VLADIMIR PUTIN, THE WORLD’S LAST TRUE STATESMAN
John Chuckman
Everywhere you look in the West, you find political pygmies
rather than statesmen. In France, we see a pathetic man whose own people
intensely dislike him, François Hollande, attempt to speak as though he were something
other than a dry, pompous school teacher-like purveyor of American views. Almost
forgotten are the strong, independent voices of a de Gaulle or a Chirac. In
Britain, the Prime Minister, David Cameron, is a wishy-washy man of little
integrity and less ability, again a purveyor of American views, and I’m sure he
goes to sleep every night fantasizing about the last Prime Minister who
faithfully served American interests, Tony Blair, being showered with gold, resembling
something from the Arabian Nights, every year since his retirement. The United
States is represented by a man of not one achievement, unless you count
instituting an industrial-scale system of extrajudicial killing, sending
missiles against women and children and mere suspects, a man who serves the
American military-intelligence complex as doggedly as George Bush, surely the
most ignorant and cowardly man ever to be called President. Germany has a
leader of considerable ability in Angela Merkel, but, as few people understand,
Germany acts only under the most onerous secret agreements imposed by America
after World War II, its independence still heavily constrained nearly
three-quarters of a century later.
No, Putin stands out, for his independence of mind, keen
intelligence, ability to make decisions, and his readiness to act in proportion
to the threat of a situation. In Syria he blunted America’s effort to bomb its
government into submission, a la Libya. In Ukraine, he has acted appropriately
and without excess, quietly taking steps to secure a region whose population
includes a majority of Russians and where Russia has a major naval base and longstanding
interests and relationships. The bellowing we hear from the United States about
“Russia is committing a breach of international law,” or “You just don’t invade
a country on phony pretext in order to assert your interest!” should amuse the
world rather than arouse it. These words come from the folks who slaughtered 3
million Vietnamese, precipitated the deaths of more than a million Cambodians
through de-stabilizing secret invasions, killed a million Iraqis, killed tens
of thousands in Afghanistan, invaded Grenada, invaded Haiti, invaded Panama,
overturned democratic governments in Chile, Iran, and Guatemala, fought a
years-long secret terror war against Cuba, supported the 1965 genocide in
Indonesia with lists of names of communist suspects for killing after the fall
of Sukarno, and today finds itself murdering strangers by the thousands in
Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. It tolerates brutal suppression in
Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other places. The establishment in Washington,
publically lecturing Russia despite its own blood-soaked record, apparently has
utter contempt for the public’s intelligence, viewing them much as 1984’s Inner
Party viewed Proles.
Going back to that Russian naval base on the Black Sea, I am
reminded of Guantanamo, Cuba. In case Americans forget, Guantanamo is Cuban
territory. Decades ago, America’s long-term lease - extracted after the
Spanish-American War, another American-engineered war used to grab desirable
territory - ran out, and the government of Cuba asked that the territory be
returned. America refused and still it keeps this military base against the
wishes of the Cuban government, having used it over the last decade for its
infamous torture camp for people captured after 9/11 and proved guilty of
nothing.
To hear Obama and the droning, tiresome John Kerry talk,
you’d think Putin had recklessly hurled the world into danger. Of course, what
their strained rhetoric really is telling us is that, just after a round of champagne
toasts and patting themselves on the back over the presumed success of having secretly
de-stabilized Ukraine for Western interests, they are seriously annoyed by
Putin acting swiftly and decisively to secure an insecure situation. Most
people don’t like being shown up in public, but when you get to the level of a
Kerry or an Obama, being shown up in public is plainly infuriating. And, of
course, it makes so much sense to be cutting off avenues of discussion, such as
Russia’s G-8 meeting, talking of “going to the hilt” as Kerry has foolishly
done, and threatening serious reprisals if Russia fails to do as Washington
wishes
The “revolution” in Ukraine is the product of years of
effort by the CIA to exploit weaknesses there and gain a major foothold on
Russia’s border. Whether you like the man’s views or not, Viktor Yanukovich, a
democratically-elected president was ousted, and some extremely unpleasant
people have re-entered the national spotlight, including Yulia Tymoshenko - a
founder of the right wing outfit, The Fatherland Party, once one of the wealthiest
people in Ukraine, someone who had charges of bribery and embezzlement swirling
about her and her husband, and someone who served 3 years in prison for abuse of
office. Tymoshenko’s public image, with heavy (bleached) blond braids wrapped around
her head as a crown, reminds me of nothing so much as 1930s images of Germanic
womanhood promoted by the Nazis in books and films. And then there’s Oleh
Tyahnybok, leader of the All Ukrainian Union Svoboda Party, an unapologetically
fascist organization. There are still other extreme right wing groups at work
too, including The Right Sector Party, again a genuinely fascist organization. There
is, and has long been, a strong streak of fascism in Ukraine. Ukraine, much as
Baltic states such as Latvia, was at the forefront of supporting Hitler’s
invasion of the Soviet Union and violence against Jews, the infamous massacre
at Babi Yar having been committed in part by Ukrainian police. Ukraine provided
the infamous Galicia Division to serve as a unit of the Waffen-SS.
During “the revolution” right wingers provided most of the
street thugs and snipers, and there is considerable evidence that they continue
some of their violence against peaceful protesters. Already, many unpleasant legislative
acts are being considered by those now running Ukraine, including a law
offering a penalty of ten years in prison for dual-nationality Ukrainians who
insist on holding Russian passports. One of the first acts of the new
government was to repeal a law allowing minorities to conduct business and
education in their own languages. The coup has thrown the country into serious
economic uncertainty, leaving it unable to pay many sizeable debts. "We’ll
regain our status as a nuclear power and that’ll change the conversation.
Ukraine has all the technological means needed to create a nuclear arsenal –
which would take us about three to six months,” threatened Svoboda Party MP,
Mikhail Golovko. Can you just imagine
the reaction in Washington were such activities underway in Mexico or Canada? An
invasion in force with no pause for diplomatic niceties would be swift.
It is not the slightest exaggeration to say that Putin’s
prompt and low-key action stands in sharp contrast to the shrill, hypocritical
voices coming from Washington and being echoed in Paris and London. We all know
that Washington’s readiness to threaten or bomb those who disagree with it is
exceeded only by the monstrousness of its hypocrisy when speaking about law or
rights or democratic values. It is perfectly represented by that genuine
American Gothic, Senator John McCain, a fossilized, corrupt old reprobate who
flies off here and there, sticking his nose into other people’s countries, trying
to stoke up the fires of war in every difficult place he thinks an American
advantage is to be had, a much diminished version of what he once did in
Vietnam where he flew jets to bomb civilians.
We cannot know what Ukraine is going to experience given
America’s support of extremists and cutthroats to overturn an elected
government, a situation somewhat resembling what was intended for Syria through
support of extremists and terrorists there, including the supply even of small
quantities of Sarin gas used to produce atrocities inviting American intervention.
The Syrian effort has collapsed into a hellish situation for which the United
States takes no responsibility. So too the situation in Libya, another
American-manufactured disaster, but I am confident in the ability of Mr. Putin
to outplay the current crop of uninspired politicians in the West at geopolitical
chess, especially where Russia’s vital interests are at stake, and we should
all wish him well to prevent anything like Syria or Libya being repeated in
Ukraine.
The fact is that we will have a better world where there are independent actors able enough to thwart a world bully from kicking sand into everyone’s eyes, an activity which appears now to have become a favorite American pastime. How is a world dictator-nation any less contemptible and dangerous than a country dictator-leader? It’s not.
