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SEPTEMBER 14, 2004 – Here we go
again, folks.
Almost a year ago we called it
The Biggest Issue No One
Is Talking About
And since then, things have only gotten
worse and worse, as we documented back in July in
Pay Attention To Russia,
Dammit!
Yet still, President Bush has done
nothing about what is occurring in Russia.
Beyond doing nothing, sitting by
pathetically, naively, and obliviously, the Bush camp has truly put
our nation in an even worse position with regard to the situation:
utter impotence.
While the Bush camp likes to brag that
they were the ones who won the Cold War and make our country secure
with their aggressive foreign policy, the reality is the Cold War
was won by winning the hearts and minds of the Soviet and Eastern
Bloc peoples. So great was their desire for American style freedom,
blue jeans, and rock n’ roll that the Iron Curtain collapsed and
they took to the streets demanding democracy. This was our
“victory” in the Cold War, not any military battle or the like.
Well now, step by step, former head of
the KGB Putin is reigning in all power for himself and changing the
nation’s Constitution. Our article back in December told how he was
on the verge on consolidating power to the point where he would have
such a majority in Russia’s parliament that he could rewrite the
Russian Constitution at will.
It was not a joke.
Now, Putin has used the latest school
crisis as an excuse to entirely eliminate any semblance of Democracy
from gubernatorial elections. As the
Washington Post reports:
“President Vladimir Putin announced
plans Monday for a "radically restructured" political system that
would bolster his power by ending the popular election of governors
and independent lawmakers, moves he portrayed as a response to this
month's deadly seizure of a Russian school.”
The reality is not just that President
Bush is standing by naively as this occurs, but that his own actions
have rendered him absolutely impotent to deal with the situation if
he were even inclined to do so.
As has been said all along by people
opposed to the invasion of Iraq and the PATRIOT Act, there was a
massive problem in undertaking a policy of preemption and rolling
back constitutional rights due to terrorism.
Following the school attack last week in
Russia, Putin has stepped up to directly, plainly do both. He
announced he will attack anywhere he deems necessary in the world
preemptively, and now he has announced massive,
Constitution-smashing “reforms.”
And President Bush can do nothing about
it.
The Bush/Limbaugh Republicans often ask,
“Who cares what the rest of the world thinks?” Well, the answer is
America does, as it is vital to our national security. Due to
President Bush losing the support of the rest of the world, we can
in no way round the world up to take a stand against what Putin is
doing, as they will simply laugh and say Putin is following our
lead.
And more importantly, President Bush’s
actions are directly costing us our Cold War victory. The reason
the Soviet Union changed from a dictatorship to a democracy was that
the will of the people demanded it. Now, thanks to President Bush’s
arrogant and offensive foreign policy, democracy is a bad word in
Russia and so is America.
And while Bush, Cheney, Limbaugh, and
the Bush/Limbaugh Republican followers may laugh and mock and say,
“So what?” Putin continues to take advantage of Bush’s naïve policy
and play him like a true chess master toying with someone for whom
checkers is even too complex.
In reality, not only has President Bush
made our nation impotent due to losing the will of the world, but in
a practical sense, having us so bogged down in Iraq makes clear we
would not even imagine at this point conjuring up some threat of
force to keep Russia in line. We are weakened not just
diplomatically but militarily.
Remember just four years ago when we
have the world’s respect, fear, and reverence and were applying
pressure to Russia when it stepped over the line, when Russia was no
longer a threat but a weak nation that the whole world stood with us
to keep line?
Now Russia has developed itself into the
second largest oil exporter in the world – only behind Saudi Arabia
– and its President – the former KGB head – has turned the country
180 degrees back toward its Soviet days, even ordering up its first
new nukes since the end of the Cold War. All made possible by our
President, who seems almost Putin’s twin: son of a former head of
our CIA; a man who embraces one-sided propaganda media outlets; a
man bent on preemptive military excursions and who is ready at any
excuse to roll back freedoms.
And still Kerry has had nothing to say
about this either. Kerry and the Democrats go around saying the
President’s foreign policy has made us weaker not stronger. But
they are either just as naïve and oblivious as the President with
regard to Russia, or they are too cowardly to take a stand with
regard to the situation.
Making it most impossible for the Bush
administration to do anything in Russia if it chooses is the fact
that the terrorism that is occurring in Russia is the same as the
terrorism we are faced with – not some random acts by evil people,
but bad Russian foreign policy coming back to bite it on the butt.
We had chided Russia for years about its cruel, inhuman Chechnya
policies.
Just as Russia is now paying for that,
we are paying for our bad mid-east policies of the past, when we
financed Osama to fight for us against Russia and financed Saddam to
battle Iran – using chemical weapons. Since no one in our nation on
either side of the aisle is able to point out this reality about our
own nation, we are, again, impotent to point this out in Russia’s
case.
In the 10 months since we first sounded
the alarm on this situation, nothing has been done on our nation’s
part, while lots is being done on Putin’s part. Our President’s
naïve and incompetent foreign policy is not only devoid of victories
in the current period, but is costing us the victories we thought we
had secured in the past. We are now a nation impotent to stand up
to human rights rollbacks in Russia, impotent to stand up to Russia
rolling back democratic reforms, and, most of all, a nation whose
roll atop the world is truly threatened by our loss of diplomatic
power, military power, and our debt-creating economic policies.
It is time for
someone to finally put this issue front and center where it belongs. | 
