Gates Calls for Closer US-Russian Cooperation

Almost immediately after Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed American policy for “almost uncontained hyper-use of military force in international relations, force that is plunging the world into an abyss of permanent conflicts,” the US responded with something resembling brains. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, “We all face many common problems and challenges that must be addressed in partnership with other countries, including Russia. One Cold War was quite enough.” What a change from the days of Mr. Rumsfeld.

Mr. Putin’s speech was a pretty tough one. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who is running for president on a “more war in Iraq-Nam” platform, said President Putin’s speech was “the most aggressive speech from a Russian leader since the end of the Cold War. Moscow must understand that it cannot enjoy a genuine partnership with the West so long as its actions, at home and abroad, conflict fundamentally with the core values of the Euro-Atlantic democracies.”

This kind of rhetoric plays well in the militarist primaries of the GOP, but in the real world, it gets slapped down pretty quick by a Russian leadership decades wiser and younger than their Soviet counterparts. The Russian leader replied, “We are constantly being taught about democracy, but for some reason those who teach us do not want to learn themselves.” He added that there is “greater and greater disdain for the basic principles of international law” criticizing “first and foremost the United States.”

Mr. Gates’ approach is far more effective because it acknowledges a simple fact: Russia remains a great power despite having closed down its superpower business. He said, “As an old Cold Warrior, one of yesterday’s speeches [Mr. Putin’s] almost filled me with nostalgia for a less complex time. Almost.” After all, the communists believed in reason, and if one is so disposed, there’s always someway to discuss matters. In contrast, al-Qaeda and its fellow travelers are not reasonable people.

Mr. Putin is, of course, an old Chekist, and as such, is not a very nice man. Nonetheless, FDR and Churchill found a way to work with Stalin, who was even nastier, in confronting an unparalleled evil in Nazism. One needn’t like Mr. Putin or his regime, or what it has done to Russia (a country deserving of far better than it has had). However, as LBJ once observer about FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, “It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.” Mr. Gates’s approach is far more likely to succeed than Senator McCain’s.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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