Saturday - February 26, 2005

Viewpoint

Vladimir Putin: Leave Him Alone utin is doing the best he can to straighten out a complete mess, one he inherited from Boris Yeltsin. Make no mistake about it. Yeltsin was a drunk and he has almost killed himself with his drinking. On his watch, the former Soviet Empire got its first taste of democracy and the old Soviet party leaders simply moved from running the country to running their own version of the Mafia. Crime was rampant and corruption the order of the day. Governors of provinces were bribed to ignore the Russian Mafia’s activities and money flowed out of the country in a steady stream as these criminal warlords invested overseas.

While Yeltsin wandered about in an alcoholic haze, the Russian country was gradually deteriorating into almost total chaos. All during the 1990’s, America turned a blind eye to Russia and simply laughed at the destruction of the old Soviet Empire. President Clinton rode the wave of the internet economy and fought to keep his pants zipped while renting out the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House. Enron and several other American companies were practicing corrupt business activities on a grand scale that would not end until the goofball Clinton administration was replaced. The same thing was happening in Russia, except on a much larger and much more dangerous scale.

This is the mess Vladimir Putin inherited: a country whose infrastructure was quickly rotting, a currency that was headed straight down, political corruption throughout government, rampant crime and terrorist attacks from Chechnya. The mainstream media in America simply poo-poo’ed it and wrote it all off as “bumps in the road on the way to democracy”. This was utter bullshit and also patronizing, to say the least, on the part of the media elite in the US .. who, by the way, were sucking up to Clinton and ignoring his transgressions while fawning over his “leadership”. Complete crap! Clinton and Yeltsin were simply two sides of the same coin - two inept populists who coasted on the newly found peace created by Reagan and Gorbachev.

With the 21st century arriving, both America and Russia had to make some hard choices. In America, the economy was going into the tank with the collapse of the internet bubble and in Russia, the criminal elements had taken over the country. America needed George W. Bush and Russia needed Vladimir Putin. Unfortunately, America found itself embroiled in a foreign war after the attacks of 9/11. President Bush had to revive the economy while fighting an unwanted war at the same time. Because of this, the deficits have ballooned and security has had to be tightened. The liberal left in the US has been screaming its collective head off about “infringement of civil rights” ever since 9/11 without pausing to consider that the US is under attack. That same liberal left in the US is also now accusing Putin of “backsliding on democracy” and “creating a new police state” in Russia.

Utter rubbish! Putin is simply doing what needed to be done after the train wreck of the 1990’s. He has gone after the Russian criminal element, shut down their operations, regained control of the corrupt regional governors and gone after the Muslim terrorists in Chechnya. He has gathered more power at the federal level in order to clean out the mess. Bush has had a tougher road of it because the US is more of an established democracy with a vocal, angry press watching his every step - not to mention the leftist opposition elements.

Putin has quietly gone about the business of rebuilding Russia into the great country that it once was. The real test of his administration will come in a few years when he gets it all sorted out and starts to surrender the power he has recently acquired - if he chooses to. Russia is not America, not by a long shot. Our Russian friends still have a long way to go on their road to freedom and democracy. For the time being though, Putin is the man for troubled times and the US should back him in his struggle.

As the leftist media in this country attacks Putin and accuses him of everything from “returning to Stalinism” to being “the anti-Christ”, we all need to remember the early years of our country. George Washington had to put down a rebellion or two and America had its share of bumps in the road in the early years. The key test came after Washington served two terms and a lot of people thought he should accept permanent leadership, sort of a king. Washington gracefully stepped down and power passed to others who carried the torch of freedom along. Putin will face that decision in a few years. That will be the time when we get the measure of the man. Now .... it is just too early to tell. Why don’t we just give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being? Russia could be a very valuable friend and ally in the near future. Let’s let Putin (and the Russians) sort their problems out on their own and help them regain their place in world affairs. As one great country to another ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/26/2005 at 10:30 AM   
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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