The Russian Bear Roars

Is the Cold War really over? I don’t think so. It was always a mystery to me that in a matter of months after the fall of the U.S.S.R. the United States government concluded it was over. For reasons I never understood the new Russia was no longer a threat to the rest of the world. After all the same people that lived in the old U.S.S.R. are still alive and well in the new Russia. Vladimir Putin the recent past president and now prime minister of Russia was recruited into the KGB and was a member of the Communist Party from the mid 1970s until the party was dissolved in December 1991.The Russians, like the Americans, do not like a government on or near its borders that it considers a threat. A good example is the United States attempt to isolate Cuba. We consider the Caribbean to be within our sphere of influence. Now Georgia, which was part of Russia for most of the past 200 years, is thumbing its nose at Russia and Poland has signed an agreement to put a U.S. missile interceptor base in their country.

Despite our words of support it is not likely that we will go to war with Russia over Georgia. Leaving politics aside I do not believe that the United States will come to the aid of any small nation that borders Russia. I know that NATO includes many nations in Eastern Europe (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania). Is the United States prepared to defend their borders from invasion from Russia?

In 1796, George Washington warned his new nation “…Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people out to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.” Washington said “The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.”

John McCain’s statement, “We are all Georgians”, could be a frightening view into his state of mind. He is, after all, a military man. If he were president would he take America into battle over Georgia? I fear the answer may be yes.