Tom Luongo nails the essential truth about Russia

 

Amidst all the fuss and bother over Tucker Carlson's interview with President Putin of Russia last week, the essential element appears to have been overlooked - possibly deliberately - by many commenters.  Tom Luongo puts his finger on the pulse of the matter.

Putin did present his version of history, of the truth. Shouldn’t we expect that?

But, as I’ve painstakingly laid out here, much like Putin himself, focusing on that is focusing on the wrong thing. It’s the wrong framework to view this interview given the current stakes of this conflict.

And this is what everyone missed about this interview. It literally does not matter one whit whose is right and who is wrong here. Putin’s version of history isn’t what’s at stake here.

. . .

What does matter is that is how Putin views this conflict. And we have to deal with it. Period.

. . .

This conflict between the West, and this includes all of Europe, the UK as well as the US, and Russia is one with existential consequences.

What Putin said, quite clearly, is that this ball is in our court. We can either sit down and have an honest discussion of a negotiated future or we will be at war. If that is what we in the West want, it is what we will get. Putin has put his sons on the line in eastern Ukraine. Are we?

You can dig in on being right or we can have peace. But, we cannot have both.

The Victoria Nulands and the Ursula Von Der Leyens of this world represent people who refuse to accept that Russia and/or China are not systems, but rather civilizations. They aren’t the current bogeyman 'ism' du jour, like Communism or authoritarianism, they are a people, a culture, an ethnos. The 'ism' is just the thing they’ve adopted now to help them preserve those things inherently Russian or Chinese.

Our leaders are this way because they don’t believe in those things for us no less anyone else. And they spend all their time trying to convince us that that is what divides us. But it isn’t. It’s simply their greed, their emptiness.

Because of this they lack any sense that these civilizations 1) have any right to exist and 2) deserve any empathy. So, logically, none of Russia’s demands are valid.

Putin put how he feels about history on the table. He’s angry about it. The West keeps saying, “Your version of history is wrong. So you have no right to be angry.”

Have you ever had an argument with someone important to you and they did this to you? I’ve done it and had it done to me. In my experience the argument doesn’t get resolved. It escalates.

And it escalates, eventually, even if it goes on for a long time, say, in a marriage, to the point of estrangement if not outright hatred. If you want to repair the relationship in some way then you have to lead with, “Okay, I hear you.”

Then you have to learn how to mean it.

That’s where we are today. The Russians are done with our leadership. We use diplomacy as a basis for betrayal, not as the foundation of a future.

They see us as a failing empire, a failing civilization on the long historical time line, because we have embraced cynicism and allowed the rapacious and the perverse to run our world.

This is why there is no basis for diplomacy at the head of state level. This is an argument between two people one of whom wants nothing to do with the other (The West) while the other one is insisting that no matter what the other does, they will survive (Russia).

Rock, meet Hard Place…. choose between chisels or sledgehammers.

. . .

If you want peace, deal with the facts of this war by acknowledging the feelings of the people on the other side of it while truly examining your own.

There's more at the link.

We've discussed the years between the breakup of the Soviet Union and the outbreak of the Ukraine war on more than one occasion in these pages.  It's very clear that Russia, under Putin, has never ceased to regard the demise of the Soviet Union as nothing less than a disaster.  Putin has been trying to undo that "mistake" ever since he gained power.

Peter Ziehan has some interesting material on Russia's geopolitical maneuvering to regain its position.  A couple of years ago he gave this address at the US Army's Maneuver Warfighter Conference.  We've seen it here before, but if you missed that, you should really take the time to watch it now;  it's still relevant despite the passage of time.  I've set it to start at (and stop after) the part of his talk addressing Russia's situation, but if you can take the time to watch the entire video, I recommend it.

President Putin is undoubtedly aware of those realities, and they're why he can't stop or pull back now.  If he does, his country must and will lose its position as a major power, because it will no longer be able to compete with the West on the world stage.  If he loses now, he loses forever - and that may include his own life, because his people will be unlikely to forgive him, and Russia has a tradition of dealing with failure in a somewhat terminal fashion.  Don't expect him to back down.

The late Robert Heinlein famously said:

What are the facts? Again and again and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” – what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!

In that light, allow me to highlight the key takeaway - the key fact - from Tom Luongo's article:

It literally does not matter one whit who is right and who is wrong here. Putin’s version of history isn’t what’s at stake here ... What does matter is ... how Putin views this conflict. And we have to deal with it. Period.

The mainstream media and our politicians are completely ignoring that fact, that reality.  They seem to think that if they brand Putin a liar, they can ignore his views and impose their own on Russia and the Ukraine war.  So far, the facts of the situation there are the diametric opposite of such false optimism;  and unless and until the USA and our leaders face the facts, and prioritize dealing with them, they (and we) can't and won't succeed.

We also have to acknowledge, and deal with, the undoubted and undeniable facts of the United States' meddling in Ukraine (to include downright dishonesty domestically and internationally, toppling governments and rampant corruption).  So far, nobody here appears willing to admit that those factors are at least as much to blame for the Ukraine imbroglio as Russian interference - but they are, and Putin knows it.  If our country lies to and about Russia, and ignores facts and reality, why are we surprised to find Russia and Putin doing unto us as we're doing unto them?

Peter