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By Scott Rohter, September 2015 Updated July 2017<\/p>\n
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Dateline: July 24, 2017<\/strong> Congress has passed\u00a0a new\u00a0and tougher sanctions\u00a0bill against Russia. What is\u00a0even more troubling\u00a0than that is that\u00a0President\u00a0Trump\u00a0has just signed\u00a0the new legislation into law. The\u00a0Cold War is\u00a0beginning to heat up again…<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Someone\u00a0has coined a\u00a0new\u00a0word to describe\u00a0Washington’s\u00a0bellicose foreign policy\u00a0attitude towards Russia.\u00a0Ever since\u00a0the end of World War II and\u00a0increasingly under the last four American Presidents, the United States has looked\u00a0at Russia with an equal measure of\u00a0fear and contempt.\u00a0 The word that\u00a0is now being used in some circles to\u00a0describe\u00a0Washington’s\u00a0attitude of intransigence and indifference\u00a0toward Russia is “triumphalism”<\/em>…\u00a0 Ever since the fall of the Soviet Union, American presidents have\u00a0been treating Russia as\u00a0if it is some kind of\u00a0a“vanquished foe”<\/em> rather than a\u00a0potential strategic\u00a0world partner and ally.\u00a0As a result of this, most of\u00a0our foreign policy initiatives\u00a0across the world have\u00a0turned out to be\u00a0dismal failures.\u00a0Take for example\u00a0our effort at regime change\u00a0in Libya, or Ukraine, or even\u00a0the seventeen year old wars in\u00a0Afghanistan and Iraq, and just for the record…. If it wasn’t for the Russians ISIS would\u00a0 still be in control of Syria because it was they who defeated ISIS on the battlefield not American forces. If we could\u00a0only\u00a0enlist the help of the Russians\u00a0 our foreign policy initiatives might stand a better chance of being successful somewhere in the world, but instead we\u00a0want to keep poking a stick at the Russian bear.<\/p>\n Only\u00a0during the\u00a0Presidency of\u00a0Ronald Reagan did\u00a0our country\u00a0enjoy a good\u00a0relationship with\u00a0Russia. Ronald Reagan\u00a0reached out to Russian\u00a0President Mikhail Gorbachev and the two men forged a relationship of peaceful coexistence and\u00a0cooperation between our two countries. Unfortunately\u00a0it\u00a0only lasted until the next\u00a0American Administration took\u00a0office and four years later when Bill Clinton took over the friendly relationship with Russia was well on its way to being terminated.\u00a0The day\u00a0Ronald Reagan left office was the day that the relationship began to turn sour again, and since then we have been squandering\u00a0whatever remains of\u00a0the good will\u00a0that Reagan and Gorbachev forged.\u00a0<\/p>\n Today we are continually placing new and tougher sanctions on\u00a0Russia as if it is going to get them to capitulate to our will and do what we want. We\u00a0are treating them\u00a0as if\u00a0they are\u00a0some kind of an adversary instead of a potential strategic ally.\u00a0 Mutual respect has\u00a0gone out the window and\u00a0it has been replaced\u00a0with mutual contempt. A prominent United States Senator even had the nerve to call Russia, “a gas station masquerading as a country.”<\/em> \u00a0That\u00a0was one of the worst\u00a0examples of American diplomacy I have ever witnessed. With\u00a0 John McCain as the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee nothing good is ever going to come\u00a0out of\u00a0Congress\u00a0with respect to\u00a0Russia.\u00a0\u00a0Capitol Hill is\u00a0much too busy investigating false allegations of Russian interference in our\u00a0last election to\u00a0worry about the long term\u00a0implications of\u00a0its reckless decisions.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0lack of diplomacy\u00a0that was exhibited by the senior Senator from Arizona doesn’t make\u00a0the leadership in the Kremlin more less average Russians feel very warm and\u00a0cozy toward us either. Trading insults doesn’t do anything to reduce tensions\u00a0between our two countries and thanks to\u00a0McCain and others like him in Congress\u00a0America finds itself\u00a0right in the middle of a developing new Cold War with Russia.