“I can see him now, after he takes off his shirt and kills a lion with his bare hands (photo-op), he goes and pours a cup of manly coffee and laughs at the all the chaos he has caused.”
I want to start this article off with an absolute disclaimer – the Russians are a direct and absolute threat to the United States of America. They have been ever since Patton’s statement at the end of World War II:
“We promised the Europeans freedom. It would be worse than dishonorable not to see they have it. This might mean war with the Russians … You mark my words. Don’t ever forget them. Someday we will have to fight them and it will take six years and cost us six million lives.”
While I do not agree with much of the harsh vitriol that Patton spoke towards the Soviet Union, it does seem that since that day we have many times been close to war with them, and not much has changed in the relationship.
This distrust continued throughout my youth as well. In fact, I still remember the speech where Ronald Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Then later in that same speech, he spoke of reaching out in peace, a part of the speech often forgotten.
“Today thus represents a moment of hope. We in the West stand ready to cooperate with the East to promote true openness, to break down barriers that separate people, to create a safe, freer world. And surely there is no better place than Berlin, the meeting place of East and West, to make a start … And I invite Mr. Gorbachev: Let us work to bring the Eastern and Western parts of the city closer together, so that all the inhabitants of all Berlin can enjoy the benefits that come with life in one of the great cities of the world.”
In my opinion, Reagan was amazing in his dealings with Russia. He was firm and calculated. Every action he made had a desired reaction. He was also a master at manipulation. He could read his audience very well, and that audience was the American people. He knew exactly how to get them to rally behind him. He was also quick witted and could quickly turn the tables in a debate. As such, it was hard to challenge him too directly.
He sees what our government, especially the Democrats, seem unable to comprehend.
It was also a different time. Although there have always been political differences in government, the goal back then was to work together to move the country along a path towards greatness. In terms of the Russian threat, this meant survival. The threat of war was real, and so was the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction, affectionately known as MAD. Given this fear, we did not have a congress that seemingly enjoyed poking the bear (pun intended) on a constant basis to score political points back home.
Unfortunately for Trump, and ultimately for us as Americans, none of this seems to hold true anymore. Recently, Congress voted to sanction Russia for … something, I am really not certain of what. Of course, I know why the Democrats are clamoring for sanctions. This will allow them to validate Hillary Clinton’s loss in the election. What I am confused on is exactly what Russia supposedly did. Especially since the government has provided no real evidence that the Russians did anything directly.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no doubt that they were instrumental, if not solely responsible for hacking into the Democrat’s email servers. It also would not surprise me to find out that they did the same thing with Hillary Clinton. Yet to me, this is not hacking an election. They did not change any votes. They didn’t even make up any lies or mislead the public. In fact, they just acted like our supposed free and honest press corps should have been acting. So, instead of prosecuting those who committed crimes in our country, we are turning towards a country who brought these crimes to light?
Should we be protecting ourselves against the external threats that exist to our nation? Of course. Should we spend the money to better our cyber security, especially within our election system? Without a doubt. Should we be giving Putin celebrity status for whatever it was that he did? I seriously doubt that.
Again, do not get me wrong, the Russian government wants nothing more than to see us fall from the ramparts where we have guarded over the free world for almost two hundred and fifty years. They would have no issues with bringing our demise, and in a very backhanded way, it would almost appear as if their actions are actually accomplishing that goal. I would even agree that we need to take action against them as a show of strength.
My view of the email hackings prior to the election is very simple. They brought to light illegal and immoral actions that were occurring within our government at the highest levels. These actions have never, to my knowledge, been disputed or proven false. In this regard, I believe that the American people had every right to know about them. However, whoever did it (likely the Russians) needs to be retaliated against in a way that will make them realize Obama is no longer in office to protect them.
At the same time, we need to do so in a manner that allows us to try to improve our relations with them. Not for our benefit or theirs, but for the world political stage. I believe turnabout is fair play. If tomorrow we woke up and found that certain Russian networks had crashed, I would be totally fine with our government responding in total bewilderment and assurances that we would help go after the culprits.
That is not what we are doing. Instead, the Democrats have pushed for, and passed, a sanctions bill against the Russians (and in fairness a couple other regimes). While I am not idealistically against sanctions, I am against our government’s actions looking like a bad reenactment of the Keystone Cops.
All of this ridiculous arguing between the media, the ruling political class, and the administration has not in any way helped us as a nation. In fact, Putin has proven to be just as much of a master manipulator as Reagan was. By playing with the ego of the Democrats and the media, Putin has our nation tearing itself apart over this supposed election meddling. I can see him now, after he takes off his shirt and kills a lion with his bare hands (photo-op), he goes and pours a cup of manly coffee and laughs at the all the chaos he has caused.
Not only is this political fighting hurting us personally as a nation, it is helping push Putin’s agenda. We opened up the door for him to expel over seven hundred and fifty diplomats from within his country, many of those who were undoubtedly involved in intelligence gathering and the likes. It also continues to destroy our credibility in standing up against Russia’s open hostilities towards other nations.
Putin has one goal, the return of the Russian state as a dominating force throughout the world. He is working this plan like a Grandmaster in the game of chess. He is willing to sacrifice a bishop, or maybe even a rook, here and there because he is already looking four moves ahead. He sees what our government, especially the Democrats, seem unable to comprehend. He sees that our hubris will eventually allow him to put us in checkmate.
