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DECEMBER 8, 2003 – Does anyone remember the
battle that brought the USSR down?
Right, there never was a military one. All
that brought them down was financial collapse and their role as
outcast of the world. Well, things have changed drastically
over the past 3 years.
President Putin, a former KGB heavy back in the
days of the original USSR, has forged world alliances, formed his
own party, rebuilt Russia's economy, and now has won such a solid
majority for his party in the elections yesterday that he likely has
the power to rewrite the constitution at his will and get any law
passed he chooses.
Well should we be afraid? What was the
platform his new party, United Russia, ran on?
"The president is the party." Oops, not so
much like the new, western-sounding Russia.
In fact, the two pro-Western Democracy parties got
less than 5 percent of the vote total. A side-effect of George
Bush's world-alienating brand of War on Terror. Democracy and
things related to America are not so good in people's mind as they
once were.
But are things in Russia really that bad?
The Washington Post reports, "Anatoly Chubais, an architect of the
controversial 1990s privatization auctions and leader of the Union
of Right Forces party (said,) "Many of our voters do not realize how
serious the situation is... It could really happen that we will wake
up in a different country tomorrow."
Oops. How did this happen without our
noticing? Credit the commander-in-chief.
Putin has steadily been consolidating power,
rolling back freedoms and rights, and openly calling for creating a
majority for his party that will rule a generation. Yes, no
protests from President Bush anywhere along the way - he can hardly
afford a tiff with Russia while we are so thinly spread.
Putin, unlike Bush, has been a master diplomat and
politician. He has gained the support and trust of much of the
world while President Bush has lost it for America. By siding
with Germany and France during the lead up to the Iraq War, Russia
more than made a whole host of new friends - which it took directly
from the U.S. When President Bush singled out Iran as part of
his Axis of Evil, Putin took yet another opportunity to make a
friend and gain power in the world by stepping in and renewing
Russia's alliance with Iran. We make a move, he makes
beautiful and subtle countermoves that go unnoticed by our
PNAC-bullied, unthougthtful, incurious President.
We were told not to fear President Bush's personal
inadequacy to be commander-in-chief, that he would surround himself
with great people. Apparently they all are too busy adding up
the cash they are making for their buddies with the tax cuts and war
contracts to notice the obvious going on over in the former USSR -
never mind to stop making stupid, clunky goon-like mistakes that
keep making it worse.
Then, there is the economic turnaround.
Putin set out with great focus to develop the massive oil reserves
of Russia. To get it done, he let private industry in to do
the developing. Russia's oil production has surged and so has
its economy. And so, now that the development of the
previously underdeveloped oil fields has been done for him by
industry, what does Putin do? Right, arrest the man in charge
of the biggest oil developing firm so he can take the powerful oil
industry for himself. You may have noticed the story a few
days ago. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the wealthiest and most
powerful man in Russia, was locked up, many say for political
reasons.
In the meantime, Bush's borrow and spend policies
have America's economy in a huge financial ditch. Again, does
anyone remember what led to Russia's collapse? Yes, bad fiscal
policy and overextended military campaigns - including a disastrous
decade-long one in Afghanistan - that bankrupted it.
So while Russia's economy is growing, America's is
starting to fade. And while Russia is making friends, we are
being ranked as the biggest threat to world peace. And as the
Bush administration sits in the White House claiming they were
responsible for winning the Cold War, it is apparent to the
intelligent observer that they didn't understand that it was our
liberal democracy that won Russia over for us. And, more
importantly, just as we have been up and Russia has been down
in the past because we made good choices and the USSR made bad ones,
if we now make bad decisions and Russia continues to make smart
moves, it can all reverse.
It can't? We are such a power that could
never happen? Remember, Russia was the second most powerful
nation in the history of mankind just a couple of years before it
completely collapsed.
But wait, it gets more interesting, though.
Those of you who have been reading The Moderate Independent for a
while now have seen numerous articles which clearly show the Bush
administration is modeling itself after our former enemy, the
USSR. Well, look at the parallels now between what Putin is
attempting to do to Russia and what President Bush is doing here at
home.
As the Washington Post reports, the goal of Putin's new
United Russia party is, "a long-term project to institutionalize a
ruling party that could hold on to power like Japan's Liberal
Democrats, who have ruled almost uninterrupted since 1955, or the
Institutional Revolutionary Party that governed Mexico for 71
years."
Heard that anywhere else recently? Right,
Karl Rove wants to do the same thing for the Republican Party
here.
United Russia's candidates also avoid
participating in debates. As the Post reports, "Refusing to
participate in nationally televised debates, (head of United Russia
Borris) Gryzlov recently said publicly that his party would not let
itself be placed at the same level as the others... They also don't
routinely talk to independent Russian media."
Ever heard and seen this before? Yes, that
is how Arnold Schwarzenegger ran in the California recall election,
avoiding all media except the puppet right-wing talk shows and FOX
News, never once answering reporters questions on the issues, and
avoiding all debates, except for one fake debate where he was given
the questions ahead of time and allowed, even encouraged, to talk
over other candidates who tried to challenge him.
President Bush as well just went around the
independent media, circumventing what he called a "media
filter."
President Putin has rolled back personal freedoms
for the sake of national security. Scottish news source Scottsman.com reports that Putin's goal, as stated
by "respected commentator Andrei Piontkovsky" is, "... building a
police state and he makes no bones about it."
Wait a second. The President of Russia -
which still has most of its nukes - is rolling back freedoms, openly
forging a police state, and our President is... busy dealing with
the mess he chose to create by going it alone into Iraq.
Yes, not only hasn't President Bush strategized
properly or adequately for Iraq, not only doesn't he have a good or
complete strategy for dealing with North Korea or Iran, but, while
he has America bankrupting itself on his born-again-religion-led
crusade through the Middle East, Putin is laying low and rebuilding
his nation. Putin seems to be ecstatic to have the Bush
administration in place. Every move they make is a
predictable, underthought foray based on oversimplified
bravado. Democrats at home complain about this; leaders like
Putin abroad are reveling - and thriving - in it.
With each move, Putin has acted the chessmaster
while Bush has shown himself to be the mindless cowboy. Putin
now has support in Europe, Iran, indeed a massive coalition around
the world. Each week that goes by bringing America another
billion dollars into Iraq debt, each week that goes by as the
popularity of the US worldwide remains low, each week that goes by
with the US in no position to challenge Putin's rollbacks of
freedoms and human rights and consolidation of power, is one day
closer to the day that President Putin and his circle of old school
USSR KGB buddies have, if not the last laugh of the Cold War,
another powerful - and dictatorial - day in the sun.
Indeed, Putin's United Russia party makes no bones
about its dictatorial ambitions. It uses Stalin on its ad
banners and even the following TV commercial, as reported by the
Post: "The party's message is summed up in a TV ad that is
running across the country: An old woman is stopped on the street
and asked who she will vote for. "I am for the president," she says,
"and that means for United Russia." United Russia's slogan is
equally to the point: "Together with the president."
You know, if you challenge the President you
challenge the country. Where else have we been hearing that
platform preached lately?
Hmm. Maybe President Bush isn't being
outstrategized. Maybe he's simply learning from his apparent
role model, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In either case, what is occurring is very bad for
America - and not getting any attention from any of the Presidential
candidates.
At least the press gave it a day of attention
today. But I guess only The Moderate Independent has been
covering it regularly with stories like this one we ran months ago.
Which press in America is becoming irrelevant and
which is becoming the important one? Thanks to you helping to
spread the word about M/I, together we are once again making the
press in America a useful thing.
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