Classically wrong even that is sounds very plausible. But the world today is now not what the world was 170 years ago
We as a civilization are much more connected and interdependent.
What Stockman misses in his explanation is a very simple issue, human nature has not changed and character traits are hereditary and therefore the social order may had changed the name of governance but the people staffing those positions stay the same.
If Russia would have invaded Crimea or Georgia or large swats of territory east of the Volga it really did not matter to the US and in all truthfulness it did happened and no one cared. Since Ivan the Terrible when what we called Russia was almost dismembered by its neighbors Poles Lithuanians Austro-Hungarian and no one cared in the American continent, but since systematically and with big drive the recovered "Russia" expanded in a classic imperialistic way into territory of "last resistance" east and south of their original territory and as today in Crimea establishing fact on the ground when no once notices and then claiming the loot as OURS, in contrast to other colonial powers of the time. What has Kamchatka or Sakhalin Island or Alaska in common with Novgorod or Moscow is a riddle.
There is no denial that all European countries at the time Russia included where on an expansionary binge. Belgium had Congo, the Brits India ME etc., the French Algiers etc., the Germans in Namibia etc. and so on
My point is that all those countries as they matured from a economic social point left those lands where they subjugated the local population and they called it independence new nations.
The only European that did not do so with the occupied territory was Russia with coming of the WWI and the disastrous and ruthless Bolshevik army reconquered the various lands under an iron fist and mass murder. .
It is obvious that Stockman is clueless what happen in the period from 1917 to 1924 (and the years thereafter until WWII) how many independent states where declared and between them also Ukraine, how many nationals armies from Europe fought against the Bolsheviks and that luck had it that because a fanatic Jew named Trotsky (and many other like him) who invented the movable cannon and machine gun on rail networks left the then armies unable to match the speed and mobility of the killing machine burning and destroying in its way any settlement that opposed the Bolsheviks. (IMHO the Bolsheviks without the fanatics like Trotsky would have never won the war.)
My point is that David Stockman analysis from a historical point is hogwash, as with the disintegration of Empires after WWI dozen upon dozen of independent states emerged but not from Imperial Russia.
Therefore his analysis of Crimea belonging to Russia has the same justification as Bulgaria Albania or Macedonia or Greece or Egypt or Israel etc. actually belong to Turkey as they where under the Ottoman Empire for centuries even more than Crimea was under Imperial Russia.
What is different today from let say 1907 is that the norms have changed, the world is integrated and interconnected a letter arrives to its destination in seconds not months, people travel between continents in hours and not many weeks or months and teh military deployment happen in a fraction of the time 166 years ago in far places, and definitely faster and different from the times of 1855.
So mister clueless David Stockman, people character has not changed worth noticing in those 166 years the desire of building empires and exploiting other people did not vanish from the world and in the specific case of Russia due to their genetic makeup of their ancestors and a countless campaign of brainwashing the aggressiveness of building Empires and oppress people for the gain of the few, is still alive and well, and as any other conqueror since the Persian or Roman Empire Russia tries to expand by means of military force and exploit other nations to pay tribute - they only call it differently now.
As all new business it all starts in small steps, in this case lets snatch Crimea, because we owned in the past, wonder why Turkey should not do it as it owned / occupied the lands in the past or Venice or the Genoa Mini state or the Greeks who all had in the past settlements/cities on Crimea?
the danger today is that not as 166 year before a military expedition to conquer an independent state can happen in a day and at the speed of light establish new administration and determine facts on the ground, and this must be stopped in the bud.
Or upon David Stockman logic just leave the malignant and infectious cancer to grow in other people, let them suffer as long as it does not touch us and solve the problem when you are already infected.
As far as I am concerned IMHO David Stockman is totally ignorant in this subject of Russian expansionist desire and their concept of sovereignty of a state or country as related to Russian concepts.
Angela Merkel was very right - the present Kremlin government is out from another world the world that existed 170 years ago and I personally do not want to live in such a world.
Please review the maps on Message 29461946 should all the countries also claim back their territories that they controled then? |
