Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility 

Still crazy after all these years

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
— Albert Einstein (attributed)

I've thought for some time that Russia was still feeling a bit imperialistic. Putin's government appeared to show all of the signs of a longing for the days of the U.S.S.R. It certainly appeared like they wanted to squelch all dissent, even in former satellites. I'm sure you all remember the whole Litvinenko saga. The current government's saber rattling over missile defense systems being deployed in Europe seems like a reminder of the bad old days when the U.S.S.R. saw the U.S. not as a fellow traveler, but as the enemy. This mess in Ossetia looks like more of the same. Putin's still blaming the U.S. for having a cynical “cold war” mentality for supporting Georgia in this conflict.

 [Update: Meanwhile, Russia has gone further than simply “defending” South Ossetia from “Georgian aggression”, and has moved troops across the border into Georgia, occupying a Georgian military base in Senaki, Georgia.

[Georgian President, Mikheil] Saakashvili said on Monday 90 percent of his country's casualties in the conflict with Russia over South Ossetia were civilian.

"Our losses are mainly civilian. Ninety percent of our casualties are civilian," Saakashvili told reporters on a conference call.

Putin is comparing this conflict with the Gulf War in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, accusing the United States of hypocrisy. Funny, I seem to recall that we only targeted Iraq's military in that conflict. Russia's targeting of civilians hardly compares. I wonder who the true aggressor is in this situation?]

China's not exactly our best friend either. They're certainly no friend of human rights. While they may have modernized a bit, and allowed a small modicum of capitalism through the back door, they're still a communist nation with all of the totalitarian control of peoples lives that that implies. And they're still looking for ways to compromise our nation's ability to defend itself, at times with the help of our own politicians and navy (Does anybody remember Admiral Fallon's “ambitious military exchange program” with China or his efforts to restrict U.S. intelligence gathering against China?).

I guess old habits die hard. The Berlin wall fell in 1989. Twenty eight years later, the same old story still persists with Russia and China vs. the United States.

Al Qaeda is still active, as are Hamas, Fatah, Hezbollah, and the Lord knows how many other Islamic terrorist organizations. True to pattern, Hamas honors cease-fires merely as a chance to re-load, still firing Qassam rockets into towns like Sderot from the Gaza strip despite the June 19th truce brokered by Egypt.

The “Palestinians”, a bunch of misfits that the League of Arab Nations refused to take in in a cynical effort to create a “permanent refugee” class to aid in a propaganda war against Israel still insist on Israel's destruction, and continue to demand that Israel return land captured in the “six day war”, often referred to by Arabs as "the 1967 war" or “The Setback” (an-Naksah).

We will not accept any…coexistence with Israel.…Today the issue is not the establishment of peace between the Arab states and Israel….The war with Israel is in effect since 1948.
— Gamel Abdel Nasser, May 28th 1967

Fifty years later after being defeated in the six day war, nothing has changed. Israel went to war because of the constant rhetoric against her and the military buildup of Egypt and Syria on her borders. The Arabs refer to this war as a “setback” because their goal is still the same, to “wipe Israel off the map”. For them, the six day war was nothing more than a skirmish in their continuing war against Israel.

If proof is needed that negotiation with the Palestinians is useless, all you need to do is look at the fact that the “peace process” is still an ongoing thing. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter announced the results of the Camp David talks, noting that “it had been 2,000 years since there was peace between Egypt and a free Jewish nation”. The negotiated peace was as PBS notes “subverted by extremists”. The United States and Israel have been involved in the “peace process” with the Palestinians ever since.

It seems that every negotiated truce or agreement with the Palestinians ends with violence after a short while. If there ever is a negotiated, lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians maybe then we'll stop hearing about the “peace process”. But then, for some the “peace process” is the goal, and not actual peace.

Today we have a constant call to “negotiate” with nations and organizations that are bent upon our destruction or the destruction of our allies. I submit to you that this is folly. Israel has “negotiated” time and again with the Palestinians, with no change in results. Neville Chamberlain insisted that “negotiation” was the way to peace with Hitler. The world saw the results of that folly. We're still “negotiating” with Russia and China with no change in their attitudes toward us.

We never defeated the Russians in the cold war either. Instead, they suffered a “setback” with the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Conservatives like to say that Ronald Reagan “won the cold war”, but it seems to me that Putin has demonstrated that it's not over yet. The rhetoric remains. Their opposition to us in the United Nations remains. Russia's hatred of NATO remains.

At the same time, it seems to me that it's not enough to defeat our enemies either. Israel has fought several wars with her enemies, and yet they remain as committed to her destruction as ever. We've seen how Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups act as well. They appear to be defeated, running away in a rout whenever they're faced with overwhelming opposition. They run away like the cowards that they are, hiding behind the skirts of women or blending into the masses of civilians, only to come back and slit throats in the night. Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan should be ample evidence of that.

I believe that the only way to really deal with our enemies is to be constantly ready and ever vigilant to deal with their aggression. That doesn't mean we shouldn't negotiate with them, but we should only do so to buy a temporary peace, and, like them, to buy time to reload. “Trust but verify” seems to me to be a good motto — in other words, don't trust them further than you can see. Even an apparent defeat of our enemies isn't to be trusted — they may only see it as “an-Naksah”.

This linkfest is for the 11th of August, 2008. If you have something interesting you'd like to share, feel free to link it here and leave a trackback. Just remember the trackback policy.

For the best exposure, go to the blogger's oasis and use the linkfest chooser to choose the posts you'd like to hook up with.