 20 years that Establishment Republicans haven’t supported.

True, the Democrats are leading the charge to our destruction, but where has the Republican Opposition been ??

In the end establishment Republicans are just as responsible for what’s happening today as Democrats.


29 posted on 02/24/2022 3:00:16 AM PST by srmanuel (`)
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To: Vaden

The weakness of our usurped government was displayed to the World when on the 6th of January 2021 the supposedly elected leaders screamed, wailed, cried, crawled and hide in fear thinking that would have to face unarmed people they claim to represent. Not one of them dared to face “their” people. Deep down they have a visceral fear of facing the justice that they know they so richly deserve.

The other governments of the world have taken advantage of this.


30 posted on 02/24/2022 3:07:21 AM PST by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
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To: Nextrush

On the other hand, there was the possibility that there would be enough in power left behind who wanted to bring the old territories back into the fold. The NATO membership was intended to protect against that. In addition, some surrendered their nukes with an eye towards western protection (though that deal was more of a nuclear defense strategy).

Russians knew NATO was defensive in spite of the claims of paranoia given for public consumption. Saying they were threatened by NATO expansion so therefore no such steps of defense should be taken is the same argument used against the Israelis in their defense against the palestinians.


31 posted on 02/24/2022 3:15:02 AM PST by fruser1
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To: Telepathic Intruder

Democrats really ramped up hated of Russia after Putin turned off the pipeline of adoptions to degenerates in the west.


32 posted on 02/24/2022 3:22:23 AM PST by Antioch (Benedikt Gott Geschickt)
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To: BlueStateRightist

I have read all three volumes of Gulag giving me insight into the Russian psyche including Ukraine and the corrosion of the West under the weight of exported Marxist ideology.

That corroded, politically correct, woke West now rails against Russia and sees the post-Communist Russia as evil.


33 posted on 02/24/2022 3:24:32 AM PST by Nextrush (FREEDOM IS EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS REMEMBER PASTOR NIEMOLLER)
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To: Nextrush

One of the few times I agree 100% with Hitchens.
Then one thing I can say with certainty is, we would not be in this mess if we had an honest election in 2020.

Donald J. Trump had no problem treating foreign leaders with dignity & respect, even those we detest. Never forget how the NORKs quieted down after he met with Kim.

Now we could be on the brink of WW3. All it is gonna take is for Dimjo’s Congress to declare war on Russia. Next Day the Chinese declare war on us.

Those that do not read & learn from history are doomed to repeat it.


34 posted on 02/24/2022 3:33:07 AM PST by Tupelo (“Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f*ck things up” (Barack Obama))
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To: BlueStateRightist

NATO should have been dissolved in the mid 90’s and not expanded. There would have been no Putin if that had happened.


35 posted on 02/24/2022 3:38:35 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: Zhang Fei

Putin is playing chess against a bunch of dumb bitches playing checkers.

When will Anglosphere countries stop playing around with feminist ideology & “toughen up?”

Answer: They won’t.

Retarded suburban monkeys must be coddled and pampered according to Karl Rove & “Orange Man Bad” members of Free Republic.


36 posted on 02/24/2022 3:40:58 AM PST by unclebankster (Globalism is the last refuge of a scoundrel)
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To: Vaden
He sounds completely lucid to me.
37 posted on 02/24/2022 3:50:34 AM PST by bella1 (DeSantis 2024)
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To: Tupelo

[Donald J. Trump had no problem treating foreign leaders with dignity & respect, even those we detest. Never forget how the NORKs quieted down after he met with Kim.]


In public. In private, he kicked them bloody. Trump tightened the leash so hard on Kim, famines ensued. He was seizing ships at periodic intervals. Biden loosened those sanctions by ending that program. And lo - flush with cash, Kim started testing new missiles again.

Trump ramped up sanctions on Russia. He exited worthless missile and Open Skies treaties that Putin did not live up to, that Biden wants to revive. He struck Russian ground troops for the first time in a century*, killing 200 of them, something even Trump-hating Newsweek acknowledges:

https://www.newsweek.com/total-f-russian-mercenaries-syria-lament-us-strike-killed-dozens-818073

Trump’s relationship with the leaders of America’s enemies is a lot like domestic abuse - pleasant in public appearances together and serious beatdowns in private. That is why Kim and Putin respected Trump - his pimp hand kept them docile.

* The last time a president ordered US troops into action against Russian grunts was just after the Bolshevik Revolution. Woodrow Wilson sent the Polar Bears to help the Whites against the Reds.


38 posted on 02/24/2022 3:52:58 AM PST by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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To: Tupelo

But....But....the American Establishment.... Said Trump was a Russian puppet.(sarcasm)

Biden Republicans are suckers & losers.

Thanks for the weak leadership of the Biden/Harris virus, you petty little scum bags.

I don’t want a Trump or Pompeo tweet to happen, it might hurt your pathetic feelings.


39 posted on 02/24/2022 3:59:38 AM PST by unclebankster (Globalism is the last refuge of a scoundrel)
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To: Nextrush

“In World War 2 yeah the Nazis were actually more evil”

The hard numbers indicate Stalin killed far more, but I don’t want to say the Nazis were better than anyone. He’d killed millions in the USSR before WWII even started.


40 posted on 02/24/2022 4:02:02 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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