In his Harvard address in 1978, Solzhenitsyn made a reference to the absence of great statesmen in the west. That has proven all the more to be the case since then.
Rule by moral midgets is the rule now. The posturing Trump could not contain his feverish wish to bomb Syria in 2017 and Clinton before him inexplicably took it upon himself to bomb Serbia relentlessly for over 70 days. Obama chose groveling on the international stage as his signature gesture and his Secretary of State wet herself with glee at the death of Gaddafi. The entire political class of the United States has chosen to chase will-o’-the-wisps fueled by arrogance and delusions. Denial of fundamental biological reality is now an integral part of the mental processes of said class, superbly “educated” to a man but ignorant of life’s most precious truths.
It’s not only an American phenomenon. All but a few European leaders desire anything but national suicide by immigration to vindicate the most vaporous and sappy sentiments of compassion, fairness, and historical retribution. A mere 104 years after the massive slaughter of The Great War and not a one of that lot could summon the courage let alone vision to lift a finger to derail the asinine U.S. encroachment on Russia or question its inherent assumption of some unique Russian depravity or willful nonobservance of civilized norms. Slavic brutes!! Lessons learned from the reckless slide into the massive slaughter of modern industrial warfare? None. No one.
Tony Wood asks:
The question remains, why did all those who for so long foretold this war do so little to stop it, and so much to hasten the disaster Russia has now set in motion?
Indeed. Why didn’t the government of Germany guarantee in writing that it would veto any additional NATO membership? It would have solved at least half of the problem. Why didn’t any other NATO government do so?And what are they doing now? Where are their initiatives for peace?[1]
Russia’s historic proposed treaties addressing the realities of the world NOW were ignored as the West chose to cling tenaciously to the security arrangements of a concluded chapter of European history. Not one statesman rose to the occasion and Antony Blinken would not even afford the Russians the courtesy of directly addressing each of the points raised by them. As they had specifically requested. Instead Blinken served up evasion and sophistry.
I’m fond of the always instructive question, “What problem are we trying to solve?” Preventing Russian expansionism was not one of our problems prior to February 24 yet that was the peril held up to the world. NATO to the rescue! Every needless death, every charred body or poor soul with his guts hanging out behind some tree is the direct responsibility of these smug, perfumed twits.
Notes
[1] “Disarming Ukraine – Day 9 – Europe Increases Its Own Losses.” By b, Moon of Alabama, 3/4/22.
2 comments
Those aren’t Blinken’s, Germany’s or Nato’s tanks attacking Ukranian cities and nuclear sites, Bunny. The West may have its share of mendacious fools but I’m fed up with “pundits” who continuously imply that this is all the West’s fault and Putin is a blameless patriot.
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I rather see the rushing torrent of criticism flowing the opposite direction. Ukraine is fighting heroically for its “freedom” and Putin is, IKYN, itching to restore the U.S.S.R. I know of otherwise sensible, stalwart, astute cold warriors who earnestly declare that the fall of the U.S.S.R. was, SHMG, a “deception operation.” Communism lives on!!! Well, it does but only in China, NK, and the West.
Patrick Armstrong has done a good job of clarifying Putin’s lament about the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. It was all about the hardship this entailed for Russia and Russians stranded outside its borders. This thoughts on that issue were only a small part of his speech in which he unequivocally indicated that Russia intended to retake its place as a European nation.
But even the vaunted Fox News is uncritical in its condemnation of Russia.
I don’t know if I have reached the rank of “pundit” ( :–) ) but I don’t so much imply that it’s the West’s fault as flat out proclaim it. There’s no question that the U.S. committed itself not to expand NATO eastward by even one inch but since then “NATO” has swarmed toward the Russian border like chickens at feeding time. Putin asked reasonably at one point, who is the threat against which this expansion is being undertaken? OWTTE. The historic opportunity to help Russia in the aftermath of the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. was lost in (purple prose alert) the orgy of looting engineered by our helpful “experts” who arrived, carpetbags in hand, to advise the new government. Not to mention the present snapshot of the Russian border and central Europe which shows an astonishing number of NATO bases there. “Astonishing” as in “more than zero.”
It’s true that those are Russian tanks, etc. now in Ukraine but it was Ukrainian artillery and sniper fire that was delivered to the civilians of the Donbass for ten years at a cost of some 10,000 lives and considerable destruction. That is currently unmentionable. Not to mention the Western arms enthusiastically delivered to Ukraine over the years. Remember Obama’s fake hesitancy over supplying offensive weapons to Ukraine?
No, this is a dog’s breakfast of propaganda and horse feathers that have been served up by the West’s propaganda organs. Russia has been the target of a mendacious campaign of vilification all the while that the U.S. has literally laid waste to parts of Serbia, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. Syrian cities look like post-apocalyptical movie sets.
Russia’s reasonable concerns about NATO encroachment were contemptuously and condescendingly ignored as though Russia’s historic experience has NOT been that distance and cold were crucial to its survival albeit at the cost of tens of millions of lives.
Not one U.S. official, pundit, or think tank commando has come up with an honest explanation why NATO needs to be expanded, let alone preserved.