European Moral Feebleness Fuels Russia’s Aggression and Impunity
Aug 16th, 2008 | By Andrew L. Jaffee | Category: Featured, Foreign Affairs, HistoryBy Andrew L. Jaffee, netwmd.com
Russian President Putin’s goon-squad is using “’scorched-earth’ tactics” in Georgia, has promised to annex territory (South Ossetia and Abkhazia), and now is threatening to attack Poland. This is pure madness, but look at the reaction from Europe (or, should I say, lack thereof?), as described by the brave Russian soul, Garry Kasparov:
Russia’s invasion of Georgia reminded me of a conversation I had three years ago in Moscow with a high-ranking European Union official. Russia was much freer then, but President Vladimir Putin’s onslaught against democratic rights was already underway.
“What would it take,” I asked, “for Europe to stop treating Putin like a democrat? If all opposition parties are banned? Or what if they started shooting people in the street?” The official shrugged and replied that even in such cases, there would be little the EU could do. He added: “Staying engaged will always be the best hope for the people of both Europe and Russia.”
The citizens of Georgia would likely disagree. Russia’s invasion was the direct result of nearly a decade of Western helplessness and delusion. Inexperienced and cautious in the international arena at the start of his reign in 2000, Mr. Putin soon learned he could get away with anything without repercussions from the EU or America.
Russia reverted to a KGB dictatorship while Mr. Putin was treated as an equal at G-8 summits. …
Think about the rhetoric which flows from Western Europe regarding Israel. “Israel is the greatest threat to world peace.” “Israel is illegally occupying foreign territory.” “Israel is an aggressor nation.” Hmmm… Israel — with a population of 7.3 million; a country 290 miles long and 85 miles across at its widest point — is the “greatest threat to world peace?” But Russian neo-imperialists are not a threat, merely to be “engaged” and never confronted?
European cowardice in fact “turns reality, and history, upside down.” Europeans still haven’t learned their lesson after their homelands were the setting for two of the world’s greatest evils, Stalin and Hitler.
Soviet Russia’s ethnic cleansing of its neighbors (Tartars, Ukrainians, Balts, etc.) during the 20th century wasn’t enough? Will Europe sit back and watch a repeat of these horrors again, waiting until the U.S. steps in to save their lazy, morally complacent rear ends again?
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Democracy means the rule of law, property rights, separation of religious rule and state, representational government accountable to the people, civil rights, and civilian audit of a robust military. Democracy is currently the most mature form of political system for peacefully organizing societies and allowing citizens to realize their full potential as human beings.
Sadly, that’s a rhetorical question. And, I fear, the answer is yes, yes, and yes…
The Left has done such a good job of sanitizing history in the classroom and history in public discourse, that many people have never even heard of the atrocities committed by a Russian-dominated Soviet Union against myriad ethnic groups.
A few examples: expulsion of the Crimean Tartars, starvation of Ukrainians, the Katyn Forest massacre of Polish troops, the Doctor’s Plot, the purges of Jews, the Hungarian revolution in 1956, and the Czech uprising in 1968.
All these crimes would not have been committed were Russia under a free democracy. Sadly, even now they are under a despotic leadership. Even though Putin is popular, he is the wrong leader for Russia. Nationalism drives his popularity–and the post-Soviet social crash in national self-esteem which Putin has found a salve for through his strength and militancy.
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