tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post4305425034830030923..comments2024-03-22T05:20:44.167-07:00Comments on The Disaffected Lib: When Confidence FailsThe Mound of Soundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-12363848310014347272014-08-14T17:25:32.234-07:002014-08-14T17:25:32.234-07:00Absolutely, Troy. The West missed plenty of oppor...Absolutely, Troy. The West missed plenty of opportunities to forge a stable and lasting relationship with Russia on the collapse of the USSR. <br /><br />I worried at the time that Russia might transition to a capitalist state too quickly creating winners, the oligarchs, and losers, the Russian people. Capitalism should have been eased in first and then the country should have progressed gradually to liberal democracy by first entrenching the rule of law accompanied by the introduction of real rights and freedoms both protecting individuals and restraining state power and only then should the country have been organized to support democracy. There was really no time to set up parties with membership-driven platforms to present choice to the electorate. <br /><br />We greeted the emergence of the new Russia with Cold War triumphalism. Any doubts about our own flawed apparatus were submerged in the triumph of the West over the East. We almost treated Eastern Europe as spoils of victory as we ushered these countries into the EU and NATO without regard to whether some of them were ready to shoulder those responsibilities. <br /><br />Our descent into neoliberal authoritarianism has produced a class of leaders bereft of statesmanship who default to militarized foreign policy in lieu of meaningful diplomacy. This is particularly true of the U.S. where the threat or use of military force is often seen as the principle instrument of foreign policy. In the process our democracy becomes steadily more illiberal. All of these trends heighten the risk of inadvertent war. The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-22723929377371857852014-08-14T13:11:39.464-07:002014-08-14T13:11:39.464-07:00For almost twenty years, the West had all a huge o...For almost twenty years, the West had all a huge opportunity to reconcile with Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.<br />However, it is all probably moot, now. The West has been continually disrupting Russian allies, as well as forcing NATO right to Russia's doorstep.<br />If we're lucky, NATO doesn't stumble into war with Russia before the Winter.Troyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10759047914577194212noreply@blogger.com