Dear Friends,
It seems to me, if you beat a dog over and over, it will eventually become vicious, then to justify further beatings because the dog has become vicious is just plain evil. Russia is a nation that has been invaded many times and every time has lost a huge percentage of their population, had their economy devastated, industry burned and lost more liberty in the reconquering of their land. In short, Russia has been beaten time and time again, so now the Russian people have become vicious, and now our leaders claim we need to beat them since they are vicious? During the Cold War, global Marxism needed to be challenged and defeated, since the primary global sponsor of Marxism at the time was the USSR, NATO was an alliance that had utility. Today, global Marxism has moved into our own governments and universities and so NATO has lost it’s utility, but the elite want to keep the alliance growing, not to stem Marxism as it was intended, but to advance it.
To the Russians, NATO is a knife at their throat. They rightly see NATO as another approaching invasion force. Since they have become all to accustomed to invasion from the west they are rightly nervous about a growing NATO. As the buffer around them, that the monster Stalin built after WWII, shrinks and NATO gets ever closer to their boarder, Russia will inevitably become more belligerent. It is human nature. They see NATO has lost it’s stated purpose, to stop the spread of global Marxism, and is scratching around for a replacement. That is why Ukraine is at war with Russia, Russia took two territories from Georgia and the Russia people love Putin. All because of the deep genetic fear that their history has ingrained in the Russians.
Russia is not all daffodils and honeycombs. Russia is no different than other countries in it’s use of evil to achieve it’s goals. After the 1917 revolution the Marxists who ran the Soviet Union marched across all their neighbors. Soviet armies marched west conquering the Baltic States, east and south subjugating Ukraine, Georgia, and central Asia. Before Germany invaded the USSR in operation Barbarossa, the Soviet army had attacked Finland driving that Norse nation into the Axis. The crimes of Russia, especially during the Soviet period were heinous, and were more about expanding Marxism than protecting their boarders. The fall of the Soviet Union however changed the paradigm on the planet, to the chagrin of the new class intellectuals, Marxism had been proved a failed system.
Gorbachev and then Yeltsin moved Russia into the world community, they allowed the vassal states to cede and they opened the Russian economy to capitalism. This angered the intellectuals even more. That their chosen system had failed as bad enough, but adding insult to injury, the sponsor of their system had become a turn coat and embraced the hated capitalism. That is why instead of helping Russia overcome it’s transitional pains, the West turned the screws on Russia. The new class elite, who had always thought the USSR would win the cold war, despised the new Russia.
Meanwhile the elite had this powerful military alliance they had built for decades to defeat the USSR, and their enemy had simply crumbled from economic malaise. Loathe to disassemble that which had taken so long to build the leaders of NATO scratched around for a new mission for it. In keeping with the old axiom, the leaders of today always prepare for the last war, they retained NATO and even expanded NATO’s mission. Gobbling up nations, ever closer and closer to Russia, NATO went from containment to aggression. Every time another country would join NATO, the Russian people, out of a deep sense of historical perspective, would become more nervous.
Today, the US and Europe are in the unenviable position of defending the Islamic State against Russian attacks. Our tax dollars and military assets are being used to protect people who are committing Genocide against Christians, Jews and Yazidis. Our military machine is defending those who are raping little girls in ritual fashion and our children are put in harm’s way to stop the Russian’s from bombing monsters. Out of their blind lust for power, ideological hatred of Russia for proving Marxism a failed system and their backward mindset of fighting the last war, our leaders have put us squarely on the wrong side of history and human heartedness.
The former Soviet state have every right to be able to defend themselves from Russia, who they rightly see as a threat to their sovereignty, but expanding NATO, an existential threat to Russia, was not the way to do it. Missile defense systems, arms sales and strong diplomacy would have achieved the result without antagonizing Russia. Moreover, NATO should have been disbanded immediately after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Our leaders have failed us over and over but this failure could lead to world war, and indeed it appears we are on the cusp of world war. Instead of alienating a potential ally wouldn’t it be a more intelligent move to embrace the Russians, and ask Russia to join the European Union, (although I sincerely doubt they would given the way Europe is on a mission to commit suicide), bringing Russia into the West?
The people there have suffered a century of Marxist tyranny, they have withstood multiple invasions from the West and they have persevered. The Russian people are tough and pragmatic, but have been kicked over and over, and so have become wary. Sure Putin might be an ass, although I have never met the man, but the Russian people deserve respect, even admiration. The same people that told us not to offend the USSR as it was tyrannizing it’s own people, are telling us now to be aggressive with Russia, and coddle the Islamists. Perhaps even the war in the Ukraine could be stopped, if instead of putting a dagger to Russia’s throat, we disbanded NATO.
Russia is like a dog that has been kicked too much, but is there any question that in a fight, the guy with a dog on his side will almost always emerge victorious? We have to ask ourselves, what do we want to happen in the world? Do we want war with Russia to defend the Islamists? Do we want Ukraine to keep bleeding? Or do we want to defeat the Islamists who are slaughtering their way across the globe, invading Europe and will soon take up Nazi Germany’s role in world history? Do we want to restore Ukraine to peace and prosperity? What we do, or more to the point, what our leaders do, will answer those questions.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
