You know I was going to respond to C4 but I couldn’t find a rational thought in his whole diatribe that seemed worthy of spending the time upon. It is kind of like trying to dissect a Michael Moore documentary. It isn’t even useful as an intellectual exercise because it is basically a house of fallacies built on a foundation of lies… kind of like a set of Babushka dolls made from laminated layers of Pravda or the New York Times. Better I spend my time shoveling sand with a fork.
Contrary to the general wisdom, Putin is not a very bright boy. He is basically a KGB trained serial killer who has managed to murder and intimidate his way to a lifetime position at the top of a country with a predilection for mass murderers and strongmen. If he was at all rational he would have helped the US with their missile defense shield and accepted an offer to share the technology. The Russians are every bit as threatened by a rogue nuke or by a small-time, budding nuclear power as the US is but Putin ignores the threat to his own people in favor of trying to stir up some half-baked grievance with the sole remaining superpower. And in the eyes of some people this makes him intellectually if not morally superior to Bush? Indeed, the Soviets blamed Star Wars and the arms race for their downfall and here we were offering it to them on a silver platter but they preferred our enmity instead. Telling don’t you think?
Putin also seems to think that helping a country led by a member of a messianic death cult to acquire nuclear weapons is somehow in Russia’s best interest. He is so blinded by his hate of the west (or anyone who would gainsay him in any way) that he never even stops to consider the fact that the cult he is arming considers everyone who isn’t a Muslim to be sub-human. Just because it is useful to them to kiss up to the Russians now doesn’t mean that Mrs. Putin (whoever she may be at the time) won’t be wearing a veil when all is said and done.
If one wants to talk about pursuing policies with frightful consequences which bring no benefit to the country pursuing them then it would be hard to trump the Russian misadventure in Ossettia. Not only was his intended audience not frightened by the bullying but they have rallied together against the bully. Cedarford would have us believe that Putin is just misunderstood like Frankenstein’s monster, being chased around by peasants with pitchforks who wish to kill that which they do not understand. Russia is ugly and does ghastly things but it has good intentions. It would probably be more correct to say that Putin is more like the good doctor himself in that he has created the monster. He has GREATLY increased the dangers that his country faces in return for nothing but the few trinkets his army of thugs was able to loot from their small neighbor. Even the feckless western Europeans have begun to stir.
Putin’s misperception of the threats that his country faces is of a truly epic and staggering nature. He ignores the Chinese and Islamic fundamentalists, both of whom could split his country apart from within, while doing everything he can to pick a fight with his natural allies (and customers) in the west. He thinks extortion and intimidation are good long term strategies. Not only this but he attempts to employ them against nations who as a group are stronger than Russia.
He also seems to be wholly ignorant of history. Germany felt humiliated after the first world war just as Russia does now after the cold war. Germany re-armed and “liberated” ethnic Germans in nearby countries just as Russia is doing along its borders today. Both countries turned to fascism and the Germans had a deep affection for the madman who led them down the road to purgatory just as the Russians seem to be pleased with Putin (although how we would know otherwise is problematic when all of the native journalists have been cowed and the western ones gulled).
Putin still has a chance to wake up from his dream of a world where no one dares hurt his feelings and where Russia is more than just another tinhorn dictatorship trying to punch above its weight. The key will be if the west can awaken from its moral lethargy in a quicker fashion than it did with the arrival of WWII. Just because Putin has apparently never attended a history class doesn’t mean that his enemies are equally as ignorant.
