The current analysis of events in Russia and Ukraine on both sides of the political spectrum is shallow, specious and trivial. There are exceptions, of course, (here) but the general commentary from the establishment scribes of all persuasions seems to have been generated from a cliché machine badly in need of an overhaul.
Since the defeat of communism, engineered largely by President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher, the world has not encountered “the end of history”, so facilely averred by some lesser historian, but has continued as it always has, that is, as Great Power politics carried out on the world stage.
Communism was a messianic doctrine, devoted to the total overthrow of all nations based on free market economies and democratic politics. Its leaders proclaimed it, said it, acted on it, and never hid their intentions. They failed.
In its wake, the shattered economies of the socialist states had to find some way of accommodating with the economies of the modern world. All political theory until then had been discussing the transition from market economies to socialism, as the progressive mind-set believed would happen, but history proved to be different. Exactly the opposite happened. No-one had any idea what to do when a state-controlled economy collapsed. All the political theorists in the West were useless. Their minds had been rendered inoperative after being besotted with socialism for decades.
Russia and the other victims of communism had to make their own way; some succeeded better than others. Twenty three years after the fall of communism, Russia is now, if not a great power, then certainly a regional power with strategic and national interests. All nations not sinking into the Slough of Despond will seek to protect those interests.
Russia is not rich by Western standards, but it is vastly better off than under communism. It is still on the road to democracy, but vastly freer than under communist tyranny. You actually can criticize Islam in Russia—try doing that here or in the EU. And it has a cultural history, especially in music, art and literature, the equal of any other in Europe.
So why are we in the West not seeking to cultivate Russia as a friend?
Well, the actions of the EU and the current administration in Washington beggar belief. After the disintegration of the Soviet Empire, the EU rapidly absorbed many countries, previously subservient to Moscow, into its own version of financial servitude. EU no longer means European Union but the Empire of Usury. Democracy, freedom and prosperity are always promised, rarely delivered.
For a while, it actually worked. The relaxation of tensions led to the illusion that international rivalries were at an end. In this heady atmosphere of cheap credit and bloated welfare states anything seemed possible.
Alas, the breakup of Yugoslavia ended all that. Nations and peoples, long subsumed in fictitious countries, arose from their slumber and started battling one another for their freedom and independence. It ended with NATO air forces bombarding Serbia for months to forcibly separate a Serbian province, Kosovo—all under the pretext of international law. More recently, another campaign of aerial bombardment was initiated against Libya, then ruled by Colonel Kaddafi, in an attempt to depose him. This resulted in today’s situation where Libya is a failed state, fragmented and under the control of warring militias and bandits. Apparently, this is termed a success in current foreign-policy speak. In a rare outbreak of sanity, the Parliament in Britain and Congress in the US refused to be steam-rollered into yet another futile military action to serve the vanity of certain leaders.
The rulers of the Empire of Usury in Brussels are intent on subduing all before them. The plan is to reduce all free nations to Debt Slavery via the IMF and the European Central Bank. They then appoint governments on their whim, and depose Prime Ministers as they will, as has happened in Greece, Portugal and Spain. National independence and parliaments mean nothing to them. When any referendum is held and the population votes against the wishes of the commissars in Brussels, another referendum is held, and another, until the serfs respond with the “correct” vote, that is, the one approved by the Brussels commissars.
And these are the people calling the recent referendum in Crimea “a Kalashnikov referendum”. The vote in Crimea was obviously pretty fair and the result overwhelming. But, of course, it was not approved by the Politburo in Brussels. It is not Russia that is behaving like the old Soviet Union, but the EUSSR—the new Empire of Usury.
The EU-engineered coup in Ukraine has failed to deliver Ukraine lock, stock and barrel into the clutches of the EU. All the “N”GOs that were busily undermining the government there have had their come-uppance. The failure to understand and recognize the national and ethnic divisions in Ukraine, to treat every country as future prey for the EU, has led to this.
Russia is part of our Western civilization. She has legitimate strategic interests. She will defend those interests. Any sane foreign policy in the West must recognize this fact. Instead of enabling the nuclear-minded Mullahs in Iran, undermining Israel, and fomenting jihadi revolutions dressed up as “Arab Springs”, our efforts should be directed towards reaching an agreement with Russia on satisfying our mutual interests in Europe and fighting Islam, which is the real danger facing our society. The Russians will be our natural allies in this.
However, with the room-temperature IQs running most Western governments, this is unlikely to change in the near future. President Obama, Prime Minister Cameron and others, while preening themselves in the world media, have shown us that no amount of sanctimonious humbug is a substitute for foreign policy.
Rebel Yell