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n George Bush and Barack Obama\u00a0literally thumbed their noses at\u00a0the accomplishments\u00a0of Reagan and Gorbachev and worked to undermine their\u00a0legacy of mutual respect and cooperation. Instead of that Bush unilaterally pulled us out of\u00a0an intercontinental ballistic missile treaty we signed with them. Now we are back to\u00a0the Cold War rhetoric\u00a0of the 1950’s again and\u00a0the confrontational tactics of the 1960’s. What is\u00a0even more distressing\u00a0than that is that many of the so called conservative Republicans in Congress are\u00a0okay with all of\u00a0this. They don’t seem to mind the fact that\u00a0they are\u00a0destroying the legacy of their Party’s\u00a0most beloved President.<\/p>\n Just for the record Russia is not our enemy.\u00a0 Russians were our\u00a0allies\u00a0in both World Wars. In fact we couldn’t have defeated Nazi Germany without their help\u00a0for which we thanked them by rebuilding Germany and Europe while ignoring Russia.\u00a0\u00a0For their part the Russians have not provoked this change in our attitude. They have never attacked any modern Western\u00a0nation,\u00a0while\u00a0western nations have launched\u00a0numerous attacks upon them most notably.\u00a0 France\u00a0under Napoleon, and\u00a0Germany\u00a0under\u00a0Hitler. Each time the Russians were attacked they rallied to defeat their enemies. Now we in the West are provoking the Russians\u00a0again by financing and supporting a revolution in Ukraine and positioning NATO troops along their western\u00a0border which is a direct violation of a promise that Ronald Reagan\u00a0made to Mikhail Gorbachev. Why are we poking a proverbial stick at the normally docile Russian bear?<\/p>\n The United States\u00a0is imposing stiff economic sanctions\u00a0against\u00a0Russia at\u00a0a time when we are removing economic sanctions against one of\u00a0America’s \u00a0real enemies, the Islamic Republic of Iran.\u00a0\u00a0 We have positioned American soldiers in former Warsaw Pact countries when we promised Russian leaders we would never do that, and we are staging military exercises in former Soviet bloc countries based upon a\u00a0completely\u00a0non existent\u00a0Russian threat. Why are we doing this?<\/p>\n We\u00a0may not\u00a0like to\u00a0acknowledge it, but Russia is\u00a0a\u00a0great world power and\u00a0probably one of our biggest competitors in the world, so it is not in our\u00a0own best interests to keep stoking the flames of confrontation. \u00a0The Russians\u00a0can make life very difficult for\u00a0us in many\u00a0areas of the world if they want to.\u00a0\u00a0What is so important\u00a0about Ukraine or Syria that\u00a0Barack Obama and\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0are\u00a0waving\u00a0 red flags\u00a0in front of the Russian bear?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Oil and Gas<\/strong><\/p>\n Ukraine\u00a0used to be known as the bread basket of Russia. Now\u00a0it is\u00a0flat broke thanks to the United States.\u00a0Ukraine’s biggest creditor is\u00a0Russia which at the same time they keep blaming for all of their country’s problems. Ukraine owes Russia over two billion dollars\u00a0for natural gas which they purchased on credit to heat their homes and power their industries. Any\u00a0country that tries to bail\u00a0out Ukraine\u00a0will be taking on a huge financial burden for many years to come. Europe barely has the funds to bail out Greece\u00a0more less Ukraine which is\u00a0several times larger than Greece. So what is\u00a0America’s fascination with Ukraine really all about,\u00a0and why are we\u00a0meddling in their internal affairs at the expense of our relationship with Russia? The answer to that\u00a0 can be summed up in just two words\u2026 oil and gas.