Today Russian President Vladimir V. Putin spoke to his country. These are some excerpts from his remarks:
The last century heard that call when Nazi Germany became insane enough to invade what was then the Soviet Union. Rodina rose and the end of that story was the destruction of Berlin and the beginning of the Cold War.
"Rodina" -- the massing of Russians behind the nearly holy cause of protecting and defending "the motherland," is not a term any Russian politician would use today. It carries too many memories of Stalin and the Soviets. But the emotion behind it remains. And the echo of what the United States discovered about terrorism three years ago and what Russia has concluded yesterday is distinct. What it portends is even clearer. The Alliance is back.
The old Alliance of World War II's drive to destroy fascism is rising along with Rodina. The United States, Britain and its coalition. Now Russia. Others will come in their time and as they discover the terrible truth about this enemy on their own soil.
The enemy and those that harbor and support him would do well to look carefully at what is coming for them. The careful and caring Wilsonian policies of America are one thing. Russia is never quite so delicate or patient.
The last time the Alliance rose and moved as one to destroy not only the enemy, but the centers of the enemy's mass, the butcher's bill was terrible. The masters of terror now face a deadly dilemma -- how to achieve their goals and sustain their power without unleashing on themselves and their captive populations the one war the west does best: total war.
The tragedy of the West is that the terror masters will not stop unless, magically, they can be removed from the men, women, and children they hide among, and be killed as individuals. But men such as these do not care about the slaughter of the innocents. Tribal and brutal they care only about the survival of themselves, their primitive creeds and religions, and their clans.
At the present moment, the West still cares, and cares deeply, about the innocents in which the Terrorists conceal themselves, but this will not and can not last.
John McCain remarked at the Republican convention that this war could go on for decades. Others in our military have given the same 10 year, 20 year estimates. But those estimates are only accurate if you suppose we continue to fight as we are fighting now -- carefully, respectfully, surgically, and conventionally. As long as we continue the war in this manner, the war could stretch as far into the future as the long peace now stretches into the past.
But will we? Since September 11 I have not believed we will be content with 'The Forever War.' I have always known that there would come to us or to our nuclear allies a single terrible day with a single terrible event. On that day our response would cease to be 'measured' and that we would then, each of us in our souls, and all of us as citizens, say simply "Enough."
With the rise of Rodina and the reformation of the Allies, that day has suddenly come much, much closer. It will be a day so terrible that it will give us all pause. It will be so terrible that God himself will pause.
Then, like Rodina, we will rise and go on with rebuilding the life we have taken back from the Masters of Terror. And they shall be ash.
Posted by Vanderleun at September 4, 2004 3:36 PM | TrackBackBravo. May the alliance come soon and unleash the fires of hell.
Posted by: Dan at September 4, 2004 4:05 PMRussia staged the collapse of communism.
The KGB organized all these so called "anti-communist revolutions" in Eastern Europe.
The "Chechen Mafia" leader Shamil Basayev is "former" Red Army paratrooper.
How is it possible that a hardened communist can become a Muslim practicaly overnight ?
I served in Czechoslovak communist Air Force [drafted] and we had paratroopers - special forces in our base.
They were elite soldiers and also committed communists, that means total atheists with only hate for God.
How is it possible that the "Chechen Mafia" hasn't targeted any Russian military or government installations or places BUT ONLY
the Russian citizens - civilians ?
How is it possible that the Russian security forces have killed all attackers without even considering to capture some of them and interrogate them to gain valuable info from them about their supporters and followers and bosses, about their weapons supply and so on ?
Russia claims to have a terrorism problem but those files of terrorists the communists in the Warsaw Pact countries have recruited and trained, including the recruitment and training of Mohammad Atta in the communist Czechoslovakia in 1988 in the terrorist training camp Zastavka near city of Brno [as I was told by former Czech intelligence officer Vladimir Hucin]- those files were never declassified and published by these so called [now] democratic and freedom loving Eastern European countries and Russia [led by KGB officer and communist criminal Vladimir Putin - his father served on the Red Army sub in a special commando unit of the GRU Russian military intelligence service].
Russia has converted Ruble into gold one month before 9/11.
I have more and more but people don't read and don't think, they just accept what communists want us to swallow - their propaganda and lies.
Russians will never be our friends and allies as long as the communist criminals are running the country.
The "changes" were merely cosmetic and were made for our western [naive] consumption.
Communists are able to kill their own including their children [peasant children that is]
in order to further their ultimate cause
World victory of communism.
The disguise they are using in case of [by them] controlled Islamic terrorism [Hamas, PLO, Al Qaeda and so on]
is to bring America into a bloody conflict and to destroy our military installation without possibility of any American retaliation against the real culprits - the Kremlin bosses.
They have built for themselves huge underground nuclear bunkers [20 estimated so far]
to survive the future nuclear war they have so thoroughly prepared against America.
