Comments on: Stupid Policies Have Consequences

By: WRW

WRW — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:24:43 +0000

“Second Update: Some good news for a change. Germany and Russia have negotiated a bilateral resupply deal for their forces in Afghanistan. Of course, Germany is one of our allies most in favor of engagement with the Russians and most opposed to expanding NATO. This is rather peculiar behavior for the rebuilders of a neo-Soviet empire, wouldnâ€™t you say? This is what constructive engagement looks like, and it can yield real benefits. Washington would do well to follow this example”

Come on, Mr. Larison, can’t you see they’re just reconstituting the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty?!!

By: WRW

WRW — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:25:11 +0000

Mr. Larison,
I agree with your comments above about the “unintended” consequences of the policy of needlessly provoking Russia that has been in play for really the last 15 years. A reasonable alliance could have been established with Russia following 9-11. It would not have resolved all issues or precluded the expression of disagreements, but it should have at least defused needless pursuit of rivalry with the Russians.

Of course, I wish the Russians would understand that their US/Canada Institute doesn’t understand the US nearly as well as they think. (The Europeans suffer from the same failing.) Medvedev’s “missiles in Kaliningrad” speech was tone-deaf to how it could be exploited by Russia’s adversaries in the US. He did, as Buchanan notes, then strike an appropriate conciliatory tone, but, unsurprisingly, that second speech received little coverage in the US. The Russians cannot avoid the fact that their interests will diverge from our and that where we seem bent on conflict they have to pursue their interests (Georgia being a case in point.) Still, they would benefit from a more refined at least communications strategy toward the US.

Hopefully, Brezezinski’s involvement with Obama will not herald a continuation of Russo-phobia with a Democratic face.

By: srv

srv — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:03:39 +0000

I wonder what other country might be needed as an Afghan neighbor in case Pakistan blows up…

Nah.

By: Maximos

Maximos — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:22:57 +0000

I have imagined the results, because my in laws live in Sevastopol. There would be a belt of (sporadic, guerilla) war stretching from the Crimea to Tajikistan, and stretching northward into several of the Muslim-majority Russian republics.

Then again, the neoconservatives would probably just say that it was all the birth pangs of a new world order, or something similarly wicked. Face it, the architects of our foreign policy are virtually incorrigible in their unique combination of blindness, hubris, mendacity, malevolence, and magical thinking.

By: libarbarian

libarbarian — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:35:25 +0000

Now imagine the results if Bush didn’t just use harsh words but actually listened to those who wanted the US to arm Georgian partisans like they were the new mujahideen.