The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 3 of 7)

/p>

One of the questions which has haunted the mind of this inquisitive conservative for years is the following: What is it about Russia that transforms straight-laced, rational, morally upstanding conservative intellectuals into, well, sluts, ready to hop into bed with the likes of the EU, George Soros and Islamists for some action descriptions of which would be inappropriate for a family magazine?

Point out that the Chechen jihad is financed by Wahhabists in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, that OBL and al Qaeda are involved, and that the Chechen butchers pioneered the decapitation video as a tool and technique of propaganda and recruiting, and mainstream conservatives, from the Weekly Standard to NR to AEI, will treat you to the sort of "root-causes" discourse that they rightly denounce as appeasement-minded whenever the subject happens to be, say, the Palestinians. No, no. The cause of the Chechens is just; they have legitimate grievances, unlike all of those other jihadist butchers. Sure.

Any stick to beat a Russian dog?

Point out that Yushchenko presided over the National Bank of Ukraine for an accounting scandal that allowed oligarchs like Ms. Tymoshenko to swindle the IMF and gain control of enormous swathes of the Ukrainian economy, including the natural gas sector; that, Ukrainian politics being what it is, there are no clean hands and that electoral fraud assuredly occurred on the Yushchenko side as well, in districts where control of balloting and local media are as absolute as anything managed by Kuchma or Yanukovych's crew in Donetsk; that a curious array of interests, including Mr. Soros, who has backed the Tymoshenko clan since at least the time of the Gongadze affair, arrayed themselves behind Yushchenko -- and should any conservative NOT be given pause to find himself on the same page as George "Bush is Hitler" Soros?; and that the only thing which seems to influence Western opinion in favor of one group of bandits is that they claim the mantle of the democratic West, despite being anything but, and you will be treated to a treacly discourse on Russian imperialism, Ukrainian nationalism, democracy, and the virtues of Ukraine being absorbed by the bureaucratic despotism of the EU and the open, amoral society claptrap of Soros. No, no. These bandits and oligarchs and thieves are good, apparently because they dislike Russia. Sure.

Any stick to beat a Russkaya sobaka, eh?

Oh, sure, Putin has his problems. That cannot be denied. Iran, Venezuela, the list goes on. But the notion that Russia needs more of the Western-counseled policies which enabled the creation of the Mafia economy of the '90s, and that it would be possible to roll back the corruption without violating the "rights" of media outlets controlled by the oligarchs or clamping down on political parties which exist solely to promote the interests of the same is risible. As is the notion that U.S. support for the Central Asian republics has not legitimized their despotisms, which the US will do less than nothing to mitigate so long as they provide some assistance in the War on Terror, and that this stance sits easily with all of the rhetoric over the Ukraine. No, no. Some strategic, "imperial" ambitions are good, just as some terrorists and thieves are good - those that do our bidding, or at least injure Russia.

Spare us the "morality" play, the rhetoric alternately treacly and incendiary, and the fulsome hypocrisy. If democracy is good, it's good for Central Asia, too. If oligarchs and Mafia clans are bad, they're bad when the like us, like Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, and bad when they like Russia, like Yanukovych. And if Islamism is bad, it's bad in Chechnya and when it kills Russians, too.

p>Any stick to beat a Russian dog? Indeed. br> -- Jeff Martin /p> p> YOUTH IS SERVED br> Re: George Neumayr's

topics:
Taxes, Education, Business, Sports, Islam, Constitution, Law, Supreme Court, Military, Iran, Russia, NATO, Africa, North Korea, Oil