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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRobert Parry: Why Neocons Seek to Destabilize Russia
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/23376-focus-why-neocons-seek-to-destabilize-russiaBut what would it mean to destabilize Russia? Does anyone think that shattering the Russian political structure through a combination of economic sanctions and information warfare will result in a smooth transition to some better future? The Russians already have tried the Wests shock therapy under drunken President Boris Yeltsin and they saw the cruel ugliness of free market capitalism.
Putins autocratic nationalism was a response to the near-starvation levels of poverty that many Russians were forced into as they watched well-connected capitalists plunder the nations wealth and emerge as oligarchic billionaires. For all Putins faults, it was his pushback against some of those oligarchs and his defense of Russian interests internationally that secured him a solid political base.
In other words, even if the neocons get the Obama administration and maybe its successor to ratchet up tensions with Russia enough to generate sufficient political friction to drive Putin from office, the likely result would be a dangerously unstable Russia possessing a vast arsenal of nuclear weapons. Putin loyalists are not likely to readily accept a replay of the Yeltsin years.
But the neocons apparently think the risks are well worth it. After all, the end result might finally let them kill off that pesky fly, Israels near-in threat from the Palestinians and Hezbollah. But we might remember what happened to the little old lady in the ditty, when she swallowed the horse, she was dead, of course.
pampango
(24,692 posts)Ever since Vladimir Putin invaded Crimea, American pundits have strained to understand his view of the world. Putins been called a Nazi; a tsar; a man detached from reality. But theres another, more familiar framework that explains his behavior. In his approach to foreign policy, Vladimir Putin has a lot in common with those very American hawks (or neocons in popular parlance) who revile him most.
1. Putin is obsessed with the threat of appeasement
To Kristol, McCain, and their ilk, the United States is a nation perennially bullied by adversaries who are tougher, nastier, and more resolute than we are. ... In his (Putin's) view, its Russia that has been perennially bullied by tougher and nastier countriesin particular, America and its NATO allies. They have lied to us many times, made decisions behind our backs, placed us before an accomplished fact, he explained in a speech announcing Russias incorporation of Crimea. They are constantly trying to sweep us into a corner. But now, finally, the era of appeasement is over. Russia found itself in a position it could not retreat from, Putin said. If you compress the spring all the way to its limit, it will snap back hard.
2. Putin is principledso long as those principles enhance national power
For Putin, an anti-Russian government in Kiev is illegitimate regardless of how it takes power. For many American hawks, the same is now true for a pro-Chávez government in Latin America or an Islamist government in the Middle East. ... In the United States, both hawks and doves like to claim that theyre promoting cherished principles like democracy and freedom. The difference is that doves are more willing to acknowledge that these principles can undermine American interests. For most hawks, by contrast, the fight for democratic ideals must serve American power.
3. Putin doesnt understand economic power
This indifference to the economic aspects of statecraft was a defining feature of the Bush administration, where treasury secretaries played a marginal foreign-policy role ... Seeing economics as separate from foreign policy issues is precisely what Clinton decried in the 1990s, and its the weakness in Putins strategy today. But its a weakness that many American hawks share. For decades now, Kristol and McCain have insisted that America relentlessly expand its global military footprint and relentlessly boost its defense budget. Ive never seen either make a serious effort to explain how this should be paid for.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/03/vladimir-putin-russian-neocon/284602/
Western neocons seem indeed to be after Putin. What they don't seem to realize is that they are after one of their own. He just plays for a different "team".
eridani
(51,907 posts)Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Neocons are a uniquely american phenomena.
If the Palestinians and Lebanons Hezbollah persist in annoying you and troubling Israel, you target their sponsors with regime change in Iraq, Syria and Iran. If your regime change in Iraq goes badly, you escalate the subversion of Syria and the bankrupting of Iran. [See Consortiumnews.coms The Mysterious Why of the Iraq War.]
Just when you think youve cornered President Barack Obama into a massive bombing campaign against Syria with a possible follow-on war against Iran Putin steps in to give Obama a peaceful path out, getting Syria to surrender its chemical weapons and Iran to agree to constraints on its nuclear program.
So, this Obama-Putin collaboration has become your new threat. That means you take aim at Ukraine, knowing its sensitivity to Russia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism
pampango
(24,692 posts)provided.
In what ways do you think the author is wrong when he compares Putin to American neocons?
To Kristol, McCain, and their ilk, the United States is a nation perennially bullied by adversaries who are tougher, nastier, and more resolute than we are. ... In his (Putin's) view, its Russia that has been perennially bullied by tougher and nastier countriesin particular, America and its NATO allies.
For Putin, an anti-Russian government in Kiev is illegitimate regardless of how it takes power. For many American hawks, the same is now true for a pro-Chávez government in Latin America or an Islamist government in the Middle East.
Seeing economics as separate from foreign policy issues is precisely what Clinton decried in the 1990s, and its the weakness in Putins strategy today. But its a weakness that many American hawks share.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)So, this Obama-Putin collaboration has become your new threat...
Putins autocratic nationalism was a response to the near-starvation levels of poverty that many Russians were forced into as they watched well-connected capitalists plunder the nations wealth and emerge as oligarchic billionaires. For all Putins faults, it was his pushback against some of those oligarchs and his defense of Russian interests internationally that secured him a solid political base.
...become a Putin apologists. Nothing is Putin's fault, and he's the hero saving Obama. He's also trying to have it both ways. I mean, everyone knows the neocons suck and want war. They don't control Putin. Parry's claim is that the neocons are pushing Obama (and he isn't biting, http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024629463), and Putin is only reacting.
His writing has become so absurd that he's casting Obama as a Putin puppet.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Could be spot on about the framing..