President Joe Biden has announced sanctions will be imposed on Russia in response to the alleged interference in the 2016 elections and in response to the alleged hacking of American government agencies. The Biden administration is taking the world back to the era of the cold war. One vividly remembers the fear of a potential nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. A return to the Cold War is something that no responsible or rational leader wants.
In the post Cold War era the United States had the world to itself. Indeed, American neoconservatives predicted after the fall of the Soviet Union that the US would have about twenty years to do as it wishes without having to worry about the Russians. The United States attempted to impose its ideological vision on the world in other countries. The invasion of Iraq turned out to be disastrous as were the American interventions in Libya and Syria.
It really is time to put ideology aside and to focus on reality. The Russians have put troops on the border with Ukraine in response to increasing hostility from the west. Joe Biden must abandon his narcissism and engage the Russians. The United States and NATO must recognize Russia as a sovereign country with legitimate interests around the world from Ukraine (which borders Russia) to Syria. If the United States adopted a friendlier posture toward Russia the atmosphere would likely improve.
Russia is a nuclear country which makes the escalation of tensions very dangerous. There is no question America and NATO have provoked the Russians by attacking Serbia when that Russian ally was weak and by expanding NATO to the Russian border. American officials from George W. Bush to the Clintons to Biden have extremely high opinions of themselves and view themselves as champions of democracy even in the aftermath of wars of devastation.
Such unrealistic visions of the world in the aftermath of the horrors of Iraq and Syria are proving to be extremely dangerous and irresponsible. Hillary Clinton compared Putin to Hitler. Biden recently called Putin a killer. These are irresponsible and dangerous names to call the Russian President. Such name calling serves to escalate the already tense relations with Russia by making the emerging conflict personal.
Sanctions should not be imposed on Russia. Talks should be held between Washington and Moscow and the US should be looking to clear the air and to deescalate tensions. It should be remembered that Russia did not intervene in Crimea until American neoconservatives and ideological fanatics such as Geoffrey Pyatt and Victoria Nuland participated in the overthrow of Ukraine’s government.
No sane or rational person wants an escalation of tensions with Russia. One would think American officials would rethink their approaches to foreign policy in the aftermath of the disasters that occurred in the Middle East. The Republican Party emerged as the voice of reason on Russian matters during the administration of Donald Trump.
The Republican Party should warn Biden against escalating tensions with Russia and should maintain Trump’s America first policies. If Biden wishes to adopt a hostile posture toward the Russians, the Republicans should make it clear that they will not support him.
One reply on “Provoking Russia”
Republican ‘leadership’ are cowards. Many of them are Democrat-Light in the policies they advocate, they’re ashamed to be Republicans and continually ‘apologize’ for it-or don’t fight for traditional conservative values or the folks who vote for them. The GOP leadership nationally is the weakest I’ve seen it in my lifetime, I wouldn’t donate one dime to the RNC at this point. It has become the party of Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse and Susan Collins-all of them are nominal Republicans at best and will never fight for conservative policies-foreign policy or otherwise.