Form: Quote Commentary

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/viewing-russia-inside#axzz3M40hvzjmSTRATFOR ON RUSSIA AND UKRAINE (MUST READ)

George’s Observations from Meeting with their Intelligence Community:

– (a) Sanctions will not affect Russia significantly Why? See (b).

– (b) Russians have an extremely high pain tolerance – the highest on earth, and pressures that will topple western governments will not affect Russian government.

– (c) Russians cannot conceptualize american idealism. They are a brutal and pragmatic people that cannot even comprehend that we have longer term ideological interests, and they interpret everything through their practical short and medium term lens. no on in Russia has good intentions, and they can’t imagine that American’s do either. In fact, most of the world cannot imagine how ideological we are. It has taken me two years living in eastern europe just to begin to see it.

– (d) George agrees that the USA is fearful of a merger of german technology and Russian resources which would result in russian hegemony.

My ARGUMENT on (d)

I have been traditionally in favor of a unified Russo-german people and a withdrawal of american forces from eurasia to a more isolationist and northern american, or perhaps anglo-sphere alliance, with england functioning as switzerland, and america as germany. So I sit opposite of George on this position.

MY ARGUMENT on (c)

Russians’ don’t understand american ideology and I question whether George does either – He speaks in state deparatment language which reflects an implementation of the American ideology, not the source of it. Instead:

Americans have been pursuing a postwar policy of:

(i) borders are inviolable rigid corporate property rights and abridgment of them threatens both US domestic central authority, threatens the wealth of developed countries that depend on a fluid international economy, and threatens another global war which everyone seeks to avoid. The USA is a benevolently intentioned paranoid sheriff that tends to break things when he’s around – and fear of having him around is enough to keep the peace.

(ii) states, meaning governments, are accountable for human rights

(iii) People have a right to self rule, and democracy is the optimum form of rule.

BUT….

(iv) The USA will punish self rulers that perform badly regarding either i, or ii.

(v) The USA foolishly advocates democracy which is a luxury good for high trust western societies and which other societies are incapable of using. Government must reflect the trust levels of the constituencies with more authoritarian for more tribal and familial and more distributed for more outbred and commercial. The question is only whether governments violate human rights and borders, not how they accomplish doing so. Democracy is equally destructive at home as it has been in the rest of the world.

Curt Doolittle

The Propertarian Institute

Kiev,

#ukraine #tlot #tcot