If America retaliates against Russia, communists will have the much needed excuse to hit us with all they've got hidden in the Yamantau Mountain and other complexes like the Voronovo near Moscow.
Prepare for a war with communists because they have never collapsed and never will until we kill them all.
God Bless America.
Honza -- yes, I've seen similar scenarios suggested...on the Simpsons. Russia is hardly an ideal society, and I think it's too bad the country never addressed its communist past with truth commissions and trials, but I find it hard to understand how, precisely, the U.S. and Russia both fighting against Islamofascists would necessarily result in the destruction of the U.S. armed forces, or a nuclear attack by the U.S. on Russia or vice versa.
Regarding the larger point of the post itself, I've wondered for a while what the tipping point would be (and desperately hope it can be avoided). I'd much rather not see total war, but I also wonder whether anything else will suffice. Sometimes you actually do have to destroy the village to save it (see: Germany, Japan, 1930s-1945). Something worth pondering...
Posted by: Bill at September 4, 2004 8:28 PMActually it will take a lot less than total war to bring it to an end. Most of the young Muslims caught up in this thing today are in it for the glamor, even if they die in the process, and because they still believe the West is congenitally weak (which many Western governments, citizens and especially 'chattering class' members really are).
Once our mask comes off and they get a sight and a taste of how united and destructive we can be, jihad will suddenly become unfashionable.
The interesting question is just where and how we will eventually choose to unleash our demonstration of destructiveness. Far more likely in my view that Russia will nuke some Islamic center than that the US will. Putin may already be not much more than one new atrocity away from being ready to do this.
I guess he would choose not for example Chechnya but one of the Arab countries from which some identifiable terrorists either came or were said to have come. A relatively small and thinly-populated Arab country at that. Without too much oil. Linked for the sake of argument to Bin Laden. I'd be getting nervous listening to his speech if I was Yemen, for example.
Posted by: ZB at September 4, 2004 9:20 PMGerard, what you speak of in the end is encompassed in Wretchard's Three Conjecture's scenario. That day with two dawns is coming ever closer, and we may not be able to beat it.
Posted by: FH at September 4, 2004 9:40 PMGerard:
President Putin added:
"We followed the lead of France, and because of it we now mourn our murdered children."
I fear further torment for Mother Russia, and soon for Olde Europe. Feeding the crocodile won't work any longer.
--furious
Posted by: furious_a at September 5, 2004 1:14 AMZB:
I'm not sure how far the analogy travels, but Bushido sure fell out of fashion after Nagasaki.
--furious
Posted by: furious_a at September 5, 2004 1:18 AMfurious:
You have grasped my point.
Putin is not going to face any backlash in Russia either - his public will be increasingly desperate to hit back. He's just disposed of old Europe: "We followed the lead of France, and because of it we now mourn our murdered children." Russia is an oil exporter, so he doesn't have to worry about the impact on the oil price. He will now be thinking about whether he should strike before or after the US elections in November (immediately after, I would expect).
Posted by: ZB at September 5, 2004 2:13 AMFH-- Yes, I'm familiar with Belmont Clubs Three Conjectures but now I'm off to re read it.
Furious: Good observation about bushido. ""We followed the lead of France, and because of it we now mourn our murdered children.""
If you've got a link to a source for that quote I'd sure like to have it.
Posted by: Van der Leun at September 5, 2004 10:41 AMSuspect that Pankisi Gorge will be radioactive ash before Yemen. The timing will depend upon both domestic concerns and their opinion of which candidate will provide more cover and assistance to the Rodina. Look for Spetznaz and selective wet work inside Georgia. Putin must now decide what to do with Iran and other terrorist sponsors. Hard times force hard people to make hard choices!
Posted by: edwardv at September 5, 2004 7:59 PMI'm trying to find Putin's "we followed the lead of France" comment, but I haven't been able to locate it yet in the available transcripts. Where did you originally find it?
Posted by: Joe at September 6, 2004 4:15 PMI wonder whether you are right, or if Russia will just try to forget about all this and hope it goes away.
The Foreign Minister happened to be in Israel during the attack, and Israel tried to use the circumstances to foster some change in Russian geopolitical policy, ie, to start taking the US-led war on terror seriously and consistently (something it took a while for Bush himself to finally get to, as Norman Podhoretz relates).
But as the Russian FM was leaving, he was careful to state that nothing has really changed, that it views its old allies, such as Syria, not as sponsors and harborers of terror, but co-fighters against it.
Like France, Russia seems to think that relative weakness is an excuse for a non-cogent geopolitical policy.
So although your talk of the return of the Alliance gave me chills, I wonder if Russia is just too much of a basketcase to be much of an ally.
[Hey, your comments program erased the two links. Well, here they are:
http://commentarymagazine.com/article.asp?aid=11802019_1
Posted by: Adam Khan at September 6, 2004 8:35 PM"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated to combat spam and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.