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Dangerous Insantiy
Charlie Reese
This insanity began in the first Bush's administration, continued through the Clinton administration and has begun to blossom in the Little Emperor's regime. Instead of seeing the end of the Cold War as a golden opportunity for lasting peace, the crazies in Washington saw it as an opportunity for American military dominance of the whole planet.
If you keep this goal in mind, then a lot of what happened makes sense. When the Warsaw Pact was disbanded, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization also should have been disbanded. After all, it was just a war alliance against the Soviet Union.
Instead, NATO was expanded right up to the borders of Russia. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was unilaterally abrogated. Other nuclear-disarmament treaties were tossed in the trash can. Rather than help Russia transition from communism to a free market, the U.S. sent sharpies who helped the oligarchs steal most of the country's wealth during the drunken presidency of Boris Yeltsin.
Furthermore, NATO's mission changed from a defensive posture to an offensive mission. The bombing of Serbia, a traditional ally of Russia, was designed to send a message to Russia; the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was a message to Beijing. At the same time, using democracy or terrorism as an excuse, the U.S. has sought to install governments unfriendly to Russia in the former Soviet republics and to establish military bases on the perimeter of the country.
Unfortunately for the crazies in Washington, the Russians replaced their drunk with a smart guy, Vladimir Putin. By the way, all the bad-mouthing of Putin is coming from the oligarchs who fled justice in Russia. They have plenty of money to hire the best whores in the fields of public relations and journalism to bad-mouth a Russian leader who wants to put them in jail where they belong. Of course, they want regime change - another drunk who would invite them back to steal what they missed the first time.
The Chinese were not intimidated, either. Both countries see Bush's anti-missile defense system for what it really is - an offensive weapon to be used in conjunction with a nuclear first strike. We couldn't afford a system to cover the country, but one that might pick off the leftovers after an American first strike is feasible.
So China and Russia have come together in a strong, strategic alliance nobody would have thought possible 20 years ago. It is a military, economic and energy alliance with one purpose - to frustrate the U.S. attempt at world dominance.
These neoconservative crazies are dangerous people. They are sick with the same hubris that brought down the British Empire. It is one thing to bully Third World countries; it is quite another to play that game with nuclear powers.
One Asian former head of intelligence has written that China already has the technology and weapons to put our aircraft carriers on the bottom of the sea as easily as sinking a sampan.
The world doesn't need this madness. Washington needs to be cleansed of these crackpots before they stupidly unleash a nuclear holocaust. The Russians and Chinese are among Earth's most brilliant people, and they are not taken in by political blathering. It is extremely dangerous to be doing things that they reasonably can assume is leading to a strategy of a nuclear first strike.
Write to Charley Reese at PO Box 2446, Orlando, FL 32802
(c) 2006 by King Features Syndicate