August 19, 2008--The Other Foot
Pretend the shoe is on the other foot. Suppose that back in 1981 we had lost the Cold War to the Soviet Union. Imagine that they, full of themselves and feeling that they were the world’s only superpower began to rummage around at our borders in order to make a deal with Mexico. To say to them that they must be tired from centuries of having to live within our sphere of influence and because of their economic dependence on us have had to do our various biddings. The Soviets might say to the Mexicans, “We’ll protect you from whatever threat remains from your northern oppressor. We have an military alliance called the Warsaw Pact and if you want you can join it. This way if the U.S. ever again thinks about dominating you we will come to your assistance.” Mexico of course leaps to join up.
Then, after this geopolitical, bloodless triumph, with the shoe still comfortably on the other foot, the hegemonic Soviets turn their attention to Canada. They are of course aware that Canada is in many ways a political hybrid—one part English speaking and the other one-third culturally quite different and Francophile. They know as well that the French part of Canada has historically wanted to break away, to succeed, to form a nation of their own. With the United States effectively defanged they begin to work the fissures that separate the, in effect, two Canadas. As it turns out, after losing the Cold War, Canada, especially the English part is America’s one remaining ally, but the Soviets ignore that, couldn’t care less as they literally move in with troops and their air force to help the French Canadians break away. And when they do, not too long after that, like with Mexico, they offer them the opportunity to join the Warsaw Pact.
After a while, the U.S. gets back on its feet. It has technologies and resources that many countries need and their economy begins to freshen. So much so that they are able to rebuild and modernize their military. The Soviet Union, oblivious to this, or not caring, continues to treat the United States as if it were still an insignificant power. The U.S., though, smarting from their loses of two decades ago and from the ongoing feelings of being disregarded and patronized by the USSR looks for an opportunity to reassert itself.
That opportunity presents itself in Mexico. The Mexican president, now a close ally of the USSR who, not coincidentally, received his law degree at Moscow University and thus thinks of himself as if he were Russian which further annoys the U.S. which sees him as a political puppet who takes pleasure in mocking and provoking us, President Garcia, feeling full of himself and assured of being protected by his Soviet patrons, moves to retake land along the U.S.-Mexico border that was captured from the Mexicans during the Mexican War in the 1840s. When he moves to do so, the United States, swollen with frustration and new nationalistic pride, moves to not only suppress the Mexicans but also to seize portions of still-contested border lands.
In Moscow, the Soviet president, also puffed up with hubris, every day offers expressions of outrage and lectures the United States about their bullying ways and how they are interfering with the sovereign decisions of their democratic neighbor. This is accompanied by threats of further isolation on the world stage and cultural and economic sanctions. And his angry denunciations are followed up by the unilateral deployment of Soviet troops to the region to “protect” the humanitarians supplies they are airlifting in and to assure those supplies “fall into the right hands.”
Get the point? If so, switch the shoe back to the original foot, to a current real-life situation where a U.S. ally, Georgia, right on the border with Russia, a former Soviet republic, is asserting itself. The Russians would say, poking them in the eye, by moving to take Ossetia, a disputed region that lies between the two countries. Deluded with the belief that the United States, where Georgian President Saakashvili in fact took his law degree and after that was the darling of Washington, especially among conservatives such as Dick Cheney Bush and John McCain who continued to want to act tough and sable rattle with the Russians, that president created a mess for himself, his country, the United States (which now finds itself in a showdown with the Russians after more than two decades of seemingly constructive relations), and most of Western Europe which can’t and won’t do much about the situation because they are now almost totally dependent on Russia for oil and gas. (See linked NY Times article for all the depressing details.)
So in yet another microcosm, we see how, in our arrogance and belief that it is our God-given destiny to spread freedom and democracy to the world, how we make a mess of great consequence, expose our own vulnerabilities, and secure the very opposite of what we were seeking.
Then, after this geopolitical, bloodless triumph, with the shoe still comfortably on the other foot, the hegemonic Soviets turn their attention to Canada. They are of course aware that Canada is in many ways a political hybrid—one part English speaking and the other one-third culturally quite different and Francophile. They know as well that the French part of Canada has historically wanted to break away, to succeed, to form a nation of their own. With the United States effectively defanged they begin to work the fissures that separate the, in effect, two Canadas. As it turns out, after losing the Cold War, Canada, especially the English part is America’s one remaining ally, but the Soviets ignore that, couldn’t care less as they literally move in with troops and their air force to help the French Canadians break away. And when they do, not too long after that, like with Mexico, they offer them the opportunity to join the Warsaw Pact.
After a while, the U.S. gets back on its feet. It has technologies and resources that many countries need and their economy begins to freshen. So much so that they are able to rebuild and modernize their military. The Soviet Union, oblivious to this, or not caring, continues to treat the United States as if it were still an insignificant power. The U.S., though, smarting from their loses of two decades ago and from the ongoing feelings of being disregarded and patronized by the USSR looks for an opportunity to reassert itself.
That opportunity presents itself in Mexico. The Mexican president, now a close ally of the USSR who, not coincidentally, received his law degree at Moscow University and thus thinks of himself as if he were Russian which further annoys the U.S. which sees him as a political puppet who takes pleasure in mocking and provoking us, President Garcia, feeling full of himself and assured of being protected by his Soviet patrons, moves to retake land along the U.S.-Mexico border that was captured from the Mexicans during the Mexican War in the 1840s. When he moves to do so, the United States, swollen with frustration and new nationalistic pride, moves to not only suppress the Mexicans but also to seize portions of still-contested border lands.
In Moscow, the Soviet president, also puffed up with hubris, every day offers expressions of outrage and lectures the United States about their bullying ways and how they are interfering with the sovereign decisions of their democratic neighbor. This is accompanied by threats of further isolation on the world stage and cultural and economic sanctions. And his angry denunciations are followed up by the unilateral deployment of Soviet troops to the region to “protect” the humanitarians supplies they are airlifting in and to assure those supplies “fall into the right hands.”
Get the point? If so, switch the shoe back to the original foot, to a current real-life situation where a U.S. ally, Georgia, right on the border with Russia, a former Soviet republic, is asserting itself. The Russians would say, poking them in the eye, by moving to take Ossetia, a disputed region that lies between the two countries. Deluded with the belief that the United States, where Georgian President Saakashvili in fact took his law degree and after that was the darling of Washington, especially among conservatives such as Dick Cheney Bush and John McCain who continued to want to act tough and sable rattle with the Russians, that president created a mess for himself, his country, the United States (which now finds itself in a showdown with the Russians after more than two decades of seemingly constructive relations), and most of Western Europe which can’t and won’t do much about the situation because they are now almost totally dependent on Russia for oil and gas. (See linked NY Times article for all the depressing details.)
So in yet another microcosm, we see how, in our arrogance and belief that it is our God-given destiny to spread freedom and democracy to the world, how we make a mess of great consequence, expose our own vulnerabilities, and secure the very opposite of what we were seeking.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
8:16 AM
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