Please Don’t Lecture Russia

THIS was the REAL USSR… any questions?

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When I first visited Russia more than 30 years ago, it was still part of the USSR. The idea of any independent or critical press, of open debates in a parliament, or of popular demonstrations against government policies that would bring scores of thousands of people into the streets of Moscow, was inconceivable then. Today, Russia has many critics in the West, who accuse it of sliding back into dictatorship. What is their proposed solution? Usually, it is to criticise Russia and its leaders and try to strong-arm them into adopting policies of greater democracy and alleged greater respect for human rights.

These attitudes stem from a pervasive faith shared by liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans in the USA that’s so pervasive, that its greatest believers are totally unaware of how much they’re in thrall to it. They believe that democracy is the only acceptable political system around the world, and that, consequently, the USA should wage a ceaseless ideological crusade, not resting until, at least, all the major nations of the world share the same limitless blessings of a perfect democratic system.

Now, I’m all in favour of democracy myself… I prefer living within a fully-democratic system rather than under a communist, fascist, or repressive theocracy. However, I’m against waging wars to imposing the American, or any other, democratic system, on other nations. I’m equally opposed to a purely-ideological foreign policy that would treat the governments of the world purely according to how Freedom House and similar bodies grade them according to how it assesses their freedoms. This is hardly an anti-American position. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Quincy Adams, and modern Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, and Bill Clinton believed and acted exactly the same way.

Ironically, the history of the West and the USA over the past three-quarters of a century exposes the dangerous folly of such self-righteous fantasies. Britain and the USA only won World War II against Nazi Germany because they were allies with the USSR under Iosif Stalin. I believe that not one in 100,000 Americans alive today knows or remembers that it was the Red Army, not the American or British forces, which liberated the Nazi extermination complexes of Auschwitz and Majdanek in Poland.

Nor did Western pragmatism… or hypocrisy… end with the destruction of the truly-evil Third Reich. Many still hail President Nixon as an American statesman and peacemaker for his détente policy with the USSR and his outreach to China. Not all the repercussions of the Watergate scandal that forced him to resign can take that away. Yet, Nixon, like Reagan after him, supported the two most corrupt régimes on the planet for decades, which ground hundreds of millions of their unfortunate peoples into degradation and despair. These were the kleptocratic dictatorships of Indonesia under President Suharto and Zaïre (today called the Democratic Republic of the Congo) under President Mobuto Sese Seko.

Russia has come an amazingly long way since I first visited it in the spring thaw season of 1982. That doesn’t mean its political system is the same as those of the USA or the major nations of Western Europe. However, it’s no Indonesia under Suharto or Zaïre under Mobutu either. What’s more, the USA never had any trouble getting along with them. All the moral lecturing of Russia by Western critics misses two crucial points.

First, even if Russia were to relapse back into some form of strict authoritarian government… and so far it hasn’t… that wouldn’t make war or conflict with the USA or the West inevitable. The USA, the British Empire, and the communist USSR were reliable and exceptional successful allies to each other throughout World War II. Then, the USA and the USSR successfully steered clear of any direct conflict in the 44 years of the Cold War from 1945 to 1989. It wasn’t easy; at times, they came dangerously close to war. Second, ensuring Russia remains a democracy won’t be a guarantee of peace with Russia, even if such a starry-eyed, ill-defined, reckless, and irresponsible policy such as intervening in Russia’s internal affairs could ever succeed. For throughout modern history, democracies have often waged war on other countries, including on other democracies. The idea that the best guarantee of world peace is a world filled with, and dominated by, democracies is just another myth.

What the USA and Russia really need is a serious dialogue between their top leaderships aimed at defusing tensions and managing real and unavoidable conflicts of interest. Both nations need to work hard on identifying their areas of mutual interest, and expanding them. The last thing American and other Western leaders need to do is to cave into the mounting hysteria from the think-tanks and the armchair strategists churning out their endless morally-outraged columns for the op-ed pages, and embrace a policy of ideological criticism and name-calling against Russia. The two thermonuclear superpowers need to respect each other and improve their cooperation… the peace of the world demands it.