<\/p>\n Russia has a virtual monopoly on the export of natural gas to Europe and the pipeline that supplies\u00a0natural gas to Europe runs right through Ukraine<\/a>. As a result of recent innovations in the oil and gas industry in America, the United States is\u00a0experiencing a\u00a0huge surplus of natural gas due to fracking. American oil companies would like\u00a0to have a piece of the lucrative European natural gas market\u2026 They want to export\u00a0American natural gas\u00a0to Europe, thus removing the Russian’s monopoly. For their part the Europeans would love to see\u00a0increased\u00a0competition in the energy market. It should help to lower\u00a0 prices\u2026 That is why we are meddling in the internal affairs of Ukraine. That is why we are starting a new Cold War\u00a0with Russia… to enrich the pockets of American corporations and investors. The\u00a0one important lesson\u00a0we\u00a0have not\u00a0learned from World War II is that competition\u00a0among\u00a0nations should\u00a0not be allowed to lead\u00a0to war.<\/p>\n That Cold War lasted for\u00a0more than\u00a0forty years. It\u00a0started\u00a0because\u00a0Russia and America could not agree to cooperate in the post war reconstruction of Germany.\u00a0 The Russians wanted a sphere of influence in Germany and we wanted\u00a0our own separate\u00a0sphere of influence\u00a0there… That began to\u00a0change in 1985 when Ronald Reagan\u00a0reached out to\u00a0the Russian leader, Mikhail Gorbachev in the first of\u00a0five summit meetings they held.\u00a0 Russia and America agreed\u00a0to begin cooperating\u00a0with each other.\u00a0 We agreed to\u00a0mutual respect instead of mutually assured destruction.<\/p>\n As a result of this the hands of the nuclear clock were dialed back and the whole world breathed a\u00a0collective sigh of relief. By the time of the fifth summit\u00a0meeting was held\u00a0in 1988 the practice of d\u00e9tente had proven to be very good for for business too. The Cold War officially ended in 1991 with the\u00a0breaking up of the old Soviet Union\u00a0and in its place the creation of the\u00a0new Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) of which the Russian Federation is\u00a0the single largest member. Mikhail Gorbachev resigned his post on Christmas Day, December 25th, 1991 and he was\u00a0succeeded in office\u00a0by Boris Yeltsin who presided over\u00a0the transition period…<\/p>\n In retrospect, one of the chief reasons for World War II was competition\u2026 competition among nations… competition\u00a0for land, competition for resources and raw materials, and competition for markets to sell\u00a0goods and services. In addition, the Treaty of Versailles which ended WWI was patently unfair to Germany. It placed a heavy financial burden on Germany\u00a0for its roll in starting\u00a0World War I.\u00a0 The lesson that should\u00a0be\u00a0learned from all of the carnage and\u00a0devastation of World War I and\u00a0II is that competition\u00a0among nations should not be allowed to lead to war. Nations need to learn how to compete with each other peacefully.\u00a0\u00a0Then\u00a0 peace can be managed just as economically as war. That is what d\u00e9tente proved. Peace\u00a0can be\u00a0good for business too, but right now we are in the\u00a0grips of another Cold War that could lead to actual combat if we are not careful. The cause of this freeze in\u00a0relations with Russia is the current competition between the East and the West interest in and over Ukraine and Syria.<\/p>\n Ukraine is\u00a0 a\u00a0contradiction. It is a country that really isn’t a country.\u00a0On the one hand it stands at the\u00a0gates\u00a0of\u00a0Europe, but it is not part of Europe.. On the other hand it\u00a0lies on the\u00a0border with\u00a0Russia and it shares a long history and cultural ties\u00a0with Russia. \u00a0It stands at the crossroads of both East and West… at the crossroads between two\u00a0different cultural and political models and two different spheres of influence.\u00a0\u00a0Europe has never\u00a0been completely comfortable with\u00a0Russia\u00a0because of a deep seated fear that if\u00a0Russia was ever\u00a0welcomed into the European Union\u00a0that it would come to dominate the\u00a0much smaller nations of Europe.