Putin is Not a Russian

Vladimir Putin is not a Russian. He is a Soviet. His recent actions prove what many of us have been saying for a long time: Putin wants to reestablish the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the USSR). Anyone who disputes that has his head in the sand.
 
On our morning walk this week my daughter Sarah asked me what the “Cold War” was. I explained that it was a sustained state of aggression minus the actual shooting. I told her how the two great world powers of that time, the US and the USSR had huge quantities of nuclear missiles aimed at one another and at our respective allies.
 
I told her about MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction. This was the doctrine that explained why we were supposedly safe with all those missiles aimed at us. The idea was that since we had enough missiles between our two nations to annihilate the entire world several times over, only a madman would launch the first missile. To do so would assure that the US, the USSR and the rest of the world will be destroyed.
 
The problem with that doctrine was that there was no shortage of madmen in the Soviet Union, and we knew it. So when I was a boy our schools conducted nuclear safety drills. Since Sarah knows the destructive power of a nuclear bomb, she was amused when I told her that our teachers had us hide under our desks for protection. I'm pretty sure most of the kids knew that the desks would not be a great help, but if it made our teachers feel better…
 
Before we delve into Putin’s twisted psyche, let’s do a brief review of the Soviet Union.
 
The “Union” of Soviet Socialist Republics. It sounds sort of like the “United” States. It implies that the Republics voluntarily joined the “Union.” It also implies that all the Republics were “Socialist” when they became part of the Union. Neither of these assumptions is true.
 
This is the Hall of Shame of the USSR. Most of the “members” were forced either through conquest, economic pressure or sheer intimidation to become part of the Union.

(NOTE: In the list below, SFSR meant Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. As the founder and aggressor of the USSR, this was Russia's designation. The designation of the other republics was SSR - Soviet Socialist Republics.)

• Russian SFSR (since 1922).  Today known as Russia
• Ukrainian SSR (since 1922). Today known as Ukraine
• Uzbek SSR (since 1924). Today known as Uzbekistan
• Kazakh SSR (since 1936). Today known as Kazakhstan
• Belorussian SSR (since 1922). Today known as Belarus
• Azerbaijan SSR (since 1936). Today known as Azerbaijan
• Georgian SSR (since 1936). Today known as Georgia
• Tajik SSR (since 1929). Today known as Tajikistan
• Modovian SSR (since 1940). Today known as Moldova
• Kirghiz SSR (since 1935). Today known as Kyrgyzstan
• Lithuanian SSR (since 1940). Today known as Lithuania
• Turkmen SSR (since 1924). Today know as Turkmenistan
• Armenian SSR (since 1936). Today known as Armenia
• Latvian SSR (since 1940). Today known as Latvia
• Estonian SSR (since 1940).  Today known as Estonia.

This is a sampling of the methods Russia used to force other nations into the USSR:
 
In the late 19^th century Russian forces overran the Turkmen and Uzbek Republics, which until then had been staunchly independent. Due to failed Russian economic and agricultural policies in the 1920’s, over a million Turkmen died of starvation. Around the same time the Uzbeks mounted a rebellion against Russian rule, which was brutally crushed. Promises of peace forced both nations to agree to join the USSR in 1924.

In 1939 the Russian-Finnish war began. It ended with Fin­land losing a large amount of its ter­ri­tory to the USSR. Today, this area is the Russ­ian repub­lic of Karelia.

In 1940 the Soviets invaded and occupied the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). They forcibly annexed them as Soviet republics. This forced occupation continued until August 1991, when the Baltic States regained their independence.

In 1968 Soviet troops invaded Czecho­slo­va­kia to halt that nation’s trend towards democracy. The Brezh­nev Doctrine was articulated and used to justify this aggression. This gave Com­mu­nist coun­tries the “right” to invade other Com­mu­nist nations if it was perceived that their actions were a threat to the inter­na­tional Com­mu­nist movement.

This is Vladimir Putin’s spiritual heritage. From his public statements he firmly believes that the worst tragedy of the last century was the breakup of the Soviet Union. And he is deeply committed to the reestablishment of that evil empire.
 
In his 2005 state of the nation address Putin proclaimed, “Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the major geopolitical catastrophe of the century. As for the Russian nation, it became a genuine trauma. Tens of millions of our co-citizens and co-patriots found themselves outside Russian territory. Moreover, the epidemic of disintegration infected Russia itself.” These are not the words of a man who is willing to sit back and run a piece of a former empire.
 
When he graduated from college in 1975 with a bachelor’s degree in Evil, Putin became an officer of the infamous secret police of Russia, the KGB. In KGB School Number 1 in Moscow he got his Master’s in Evil. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 he retired as a KGB Colonel and dabbled in politics until 1998, when he was appointed head of Federal Security, an arm of the former KGB.
 
In 1999 Boris Yeltsin appointed Putin acting President of Russia until official elections were held in 2000. After serving the maximum of two four-year terms he put his protégé Dmitry Medvedev in office. Medvedev promptly named him Prime Minister, from which post he pulled Medvedev’s puppet strings until he took back the office of President in 2012.
 
