Isn't Fair Fair?
Why would it not be assumed that Russians view their state and existential security as essential to their well being as does the U.S. theirs? Little wonder they blow hot and cold. Europe and the United States are once again viewing Russia with contempt, as though it simply is not possible to render that country equal in value and trust to that of any other, including Russia's former allies.
It's kind of hard to think cuddly thoughts about Vladimir Putin. But then who thinks kindly about George W. Bush? They're equally autocratic, equally prone to errors in judgement. One is given to bombast, the other to serene pronouncements of assured decision-making. While President Bush is certain of his destiny and that of his country as the world's sole policing agency for good, President Putin remains aggrieved at the lack of respect and recognition due his influential and powerful country.
It just isn't fair. Welcome to the real world.
It's possible that President Bush has instigated and directly ordered state assassinations against his accusers, but it's also highly doubtful. It's quite likely that President Putin has ordered that his detractors be silenced, by whatever means. They have much in common, these two men, but the latter adheres to a different code of allowable behaviour than the former.
Yet it is without question that President Bush has ordered his country into the invasion of autonomous countries geographically removed from his own, and in the doing has caused the deaths of countless human beings. More than equalling the responsibility of President Putin inspiring death and destruction in Chechnya. Both men and both countries enjoy the status of super-bullies in the world at large. They have indeed much in common.
Still, the European Union, NATO and the United States appear to enjoy thumbing their noses at Russia. The United States is adamant it will proceed with the installation of anti-missile shields in central Europe, former Russian (USSR) territory. Instilling understandable fear of intent in the heart of Russia and her president. A seemingly-reasonable resolution was offered in the geographic placement of those missile shields, a move that had it been accepted, would have been guaranteed to pacify Russia.
The United States has never been accustomed to having its actions criticized and alternatives dictated to it by any outside body, particularly that of a potential rival once again for super-power status. And then there's the matter of NATO failing to ratify an updated version of the original 1990 treaty of the Conventional Forces in Europe, signed at the conclusion of the Cold War, when everyone felt fairly relaxed and triumphant at the fall of official Communism.
"It would have been completely incomprehensible if Russia was to continue fulfilling the treaty when the other sides had not even ratified it," according to none other than former president Mikhail Gorbachev, architect of the fall of Communism and the United Soviet Socialist Republic. We may not respect Mr. Putin for his dark and questionable spirit and decision-making, but there is little dispute that Mr. Gorbachev's opinion holds great weight universally.
It's all very well to say that the CFE treaty was fundamental to arms control and the maintenance of European stability, but if one of the major partners in the agreement is left, through the deliberate machinations of the others, and their 'benign' neglect to feelings of vulnerable exposure, then it is understandable that Russia feels the deal is off, and has withdrawn.
It's as though Russia and Europe and the United States somehow revel in the strains and conspiracies inherent in their distrust and dislike for one another. Mr. Putin's decree set out his position based on "extraordinary circumstances affecting the security of the Russian Federation", a situation that requires immediate measures to make it amenable once again to Russian co-operation.
Is that unreasonable?
But isn't it creepy to be dealing with a head of state who, without much doubt, has been instrumental in directly and violently causing the deaths of reporters critical of his regime, of former KGB operatives who have turned away from Russia, exposing its deep and dark secrets to the world at large?
It's kind of hard to think cuddly thoughts about Vladimir Putin. But then who thinks kindly about George W. Bush? They're equally autocratic, equally prone to errors in judgement. One is given to bombast, the other to serene pronouncements of assured decision-making. While President Bush is certain of his destiny and that of his country as the world's sole policing agency for good, President Putin remains aggrieved at the lack of respect and recognition due his influential and powerful country.
It just isn't fair. Welcome to the real world.
It's possible that President Bush has instigated and directly ordered state assassinations against his accusers, but it's also highly doubtful. It's quite likely that President Putin has ordered that his detractors be silenced, by whatever means. They have much in common, these two men, but the latter adheres to a different code of allowable behaviour than the former.
Yet it is without question that President Bush has ordered his country into the invasion of autonomous countries geographically removed from his own, and in the doing has caused the deaths of countless human beings. More than equalling the responsibility of President Putin inspiring death and destruction in Chechnya. Both men and both countries enjoy the status of super-bullies in the world at large. They have indeed much in common.
Still, the European Union, NATO and the United States appear to enjoy thumbing their noses at Russia. The United States is adamant it will proceed with the installation of anti-missile shields in central Europe, former Russian (USSR) territory. Instilling understandable fear of intent in the heart of Russia and her president. A seemingly-reasonable resolution was offered in the geographic placement of those missile shields, a move that had it been accepted, would have been guaranteed to pacify Russia.
The United States has never been accustomed to having its actions criticized and alternatives dictated to it by any outside body, particularly that of a potential rival once again for super-power status. And then there's the matter of NATO failing to ratify an updated version of the original 1990 treaty of the Conventional Forces in Europe, signed at the conclusion of the Cold War, when everyone felt fairly relaxed and triumphant at the fall of official Communism.
"It would have been completely incomprehensible if Russia was to continue fulfilling the treaty when the other sides had not even ratified it," according to none other than former president Mikhail Gorbachev, architect of the fall of Communism and the United Soviet Socialist Republic. We may not respect Mr. Putin for his dark and questionable spirit and decision-making, but there is little dispute that Mr. Gorbachev's opinion holds great weight universally.
It's all very well to say that the CFE treaty was fundamental to arms control and the maintenance of European stability, but if one of the major partners in the agreement is left, through the deliberate machinations of the others, and their 'benign' neglect to feelings of vulnerable exposure, then it is understandable that Russia feels the deal is off, and has withdrawn.
It's as though Russia and Europe and the United States somehow revel in the strains and conspiracies inherent in their distrust and dislike for one another. Mr. Putin's decree set out his position based on "extraordinary circumstances affecting the security of the Russian Federation", a situation that requires immediate measures to make it amenable once again to Russian co-operation.
Is that unreasonable?
But isn't it creepy to be dealing with a head of state who, without much doubt, has been instrumental in directly and violently causing the deaths of reporters critical of his regime, of former KGB operatives who have turned away from Russia, exposing its deep and dark secrets to the world at large?
Labels: Human Fallibility, Inconvenient Politics, Life's Like That
posted by Pieface | 6:46 PM
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