The two things Wall Street and N.A.T.O. want from Putin

Fundamentally the west has never understood Russia’s transition from a communist state into a free enterprise democratic society or the necessity of having a strong super-presidency to usher through the change. President Clinton viewed Russia’s vulnerable moments in the 90s as an opportunity to plunder ancestral Russian lands and redistribute them to Western allies. Like V.I. Lenin who traded Ukraine to Germany in exchange for support during a revolutionary era, President Clinton uncomprehendingly levered away Ukraine during a revolutionary period for short term profit to the west with long-term consequences. Like birds that have easy feedings from a human host, western allies raise hell when the feeding slows down clamoring for more.

The west has no reason to fear Russia. The Baltic states are free and N.A.T.O. is strong except for the weak contributions from Western European states. The west seems to expect Russia to have a trans-gendered African-Russian leftist President fawning over their most cherished desires to scalp Russia. That may not occur as soon as they would like. Yet the effort to make Russia part of a renewed British empire or a Wall Street guarantor of the Federal Reserve with Myrny diamond pipes and other natural resources good enough to last until the vast wealth of Mars can be concentrated to Earth’s one-percenters is as honorable as homosexual marriage (not).

It is amazing to me that Western political leadership is as 2-dimensional as it is without any capacity to make things work well in a friendly way as President Reagan had. Maybe Rep. Adam Schiff should be made the U.S. Ambassador to Russia at least to be consistent with the maladroit Machiavellianism. The opportunity cost of really stupid policies can be substantial. Public affairs should work out so as many people can be satisfied as possible rather than to force things to be the way a 51% majority want it.