As a follow-up to my yesterday’s post Bowing To The Kremlin, I am very much tempted to reiterate one of my key leitmotifs, regarding the historical relationship between America and Russia. Among an assortment of things amounting to sheer silliness, Mr. Romney said something this week that must not be qualified as nonsense. He called Russia “without question [America’s] number one geopolitical foe.”
My readers, particularly those who have read me with some attention in the past, won’t be surprised that in this particular case I am not going to criticize Mr. Romney at all, except for apparently not comprehending the huge positive import of his own words.
...During the Cold War, the USSR was known as America’s main adversary. I wonder how many people today realize that this designation of a nation sprawling over one-sixth of the earth’s land mass in eleven different time zones, one of the two space powers, and also in possession of tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, was elevating America’s own prestige in the world. Indeed, one’s strength can be best measured by the strength of one’s enemies.
By the way, who have been America’s “enemies” in the twenty-first century? Starting with Afghanistan and Iraq, later Syria and Iran, plus North Korea? Oh, yes, plus “terror” itself, forcing American security officers at the airports today to search for bombs in baby carriages and in old ladies’ underwear?
…Some reward for winning the Cold War!
Three cheers for Mr. Romney, then, for showing enough respect for Russia by calling her “our number one geopolitical foe.” I am certain that both America and Russia would be winners in restoring the psychological dichotomy of being each other’s main adversary. After all, what is better than a noble geopolitical rivalry of two great powers? For, as Nietzsche says in Genealogy of Morals, First Essay #10:
“How much reverence has a noble man for his enemies! And such reverence is a bridge to love.”
My readers, particularly those who have read me with some attention in the past, won’t be surprised that in this particular case I am not going to criticize Mr. Romney at all, except for apparently not comprehending the huge positive import of his own words.
...During the Cold War, the USSR was known as America’s main adversary. I wonder how many people today realize that this designation of a nation sprawling over one-sixth of the earth’s land mass in eleven different time zones, one of the two space powers, and also in possession of tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, was elevating America’s own prestige in the world. Indeed, one’s strength can be best measured by the strength of one’s enemies.
By the way, who have been America’s “enemies” in the twenty-first century? Starting with Afghanistan and Iraq, later Syria and Iran, plus North Korea? Oh, yes, plus “terror” itself, forcing American security officers at the airports today to search for bombs in baby carriages and in old ladies’ underwear?
…Some reward for winning the Cold War!
Three cheers for Mr. Romney, then, for showing enough respect for Russia by calling her “our number one geopolitical foe.” I am certain that both America and Russia would be winners in restoring the psychological dichotomy of being each other’s main adversary. After all, what is better than a noble geopolitical rivalry of two great powers? For, as Nietzsche says in Genealogy of Morals, First Essay #10:
“How much reverence has a noble man for his enemies! And such reverence is a bridge to love.”
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