The corruption of the Russian political system has allowed Putin to function as a dictator with constitutional trappings since 2000. His elections and that of Medvedev have been shams, the conclusions well-known before the “votes.”  He acquiesced with the term limits because he knew he could put in his puppet to keep the seat warm for him for four years. But during that time he engineered a change from four year to six year terms for President. So he will be President/Dictator until 2024 – unless he changes the law again. This will give him plenty of time to realize his dream.
 
Putin, at $70 Billion net worth, is the third richest man in the world. So he’s not in the dictatorship business for the money. He really believes that the destiny of the Soviet Union is to rule not just the former territories, but the entire world. Like all megalomaniacs he is quite certain that everything he does, however evil, is right because it is his destiny to rule.
 
After Putin’s speech bemoaning the collapse of the Soviet Union, many US Liberals – including Obama – claimed that he did not have plans to reinvent the USSR. Last March’s forcible takeover of Crimea and the murder of Ukrainian nationals proved how shortsighted – and how foolishly trusting of a fellow Socialist – they were. Last week’s revelations by the Pentagon that Russia is not just supporting Russian Ukrainian separatists, but is actually shelling Ukrainian troops from within Russia, underscores Putin’s objectives.
 
The jury is still out on whether Russia was directly involved in the shooting down of Malaysian Flight MH17 and the deaths of 298 souls on board. Audio tapes of radio communications between the Russians in Ukraine and what appears to be a Russian Colonel in Russia detail the moment when they realized that they had shot down a passenger plane rather than the military aircraft they planned to kill. If Russia was involved, then Putin is guilty of murder – again.
 
What is not in question is the fact that the Russians provided the sophisticated missile hardware that shot down the passenger airliner. The separatists only had small shoulder-fired weapons that could never have reached a plane at over 30,000 feet. Not only did Russia supply the missile launcher, they either had to train the operators (which would take months) or – more likely - they supplied the Russian military personnel who did the actual shoot-down.
 
The audio tape shows that the murders had an “Oh #*@!” moment when they realized that hundreds of bodies were falling out of the sky. Very soon after that the missile launcher was seen (both from the sky and the ground) high-tailing it back over the Russian border. And armed Russians in Ukraine refused to let anyone examine the crash site until they removed as much evidence of Russian participation as possible.
 
Don’t let the Liberal news media fool you into thinking this is some local dispute between Russia and the Ukraine. This is the beginning of a very serious attempt to create “USSR – The Sequel.” If Ronald Reagan, George Bush or even Bill Clinton had been in the White House when this started, it would have ended almost immediately. In fact, I doubt that Putin would have even made the first move.
 
But we have a weakling in the White House today, to America’s ever-lasting shame. Not only has he made good on his campaign promise to cut America’s military in half, but also in his first comments on Putin’s aggression he made sure to promise this evil man that a military response was “off the table.”
 
When I went through my training to be a Deputy Sheriff I was told to never give up my weapon in a hostage situation. The first thing the bad guy always says is, “Put down your weapon or I’ll kill the hostage.” The best way to make sure he kills the hostage and the officer is to comply.
 
Obama didn’t even wait for the bad guy to tell him to drop his weapon. He threw it down. Then he used “diplomacy” and “sanctions” to try to fix the situation. How’s that working for you, Obama? After your first round of sanctions Putin shot down an airliner. Then you announced more sanctions. Now he’s firing missiles from Russian territory directly into Ukraine.
 
Economic sanctions are like telling the hostage taker that if he doesn’t drop his gun you’re going to increase his taxes. If he shoots the hostage, you’re going to cut off his credit cards.
 
I’m not saying that we should rush into Ukraine with guns blazing. But it was stupid of Obama to promise not to do so as his first negotiating gambit. Bullies like Putin only understand one thing – strength. And we’re not projecting strength today. Putin thinks of us as sissies.
 
Obama betrayed our nation when he cut our military to pre-WWII levels. This includes manpower, ships and aircraft. The world population has increased by 300% since World War II. The number of evil people seems to have increased by 1,000%. Is this the time to emasculate the greatest military the world has ever known?
 
OK, I realize that we have better technology now and that can make up for some of the lack of manpower and weaponry. But Russia has great technology, too. And the terrorists are getting technology from Russia and China.
 
But whatever strength we have left is useless if our leader tells the world that we won’t use it. A recent Time Magazine warned of a new Cold War. We are fools if we allow this amateur to put this nation and the world back into that kind of danger.  
 
This is your wake-up call. Next November 4 we can put enough Conservatives in both Houses of Congress to start to undo the damage Obama has done to the country he swore to protect. We can put enough good people in office to override his veto. We can start to clean up his mess until we can elect a president who actually loves America.
 
 
INTERNET RESEARCH:

FORBES: Why Putin Shot Down MH-17
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2014/07/26/why-putin-shot-down-mh-17/
 
The Joys of Mutually Assured Destruction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction

In Cold War Echo, Obama Strategy Writes Off Putin
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/world/europe/in-cold-war-echo-obama-strategy-writes-off-putin.html?_r=0