9 March 2013

Martin Sieff

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_03_09/Please-don-t-lecture-Russia/

Editor’s Note:

Orthodox people should note that Victor Potapov, Alexander Webster, James Paffhausen, and Rod Dreher have sold out to the American Consumerist Dream and to the American Democratic Fantasy. They’re Sergianists (those who suck up to the powers-that-be for the scraps that fall from the high table) of the foulest and worst sort. They’re part of the “mounting hysteria from the think-tanks and the armchair strategists churning out their endless morally-outraged columns for the op-ed pages, and embrace a policy of ideological criticism and name-calling against Russia”. Potapov was/is an open US government propagandist. Webster and Dreher are “stink-tankers”; Paffhausen is tied to the American Enterprise Institute (one of the most Far Right stink-tanks in the District). In short, these people are traitors to the Orthosphere, and we must treat them accordingly.

You can follow HH and his support of Social Justice… or you can follow the above sell-out jabronies who’re supporters of “Greed is Good” and “The Race Goes to the Swiftest” (that’s what support of the contemporary Republican Party means). I’ve chosen… it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know where I stand… by the way, I’m far from alone…

BMD

Obama’s Economic Policy: The Rich Should Pay Too

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There’ll be no more tax cuts for wealthy Americans… President Barack Obama signalled that after his re-election, he sees this as the best way to prevent a “budget catastrophe”. Delivering his first speech after re-election, Mr Obama outlined his economic strategy for the years to come. A budget deficit could cause the catastrophe Mr Obama was talking about. A “fiscal cliff”, which is likely to happen in January of 2013, could plunge the American economy back into recession. Spending cuts were approved as part of a strategy to avoid budget deficit. Mr Obama cited experts to say that by September of 2013 the budget deficit will decrease by 503 billion USD (15.9 trillion Roubles. 400 billion Euros. 320 billion UK Pounds). However, the USA would have to pay a high price for this… mass unemployment and a 0.5 percent decline in American economic growth. It means that rich Americans won’t avoid higher taxes. Mr Obama emphasised that he’d veto any bill suggesting more tax benefits to those earning more than 250,000 USD (7.9 million Roubles. 197,000 Euros. 157,000 UK Pounds) a year.

Some analysts believe that Obama overdramatized on purpose, trying to provoke a reaction from the Republicans who control the House of Representatives. Konstantin Sonin, Pro-rector at the Russian School of Economics {a pro-oligarch mouthpiece: editor}, said, “Obama’s just bargaining, since the sides have different approaches to the issue. To avoid a serious conflict they should achieve a kind of a compromise”. Yakov Mirkin, expert at the Russian Institute of Global Economy, said, “Evidently, there’ll be no budget catastrophe. Republicans and Democrats will definitely agree on raising the debt ceiling. Both parties focused on reducing budget deficit, although they offer different approaches to the issue. If Romney had won the election, there’d have been a decline in taxes with numerous benefits offered by the American tax code removed. I mean tax loans related to education, and the money spent on healthcare and insurance policies, as well as small businesses”.

Obama offers a different approach… the affluent, which comprise some 2 percent of the American population, should pay more taxes, whilst the rest, some 98 percent, could enjoy lower taxes. The Senate has already approved a bill, and the president is ready to sign it at any moment. To reduce negative consequences, Mr Obama is ready to look for a compromise with Republicans. In any case, he won`t be able to avoid debates on the economy with the House of Representatives. Generally, Russian experts think that Obama’s re-election is a good sign for the US economy, since he’s already a proven and successful leader in terms of handling the financial crisis. Despite strong opposition from the Congress, he managed to attract huge investments into the American economy, which resulted in moderate economic growth. If Mr Obama sticks to this policy, it’d only do good to both domestic and global markets.

