OPINION:
ANALYSIS/OPINION
The Kremlin and its current leadership have long memories. The Russian attempts to hurt Hillary Clinton in her presidential race against Donald Trump hark back to when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to get Vladimir Putin thrown out of office at the turn of the decade. Mr. Putin holds grudges.
But the biggest grudge he yearns to satisfy, and in many ways partially has, is the collapse of the Soviet Union at the hands of the West. That would be the West we all used to know: the one that stood up for freedom, American values, liberty, peace and capitalism.
Yes, Russia aims to delegitimize the West and its former quest for all of the aforementioned attributes. This is what really brought down the USSR. It wasn’t just the arms race. It wasn’t just Ronald Reagan and NATO. It wasn’t just Soviet top-down management. It was that the West was different — the West stood for a better way of life for human beings.
The fact that America has stepped away from these values has not stopped Mr. Putin from continuing to attempt to drive a stake through the heart of our political system and to reduce American and European power globally at every turn. The Kremlin is destabilizing governments in Eastern Europe to pull them back toward Moscow’s influence. It is supporting populist leaders in the West who disagree with the culturally Marxist, “progressive” agenda of Western leaders for the past several decades, which also happens to align with Moscow’s agenda.
Russia is building military power around the world, and Russia is not afraid to use it to satisfy certain cravings like a foothold in the Middle East for the new Russian state.
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In short, Russia will continue to undermine America and the rest of the West at every opportunity. However, I do not believe Russia wants to defeat or destroy America.
The Kremlin just wants to shape the West’s influence to its liking so it can do what it wants without interference to rebuild the Russian empire’s influence around the world.
We are moving back to the future to a dangerous time in human history, where the conquest theory has taken hold again, where might makes right, where freedom is a fleeting concept, not even remembered or understood or appreciated by the new generations of the West.
The death match between communism and capitalism is a thing of the past. No one really believes in communism anymore, except American college students and their tenured profs who can spew Marxist dogma without fear of consequence.
No, today the struggle is between those who value their own culture, their own national identity and their own personal freedom versus the globalists who want to destroy all of the above. To the globalist, no lie, no falsehood, no deceitful campaign against a gas that is required for life but treated as a pollutant is too diabolical. Whether it be global cooling, nuclear winter, the population bomb or climate change, they all fit a pattern of control — the control of flyover country. The globalists want control of your money, your life, even your children. Nothing is sacred or off limits.
It is here that Russia can be an ally to patriotic Americans. Here we can find common ground with Moscow to defeat the scourges that threaten both our motherlands. Whether that be defeating the jihadi armies in the Middle East or combating the Islamic State’s minions in our capitals, these are areas where we can work together.
The leftist politicians and their corrupt media want to lump all right-wing news outlets together as being Russian propaganda outlets. I would say that in many ways, the Marxist, no-lie-is-too-big, fake news media simply despise the truth when it is told. It is much easier to call Breitbart a Russian outlet than to deal with the uncomfortable facts that the media outlet reports on a daily basis.
Very simply, when patriotic American interests to defeat the usurpation of our freedoms align with the Kremlin’s in countering the globalist media’s narrative, we can be allies. Calling the Islamification of the West what it is, an invasion sponsored by globalist powers, is one such instance. Where Russia continues to attempt to undermine American security around the world, we will continue to be adversaries. In these instances, the Kremlin has to be confronted.
It will take a special type of leader to navigate this swamp of conflicting priorities and dangers that freedom-loving people in the world now face. Donald Trump just may be that type of leader.
L. Todd Wood writes a column and blog for The Washington Times.
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