History is the autobiography of a mad man – Alexander Herzen
History is also cyclical too, is it not? In 2014 we as Americans are closer to nuclear war than we have been in decades. Perhaps, not since the Cuban Missile Crisis, and it because of our own fault.
I wasn’t planning to write about this, I had something general planned about leaders and authority but sometimes things come along that I feel the need to comment on. And I think the possible annihilation of humans is interesting.
Here’s some history and some background for anyone that has been living under a rock.
1949 – NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is created to make an alliance between democratic countries against the U.S.S.R.
1955 – The Warsaw Pact is created to combat NATO and ally communist countries
1991- The Soviet Union collapses and the U.S. promises not to add countries in Eastern Europe to NATO. Warsaw Pact dissolves.
1991-2014 NATO grows bigger and bigger and includes some former Soviet territories like Latvia, Albania, and soon the Ukraine.
2014 – Nationalist protesters in Ukraine protest the government who wanted to have closer ties with Russia. The leader is ousted. Russia invades Crimea, a small part of the Ukraine
Also, being a part of NATO means that an attack on any country is seen as an attack on all countries. So yes, an attack on Latvia by the Russians means that essentially it’s the same as an attack on New York City. I say count your blessings that the Ukraine was never formally added or we’d be in WWIII right now.
A recent string of conservative memes (I hate memes) have come out recently fueled by neoconservatives lambasting the president for acting to “cowardly” in handling Russia’s president Vladimir Putin.
Putin is not mentally there. With his countless shirtless hunting trips, jailing all dissent, his robotic clapping at the Olympics…the man is not mentally sound. THIS is the man that conservatives are hailing as the anti-Obama. The “real” man who does as he pleases and makes Obama look impotent.
They compare Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” statement as the pinnacle of American superiority and Obama as a coward…when you don’t consider the historical context it works.
However, Reagan said those lines at a time when it was clear the U.S.S.R. was falling. It’s easy to give demands to a country that is crumbling and cannot defend its actions.
Russia is not crumbling in 2014. They just had the Olympics! It wouldn’t say it’s the height of civilization but certainly not becoming a defunct country any time soon. And for Obama to start giving demands to Putin will be futile, hostile, and give no benefit to us. Sending troops in…to combat the largest land army (Russia’s Army) doesn’t work either. Nor do stealth bombers, spies, counter insurgents…anything.
Obama is only doing what cold war presidents have done.
When faced with tanks rolling into Hungary in 1955 what did President and General Eisenhower do? Nothing.
What did LBJ do when Russia suppressed the Prague Spring in 1966? Nothing
There is little when you can do when dealing with Russia. This is not a war on terror situation where you are going after individuals and organizations. This is a conflict with another country, a country with nukes, a country with an insane leader who used to hunt spies.
The Ukraine will not become autonomous. Russia relies on their crops, the Ukraine relies on Russia’s gas energy supply. Neither can afford to lose each other despite the success the nationalist protesters in Ukraine are having.
So let me ask you what you are willing to go to war for? What you are going to nuclear war for? For the sake of Ukraine? For the sake of Latvia, if Russia decides to invade there?
And I not asking what would be worth a war where a few thousand Americans die like in Afghanistan and Iraq.
What would be worth a war that threatens the very existential future of our planet and our species existence…
autobiographyofamaddman 