\u00a0<\/p>\n Europeans\u00a0have always regarded Russia with\u00a0distrust and suspicion and therefore they have always kept\u00a0Russia at arm\u2019s length. The same thing is not true for Ukraine. Although Ukraine has\u00a0strong Russian\u00a0ties\u00a0most Europeans do not\u00a0believe that\u00a0Ukraine presents the same\u00a0kind of existential threat to Europe that Russia does because of its\u00a0size, but they frequently forget that Ukraine\u00a0is the place where Russian history and Russian civilization\u00a0actually began. Ukraine has a special significance to\u00a0Russians. It has one foot firmly planted in the\u00a0future of Europe\u00a0and the other foot firmly rooted in its Russian past.<\/p>\n Ukraine has\u00a0been an independent country for only\u00a0fifty years.\u00a0The\u00a0ties that hold it\u00a0together\u00a0are\u00a0tenuous and\u00a0weak. Before it became\u00a0independent\u00a0 it was a part of\u00a0several\u00a0different empires.. the Russian, the Austro-Hungarian, the Lithuanian, and the Polish\u2026 That is why there is so much disagreement\u00a0between\u00a0different\u00a0Ukrainians. There is no common thread that binds all of its people together into\u00a0one cohesive unit. Ukrainians are not\u00a0united about\u00a0virtually anything. \u00a0The only solution to the Ukrainian problem is\u00a0to implement the Minsk Peace Accords which were agreed to by Germany, France, Russia, and Ukraine,\u00a0but the government in Kiev does not want to do that because it calls for the federalization of Ukraine which\u00a0would mean\u00a0more\u00a0local control\u00a0for the various regions of Ukraine including the Donbas where a separatist movement thrives\u2026\u00a0 In the absence of\u00a0enforcing the Minsk Accords \u00a0the only other solution\u00a0would be\u00a0to divide the country into two parts, but it is none of\u00a0America’s business how the Europeans and the Russians settle this peculiar problem\u2026\u00a0We should learn to mind our own damn business for a change\u2026\u00a0 It is a distinctly European and Russian problem, and competition for oil and gas\u00a0markets is not worth the price of another\u00a0World War.<\/p>\n Corroborating Source Material<\/strong><\/p>\n http:\/\/openrevolt.info\/2014\/03\/08\/alexander-dugin-letter-to-the-american-people-on-ukraine\/<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.reaganfoundation.org\/mikhail-gorbachev.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/russiapedia.rt.com\/russian-history\/new-russia-emerges\/<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Select Related Articles<\/strong><\/p>\n https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/lies-more-lies-and-continued-political-doubletalk-about-ukraine.html<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/worlds-biggest-bullies-are-vying-for-influence-over-Ukraine-and-over-access-to-European-energy-market.html<\/a><\/p>\n![\"ReaganandGorgachev2\"](\"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/ReaganandGorgachev2.jpg\")
<\/a>American foreign policy toward Russia is\u00a0rapidly deteriorating.\u00a0 It has gone from good, to bad, to worse. Gone are the days of d\u00e9tente\u00a0which\u00a0existed\u00a0under\u00a0Ronald Reagan. In place of that Washington politicians have\u00a0substituted a\u00a0foreign policy of open confrontation on just about every issue from\u00a0anti ballistic missiles s to Ukraine..\u00a0America is doing its best to squander\u00a0all\u00a0of the good will that we used to enjoy with Russia just thirty years ago.<\/p>\n<\/a>The\u00a0first Cold War began\u00a0shortly after World War II ended. The victorious\u00a0Allies\u00a0divided Germany into two parts, East and West. Berlin, the German capitol was located in the East, but\u00a0it\u00a0was\u00a0also divided into\u00a0East Berlin and West Berlin. Almost immediately the United States began\u00a0airlifting\u00a0supplies into West Berlin.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n