|
Putin Seeking an alliance with Syrians, Palestinians and Iranians - Shades of Nazi-Soviet (Ribbentrop-Molotov) pact of 1939 before WW2
This analogy may not be viewed in the best of spirit by our Russian friends. And it is not aimed at the Russian people, who
suffer form Islamic terror as we do in America. The analogy is aimed at one set of actions initiated by His Excellency
President Putin
and his friends like Viktor Yanukovich, the former president of Ukraine. Yanukovich sold Missiles to Iran secretly. While
Putin helps Iran with its nuclear ambitions, supplies missiles to Syria and Copters to Palestinians (as he declared during
his recent trip to Israel and the West Bank).
Putin hugs Abu Mazen at Ramallah: This strategic display of Russian affection for the Muslim Arabs, is not going to prevent
the Muslim Chechens from stopping terrorist attacks against Russia. Stalin could buys off the Nazis with a Nazi-Soviet
Non-Aggression Pact in 1939, but Putin’s overtures to the Arabs and Iranians will not be an insurance to prevent Islamic
terrorism against Russia. His overtures can only be a bargaining chip against America to ease off pressure over
authoritarianism in Russia and an hands-off American policy in the former Soviet republics. What is called for in the long
run is a robust American-Russian alliance against the Islamists, as was against the Nazis in WW2.
(Photo credits : Yahoo
News) _____________________________
These actions of President Putin are hardly a way to fight
those who support terrorism, that is afflicting Russia as well as America and the rest of the world. Hardly a way to
forging trust between America and Russia, nations which fought on the same side in WW1 and WW2 and will finally have to
fight in unison in the GWOT (Global War on Terror). Putin may trying to put pressure on us recalcitrant Americans to
overlook his authoritarian methods. And he is right in doing so. And while he too recognizes very clearly that his and
Ruissia's enemy is Islamism, which is also America's enemy, the Cold war hang over is still around not just in his mind but
in
that of us Americans. We preach to him about human right violations in Chechnya (or did till recently) while we rightly so
use all means at Gitmo Bay to make the Islamic thugs squeal. So why the different standards for judging Russian actions
against the same enemy? President Putin may have the Soviet-Nazi pact of 1939 in mind, which was used by Stalin to turn the
Nazis on the Western Democracies, and use the time for a build-up against the Nazis, when they eventually invaded the USR in
1941, Had the Nazis signed a pact with Poland and had invaded the USSR in alliance with Poland and the Western democracies,
the course of WW2 could have been different. But that is another story. Similar to the manner in which Stalin cleverly
maneuvered the Nazis to turn on
the Western Democracies, Putin is employing a tactic to turn the Islamists against the US and the West to get some
breathing space to build Russia's flagging economy. His nostalgia for the Soviet Union, and the Soviet strength and respect
it commanded internationally during those days came
out clearly in his recent speech to the Russian Parliament. We cannot question Putin’s strategy, it is a instinctive one, of
turning the enemy against the adversary, and get breathing time in the bargain, to stand up and fight when the war reaches
his doorstep. This is what happened during WW2, and Stalin's strategy saved the USSR. Putin wants to use a similar strategy
to save the Russian Federation. And we cannot grudge him that. By doing this Putin will also pressurize America and the West
to look the other way while he goes about consolidating his hold over Russian Democracy. But we cannot grudge him that too,
as we need to curtail freedom, to save it in the long run. His only mistake is that while the Nazis were a conventional
enemy, whose attack could be held back with a pact. But today the enemy Putin faces, along with the rest of the civilized
world is not a conventional one, it is an amorphous one, whose attack cannot be staved with a pact with anyone. Putin's
overtures to Iran, Syria and now to the Palestinians, are not going to cut ice with the Chechens. So while the Nazi-Soviet
Pact worked to stave off a Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, and turned the full fury of the Nazis on the Western Democracies,
Putin's overtures today to the Muslim nations are not going to stave off Islamic terror in Russia. This way, while Stalin's
strategy worked, Putin's will fail, although Putin is trying to emulate Stalin's strategy, the context has changed. Our
only word of advise to both President Putin and President
Bush is that, in all your maneuvers, please do not take your eye off from the main enemy - the Islamists, who have both
Russia and America in their cross hairs, so both Russia and America need to have the Islamists in their own cross hairs,
while pulling each other by the tail! We hope President Bush and President Putin talk about this when they meet in Moscow.
Story Credits: WaronJihad Team
|
