U.S. Is Creating A New Enemy: Russia

Russia will soon publish a revamped military doctrine. Rumor has it that the U.S. and NATO will be designated as threats or adversaries or enemies. This speculation is bolstered by the statements of a senior Russian Defense Ministry General.

Even without an official document having yet been published, we can say now that the U.S. and NATO policies, especially as they have transpired over Ukraine, have caused this hardening of the Russian position. The U.S. is creating a new enemy: Russia. This is purposeful. Only a big enemy like Russia can get Americans to accept the costs of the American military levied upon them. Only a big enemy like Russia can be used to justify a big military establishment. The war on terror no longer provides enough of a justification for a people tired of such losing propositions.

Although Obama conceives that he is in the right over Ukraine and Russia in the wrong, and although he conceives of sanctions as justifiable and measured, he has still nonetheless made Russia into an enemy. Russia is responding in kind. Obama’s sanctions came along with strong NATO rhetoric and a history of broken promises or betrayed understandings about the expansion of NATO. What Obama has done didn’t occur in a vacuum. The anti-Russian policy stance goes back to the end of the Cold War. If Obama wanted a friendly or cooperative Russia, he certainly didn’t achieve it.

Warmongers and neocon hawks will seize upon an altered Russian military doctrine that names the U.S. as its primary adversary as evidence that Russia is indeed a threat and an enemy. This will be a lie. From the ending of the USSR to several years ago, there was no evidence that Russia was an enemy. It made no hostile moves on any surrounding countries or on the U.S. The recent moves of Russia with respect to Ukraine are responses to the U.S. moves, namely, the U.S. supported a violent change in Ukraine’s government and then a Ukrainian military campaign against its own people. Russia is still not an enemy of the U.S., even if it identifies the U.S. and NATO as its prime adversaries. However, it is still the case that the U.S. is creating Russia as a new enemy.

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5:47 pm on November 19, 2014