Contending that Moscow is to blame for the deterioration of East-West relations because of its military actions in Georgia and Ukraine, as U.S. opinion leaders tend to do, is especially inaccurate. The problems began much earlier than the events in 2008 and 2014. The West humiliated a defeated adversary that showed every sign of wanting to become part of a broader Western community. Expanding NATO and trampling on Russian interests in the Balkans were momentous early measures that torpedoed friendly relations.[1]“Especially inaccurate” isn’t the right term. “Outright falsehood” is.
Notes
[1]
"West Started the New Cold War With Russia, Not the Other Way Around." By Ted Galen Carpenter, Russia Insider, 1/4/19.
4 comments:
Nations don't have friends, nations have interests.
While Russia is certainly not our friend, we have common interests - most particularly, the Islamists.
Copy/paste is not always your friend. The paragraph is repeated.
I fixed it.
NITZAKHON, I can't even see anything indicates that Russia is unfriendly. Its independent forays into non-Russian territory amount to one that I know of, and that came after the Georgians took Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia under fire. Crimea is sui generis for reasons based in over 100 years of Russian/Soviet control of it and, as I say, it would be under Ukrainian control at this hour had Obongo and Nuland not made overthrow of the elected government of Ukraine an American priority. Eastern Ukraine would also be untouched by war and as it is the Russian presence is less than overwhelming. The US has made a fetish of "covert ops" and "deniability" so it's the height of hypocrisy for any US official to clutch his or her pearls and decry what we have practiced for decades.
In any event, what happens in Ukraine is not our affair and if it is the precious "international order" that the Russians have violated then any American official who weeps bitter tears over that is overlooking our aggressive war against Syria, a far more serious violation of the post-WWII scheme for maintaining the peace.
Anyhoo, the evidence of Russian hostility is mighty thin, esp. the "meddling" and "collusion" propositions. I'd like to see a bulleted list of all the things that establish Russian hostility, just as I would like to see a list of all the things that prove Iran is the chief exporter of terrorism. And Russian frustration of our crackpot schemes for the future of Assad and Syria is not evidence of unfriendliness, esp. given the greasiness of the US enterprise there.
Thanks, Roy and Francis.
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