The Latest Bush War

By David Glenn Cox

Ah, the time grows short from May to November, but still there is time for one more Bush war. The Russian incursion into Georgia has been heavy-handed and overbearing, but not really all that surprising.

Russia is a nation on the far edge of Europe, and prior to the 20th century all political communications were sent by dispatch. Before the Czars could hear about an issue, in many cases it was already over. Ruling over a huge empire with weak and almost non-existent communications, Russian leaders were left to ponder the possibilities. In such a vacuum, paranoia would be the natural outgrowth.

The rise of Bolshevism took this political paranoia and made it the national obsession. Stalin’s purges were legendary; Soviet emissaries staying at Churchill’s personal home of Chartwell frightened the maids by sleeping with pistols under their pillows. They insisted the beds be made with their own special sheets that opened in the middle so that possible intruders couldn’t restrain them. All this in the Prime Minister of Great Britain’s personal home?

In their defense, a great many foreign powers tried, as Churchill himself said, “to strangle Bolshevism in its cradle." It fed the fire of a huge nation that saw few friends and many enemies. Stalin’s treaties with Hitler can be viewed as either cynical gamesmanship or the rank paranoia of a scared little man trying to buy off the boogey man while playing for time. Hoping against hope that the German warlord would be deposed or become satiated before it became Russia’s turn.

When the Wehrmacht rolled into Russia, Stalin went into a depression for a week. His worst nightmare had come to pass. Only gradually did he regain his composure. He had trusted the Russian frontiers to a supposed ally and had been betrayed. Even to the last days of the Nazi tyranny, the Nazi leadership expected a breach between the Western allies and the Russians. Would the West actually allow Europe to fall into the hands of the Soviets?

All during the war, Stalin pushed the West into opening a second front against Germany. They saw Russian troops dying by the thousands while the allies kept saying wait until next year. They assumed it was the goal of the West to defeat Hitler by bleeding Russia dry. It wasn’t an altogether out of bounds suggestion; the Germans suspected the same plan was in place. But Russia’s problem, as it was pointed out, was that they had made a bargain with the devil and now the devil was trying to make good on the possession.

Even to the last days of the war, back channel communications by Nazi leadership offered to open up the fronts in the West and to fight against the Bolsheviks, side by side. Desperate, disconnected and fanatical, but these communications were watched closely in Moscow. Throughout the Cold War there was this intense sense of paranoia, the West saw a huge military power that wasn’t making good on its agreements. The East saw themselves as a weakened, shattered nation, facing an atomic super power with a sworn dislike of their political system.

Russia is a land of immense wealth: oil, gas, coal, diamonds, gold, and timber with thousands of squares miles yet unexplored for mineral wealth. The Soviets, because of their own mismanagement, could never exploit their vast wealth. With the fall of communism, the West sent bankers and economists to try and help build a market economy in Russia. The ruble became a legitimate world currency, and after a rough start, has gained in value. The Russian economy was growing by leaps and bounds and in 2005 President Putin announced that they would pay off their foreign debt five years early.

While most would celebrate the great Russian success story, others began to fuel those old rumors. The Bush administration, while at first glad-handing Putin and Bush claiming that Putin was a man he could work with, then began to undercut Russian interests, both political and industrial, quickly welcoming former Soviet satellite states into NATO. Imagine if the reverse was true and Putin invited Canada and Mexico into the Warsaw pact.

The Russian position was that since the Warsaw pact had ceased to exist, what was the need to sign new members into NATO. As the Russian oil and gas industry began to expand, American oil companies proposed oil and gas pipelines across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and India, with the specific purpose of blocking competing Russian pipelines. You see, it doesn’t matter how much oil and gas you own, if I own the pipeline and the spigot. This leaves Russia with Western Europe as a customer and cuts her out of the growth centers of the globe.

This is cold war politics with a good old capitalist spin, what you can’t own you control. Because of this, Russian and American joint ventures have started to deteriorate; these aren’t stupid people. Paranoid or not they see how the game is being played. American multi-billion dollar arms sales are hailed in the Western press. Russian military sales are called dangerous, ill advised and troubling.

But more than anything else and even after it all, the Russians are willing to work with the West. The Bush administration, in its dominate-the-world-at-all-costs mania, has pushed its missile defense system into the new NATO member countries of the Czech Republic and Poland. The Americans explain to the wary Russians, “Oh this isn’t pointed at you! This is pointed at rogue nations.”

The Russians counter with, “Name one.”

“Well, there is North Korea, and then there is Iran!”

“But, my American friend, their missiles do not have the range to reach you.”

“Well… they might some day and we want to be ready!”

I’m going to go way out on a ledge here, that with all the mistakes made by the Bush administration, this one is the dumbest. To point weapons at a nation that is only trying to seek her place in the sun. A rich nation with hard cash, in need of American products and know-how. But American cold war relics instead sour relations and seek hegemony.

The only missiles Bush’s missile defense shield could stop are Russian missiles.

So are the Russian’s warlike or militaristic when they announce that they are building an adequate military response or a plan to keep Russian bombers in Cuba? Hello? This is the Cold War in reverse; in 1962 America was rich and prosperous and could outspend the Russians into the poor house on weapons systems. Today the opposite is true; Russia is rich and prosperous, but the true point is why??!

The Georgian administration has been more than helpful to American interests, sending troops to Iraq and allowing US military advisors on their soil to train Georgian soldiers. How would we, as Americans, feel if Puerto Rico invited Russian advisors to train their National Guard? Or imagine if Texas had seceded from the American Union and now allowed Russian advisors in to train their military.

The Russian bear has had enough, and it behaves the way that the Russian bear always reacts, especially when they are treated like they’ve always been treated. Few nations and no superpowers will allow a hostile nation on their border. Why is this any different than Israel invading Lebanon on a whim? The Russians have had enough and said so, partly from paranoia, partly from reality, but totally because of the policies of George W. Bush. In 2008 can we expect any different?