Squandering Reagan’s Cold War victoryAmerican Thinker, Aug 1, 2022, Jared Peterson
Russia is “a gas station masquerading as a country,” the noted warmonger John McCain once said. This astoundingly disrespectful statement by a major US political figure says much about the condescending and diplomatically destructive attitudes of US elites towards Russia since 1991.
But Russia’s size, vast stores of critical resources, military might (especially nukes), and tenacious cultural conservatism mean that it will be a significant force in the world for some time. The West could have benefited greatly from a peaceful integration of this enormous country into Europe, but it chose another route. More honestly, the United States chose another route.
After the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia intensely desired and sought acceptance by Europe and integration into the Western security system. Boris Yeltsin, even more than Peter the Great, was a Western groupie. Throughout the 90’s Russia did nothing to cause the rest of Europe to fear a possible turn to Russian expansionism. In fact, no responsible European or American had any such fears. Given all this, there was every reason for the West to welcome Russia into the Western world.
But the West, led by the United States, refused Russia’s admission.
Instead, it commenced a 30-year policy of gratuitously provocative military expansion towards Russia’s Western border. This triumphalist policy, scathingly condemned by America’s greatest diplomat and Russia expert, George Kennan, was the product of the USMIIDNeocon (United States Military Industrial Intelligence Diplomat Neocon) establishment’s desire to retain a militarily significant foe, to conclusively establish the United States as the sole world superpower, and, to a lesser extent, to placate ancient antipathies toward Russia.
All of this was a tragedy.
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