10 November 2012

Andrei Smirnov

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_11_10/Obama-s-economic-policy-the-rich-should-pay-too/

Editor’s Note:

The American electorate rejected the tripartite emphasis of the Romney/Ryan non-plan:

• Massive tax cuts for the rich, coupled with drastic cuts to all government social programmes
• Unrestrained warfare in foreign parts and a return to torture and imprisonment at black sites abroad
• Turning a blind eye to racism and white supremacy (“Keep the White House white”)

That is why white women rejected the Grand Olde Phony candidate. They saw their families hurt by Republican cudgelling of ordinary folks to aid the grasping Affluent Effluent, they saw their kids coming home in body-bags or maimed from the wars, and the Republicans’ unfeigned racism disgusted them (the “legitimate rape” comments weren’t so influential… all women know that the Grand Olde Perverts are like that). The Republicans needed to win big with white women, but their greedy and cruel platform ensured a massive gender gap in white voters (mainly, they lost white women whilst winning white men). Yet, its telling defeat didn’t lead the Republican Party to reject any of these rancid points. It’s poised to break into two, if not three, blocs, which would cement Democratic power for the next generation. The Republican Party is paying dearly for such heeding greedster RINOs as Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Grover Norquist, and Paul Ryan… it’s rejected its true legacy from Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Ike, Rocky, Jake Javits, Nixon, and Gerald Ford. As it’s done that, it deserves to die… the sooner, the better. They’re just shills for the rich and whores for the military-industrial complex… do remember what Ike said of that.

The Republican Party turned its back on its past with Slobberin’ Ronnie Reagan, with his shameless whoring for the Affluent Effluent and his mindless juvenile hatred of “big government”. No society of 300 million can be run as though it were a rural Ozark backwater. In 2012, the Republican Party shot itself in the head with full malice aforethought. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put them back together again…

BMD

27 October 2012. Putin Sez “The West Treats Us Like We Just Came Down From the Trees”

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Sometimes, the arrogance and hubris of Americans and their zapadnik lickspittles gets to one. However, reality does come to the rescue, kids. The high n’ mighty Americans have to beg rides on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft… they wasted all of their money on wars, conspicuous consumption, and big tax breaks to the Affluent Effluent. They have no money for housing and proper universal healthcare, let alone space exploration. President Eisenhower was right… the military-industrial complex has eaten up all our substance and it cries for MORE.

Look at this image. American cosmonauts have to hitch rides on Russian spacecraft. That’s due to the Bushies, kids. The Russians didn’t just come down from the trees, and neither did you. If you want to rebuild America, vote for President Obama. If you want to bomb wogs, suppress voting rights in the South and Southwest, and kick our seniors and unemployed in the teeth, vote for Romney. It’s a choice, kids… a stark and relentless choice. You can have bad-to-lukewarm (Obama) or you can have outright evil (Romney)… that means that one chooses the best alternative available, not “the best of all possible worlds”. That’s what adults do.

Vote for the Prez.

BMD

6 October 2012. Ike was Right! It’s Time to Emphasise Kids, Not Bombs

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A half-century ago, Ike warned us about the military-industrial complex and how it’d eat up the resources that America needed to remain strong and healthy. Ike wasn’t a weak-kneed pacifist, he was a general who led the successful campaign in Western Europe in World War II. What we need to do now is to end the hellishly-expensive wars in foreign parts… all that they do is to eat up resources that’re better spent on our kids’ future (as Ike pointed up in his famous speech). That’s not to mention the maimed and dead warriors (my heart goes out to all the families)… that’s a cost that can never be expressed in dollars (how DOES one “price” sorrow? You simply can’t). If we’re “pro-life“, then, let’s get serious and let’s “get down”… let’s give all of our kids a decent shot at a good future, and that’s going to take some serious bucks. I don’t know about you, but I know where we can find them.

Kids or bombs, which do you want?

BMD