In
my 2002 Russia article there is a passage which I have already quoted
before, yet it is so important that it can be repeated again and again without
ever losing its edge:
“…Incidentally,
whatever happened to that proud achievement of Western Civilization known as
“political correctness?” Where was all that “win-win” gibberish when America
needed it? In our super-sanitized age of mandatory pseudo-virtues where everybody-gets-a-blue-ribbon,
it is quite remarkable to find a textbook example of “good behavior” (on
Russia’s part) rewarded with the so-taboo title of “loser!”
But
let us get very serious now: The story of Russia losing her superpower glory as
the result of ending the Cold War is truly astonishing in the sense of how
thoughtlessly the United States has treated this sensitive issue.
It
was indeed a terrifying mistake of historic proportions to tell the Russians
that they had deserved their superpower parity and superpower respect only as
the enemy of the United States; while as a friend, their lot was to be become a
recipient of America’s benevolent condescension. Any serious scholar should know that the Russians are
an authentic Great Power, with a well-developed national superpower
mentality, an extraordinary Manifest Destiny, dating back five hundred
years, and, in short, a giant national Ego to match the geographical size of
Mother Russia. They are a rational people but do not suffer humiliation gladly,
and the fury which they are capable of unleashing against those who insult them
with disrespect, can far surpass the fury of Japan and Germany of the World War
Two infamy. Only in Russia’s case, there is no need to go to war directly...”
The
bottom line of my invective was to show that in the wake of the collapse of the
Soviet Union, America under the Presidents Bush Senior, Clinton, and Bush
Junior has done so much damage to the positive side of the Russian-American
relationship that the time-honored Russian feeling of goodwill toward the
United States, the warm and affectionate amo in odi et amo, had
to be lethally poisoned for several generations to come…
In
the light of more recent events, as Presidents Putin and Medvedev have
vigorously reasserted Russia’s national dignity, and her combative spirit,
while Washington has exposed its own hypocrisy and generally dishonorable intentions
for everybody to see, the Russian negative backlash toward America has only
been reinforced, and apparently there is no end in sight to reverse the
devastating stereotype...
(This
is the end of Part I. Part II will be posted later today.)
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