Kissinger reminds us that Russia is moving in its own way towards the rule of law and that we should not needlessly provoke her:
Speeches denouncing Russian shortcomings and gestures drawn from the Cold War have occurred frequently. Proponents of such policies assert that the transformation of Russian society is the precondition of a more harmonious international order. They argue that if pressure is maintained on the current Russia, it, too, will eventually implode. Yet assertive intrusion into what Russians consider their own sense of self runs the risk of thwarting both geopolitical and moral goals.
Some groups and individuals in Russia undoubtedly look to America to accelerate a democratic evolution. But almost all observers agree that the majority of Russians perceive America as presumptuous and determined to stunt Russia’s recovery. Such an environment is more likely to generate a nationalist and confrontational response than a democratic evolution.
In many ways, we are witnessing one of the most promising periods in Russian history. Exposure to modern open societies and engagement with them is more prolonged and intense than ever before — even in the face of unfortunate repressive measures. The longer this continues, the more it will impact Russia’s political evolution.
The pace of such an evolution will inevitably be Russian. We can affect it more by patience and historical understanding than by offended disengagement and public exhortations.
I was encouraged that such a wise man of foreign policy echoed some themes I had written about earlier in my own non-expert musings on Putin and Medvedev here and here.
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Don’t be so modest. Much of life is not so much expertise as common sense. Russia is not a threat to us (currently) but could become one if sufficiently prodded (they still have all those nuclear missiles). Common sense dictates that we mind our own business and don’t pick any fights [it's especially impressive that an Irishman could come to that conclusion also (I mean the one about not picking fights)].
It’s true. Irishmen don’t pick fights, though. We finish them.
True – but most of the time the victim is another Irishman (the Irish consider fighting to be a family affair – sort of “the family that fights together, stays together” philosophy). I like the story about the Irish Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg. As they were hurried forward for a counterattack, their chaplain knelt them down for general absolution and then called out “And remember, Mother Church denies absolution to cowards who run from the battle!”
[...] At TakiMag, Roach has stirred up a tempest in a teapot by calling for an attack on Iran and suggesting that his fellow antiwar paleoconservatives are unmanly pacifists. This follows from the realist approach to international relations he has been advocating as of late (he praises Kissinger here). [...]
Good call on all of this, I totally agree. Having lived in Russia all last year I find it particularly strange that it is the conservatives pushing for bad relations with Russia (i.e. McCain on missile defense and kicking Russia out of the G8). For me at least, it is essentially a conservative argument to have good relations with the country, in that we agree on 95 percent of everything and the stuff that we don’t agree on isn’t our business.
Russia’s number one foreign policy priority is the war on terror. Their combined intelligence and military might is seconded only to our own, and they are world’s second largest exporter of oil, and number one on natural gas. So why do we not get along with this country? We don’t like the way they run their house, and they get angry at us when we try and build bases in their back yard.
Our current hostile policy towards Russia makes no sense and is counter-productive to our long-term goals as a country.
http://3kingsmiddlegame.wordpress.com
This is why I could never vote for McCain. Our future depends on good relations with Russia, and this is true of whatever grand strategy we go with regarding Middle Eastern policy. Anyone who thinks Russia would naturally want to side with the menace of Muslim revanchism over America without serious provocation knows nothing about Russia, but serious provocation seems to be on the neocon agenda. I believe the neocons and their candidate want to steer us toward a course that would start a Third World War that will destroy what little of our civilization survived the first two. With Obama it’s not clear that he will, it’s not clear that he won’t.
Do you mind then asking the Ruskies to stop exporting polonium and consider dropping their natural gas prices. In return, we’ll let you have Berezovsky. Seems like a fair swap to me.
As for Kissinger, I can’t take anything he says at face value. What’s his angle?
Surely it can’t be a “promising period[s] in Russian history” when Russia is undergoing a population decline.
It’s unwise for Republicans and conservatives to oppose Russia. There might come a day when Russia helps Euro-Americans take back our country from the Multi-Cult oligarchs and third world militants.
Some of the fastest growing American corporations are the ones that, as they put in the business press, sell workers. So Man Power Incorporated is just booming. And the reason for the turn to temporary workers is perfectly straight forward. They can be treated just as goods, as material goods. If you want to throw them out, you throw them out. You don’t want to pay them benefits, you don’t pay them benefits.NoamChomskyNoam Chomsky, from Radio Free LA, 1997
Altered opinions do not alter a man’s character or do so very little; but they do illuminate individual aspects of the constellation of his personality which with a different constellation of opinions had hitherto remained dark and unrecognizable.FriedrichWilhelmNietzscheFriedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche