Yes, and the way the Russian situation was handled by Bush was a direct contribution to what we see today.
The longer I live, the more the world’s situation today looks like the fall of Rome at 2x speed—no one thing caused it. It’s just a sand castle being washed out to sea by the tide.
But still, fuck Reagan and all the bastards that hastened it.
This is probably a flowery view of things, and I’m certainly not a fan of Bush Sr., but I heard an interesting take on the Bush “New World Order” speech where it was presented as Bush trying to have a conversation with the American people about staying deeply involved in Russian affairs to guide them closely to a proper democratic system. That perspective goes on to state that the American people simply weren’t interested, likely fatigued by the Cold War and not wanting to be involved so heavily in international affairs.
It’s a very simplistic, reductive take considering all of the variables and nuance required to take an honest look as US-Russia relations, but I think it’s interesting to consider nonetheless.
After that they got Yeltsin who was “pro-West” and we decided on a more hands-off level of involvement hoping free market economics would lead them to liberal democracy. What we got, instead, was massive corruption, cronyism, and nepotism from Yeltsin that led to the post-Soviet economic and social collapse. Im under the impression that Russian people blamed “the West” and Yeltsin tapped Putin because Putin wouldn’t prosecute him for his corruption.
I could be wrong, I’m no scholar on Russia-US relations, but this is essentially what I’ve gathered from reading stuff over the years. I think some of the PBS Frontline documentaries that cover Russia and Putin actually touch on some of this stuff, too
Yes, and the way the Russian situation was handled by Bush was a direct contribution to what we see today.
The longer I live, the more the world’s situation today looks like the fall of Rome at 2x speed—no one thing caused it. It’s just a sand castle being washed out to sea by the tide.
But still, fuck Reagan and all the bastards that hastened it.
This is probably a flowery view of things, and I’m certainly not a fan of Bush Sr., but I heard an interesting take on the Bush “New World Order” speech where it was presented as Bush trying to have a conversation with the American people about staying deeply involved in Russian affairs to guide them closely to a proper democratic system. That perspective goes on to state that the American people simply weren’t interested, likely fatigued by the Cold War and not wanting to be involved so heavily in international affairs.
It’s a very simplistic, reductive take considering all of the variables and nuance required to take an honest look as US-Russia relations, but I think it’s interesting to consider nonetheless.
After that they got Yeltsin who was “pro-West” and we decided on a more hands-off level of involvement hoping free market economics would lead them to liberal democracy. What we got, instead, was massive corruption, cronyism, and nepotism from Yeltsin that led to the post-Soviet economic and social collapse. Im under the impression that Russian people blamed “the West” and Yeltsin tapped Putin because Putin wouldn’t prosecute him for his corruption.
I could be wrong, I’m no scholar on Russia-US relations, but this is essentially what I’ve gathered from reading stuff over the years. I think some of the PBS Frontline documentaries that cover Russia and Putin actually touch on some of this stuff, too