Beware the Bear

Americans always want to be optimistic. We reveled in the fall of the Berlin wall and the following disintegration of the Soviet Union. We saw at least a token shift toward a free market society. We saw a country struggling to change - a country with a history of oppression spanning several hundred years - trying to enter the free world as a progressive and market centered society. There is an old saying, " the more things change the more they stay the same." From the Huns to the Czars to the Communists, there has been little freedom societally or economically in there history upon which to build.

With this background why would we be surprised at the emergence of Putin as the leader of Russia. Here is an ex-KGB czar, knowledgeable in the power structure and the means of controlling it in control of a vulnerable new governmental structure. He is welcomed - a guest of the President of the United States, chomping on barbecue at the Crawford ranch- as a friend and new ally of the U.S.

To astute observers, the scales fall from the eye and we see things that are rather disturbing. Muscle used to wrest control of the largest oil and gas corporation from its entrepreneural owner - who lands in jail. A strange poisoning of his rival in the Ukraine, almost taking him out of the picture. A defector of the KGB mystically poisoned with radioactive material. Nuclear and military technology sales to Middle
Eastern enemies of the United States. Moves toward mutual defense pacts with China and India.

By now we ought to be getting the picture. For all that this country has going for it we have a myopic view of foreign policy and the world in which we live. The world in total is a turbulent, violent and unstable place. We have our attention on the Middle East. What about Africa. The strife, violence, and civil unrest there is ignored by the mainstream press and most Americans. The ascension of dictators in Latin America are dismissed or ignored - Noriega is back, Chavez in Venezuela, and his surrogate in Bolivia. Violence in the far east, the nuclear threat from North Korea, and the constant unpredictability of China, seem to be blocked from current concern.

In this country we have the most partisan power struggle I have seen in my lifetime. This is the first I can remember where the welfare of the United States has been totally sublimated to the political quest for power. We seem to be only behind the rest of the world in the factions using guns to get their way.

Republics have a relatively poor record of survival. From Tacitus to Jefferson we've had revealed to us that virtue is what supports the survival of freedom. Rome lost it and perished. If we aren't careful we will too. If we fail to realize our perilous position in the world and confront the foriegn policy hurdles that lie in front of us, and leave the conflict of the partisans to internal affairs, we may be doomed to the ash pit of history.