I tip my hat, with a grimace, to Vladimir Putin. He’s nurtured and perhaps orchestrated a wildly successful campaign to destabilize the western democracies. The connections between Russia, Nigel Farange, WikiLeaks and Trump are the outline of a plan in plain sight.
I doubt Putin believed Trump would win. He probably overestimated the electorate like many of us did. But even with a Trump loss Putin would have succeeded in weakening Clinton. The republicans were going to ride that private email server BS to impeachment and we all know it. Could they win in the senate? Maybe not. Doesn’t really matter.
So… well done, Vladimir. You’ve managed to split the UK off the main herd, and help along a new US president who gutted the State Department. You know, where all of the people are who know who Putin really is. This was a marvelous ratf***ing.
What did we ever do to deserve this?
(OK… time to get real. When you read that last sentence you likely thought of a thing or two we’ve done. The Philippine occupation, overthrowing a democratically elected President of Iran in the 50s, shameful interventions in Central and South America… we’ve done our share of ratf***ing. And maybe it was all necessary for reasons that I cannot fathom, but necessary or evil — those things happened. Still, I think there might be a more direct answer.)
The central character in this Russian novel is Putin. If you’re reading this you probably don’t need his bio. He’s a thuggish KGB agent who will murder and scheme in pursuit of power. This story begins in 2007 as the dead-man-walking Bush administration pushed former Warsaw Pact member Ukraine to join NATO. By the end of the year Putin was very clear — Ukraine could not be part of NATO.
Here’s a thought experiment: If the Soviet Bloc had prevailed over the west and neutered NATO, how would the US respond if subsequently the Soviets pushed to have Mexico join the Warsaw Pact? Would the leader of the US simply let it stand?
We don’t know what that fictional US President would do, but we saw what Putin did. He waited until after the Sochi Olympics to seize Crimea and begin an armed resistance against the US backed government of Ukraine. By now, Obama was in office and Clinton was Secretary of State. Clinton was the face of US resistance to Putin’s aggression. I’ve heard she’s tough.
Given a chance to weaken a known enemy such as Clinton, an old KGB agent knows what to do. All it takes are hackers, paid social media “participants” and twitterbots. Weaken her now, maybe bring her down later, but either way she’s less of a problem for Putin.
Now there’s no problem for Putin at all. Trump won’t stop and might even facilitate the usurpation of Ukraine by Putin. Ukraine will not be part of NATO. NATO troops won’t be stationed at the Russian border. This was an unambiguous success for Putin. If the story ended here, that is. On which side of the denouement are we? How long is the story arc?
I would like to believe vigilant heroes in the US government will expose the systemic weaknesses and opportunistic villains of the story. I would like to believe steps would be taken to correct whatever deficiencies are found and prosecute the guilty. And I would also like everyone to remember that much of this started when we tried to put NATO at Russia’s border.
Is that the most likely ending?
(Time to get real again… when you read that last sentence you thought “no”.)
Most injuries heal up. Some cause us to limp for the rest of our lives. Putin, by assisting in the election of Trump, has wounded us. As we have wounded others, it must be said. How long will it take to heal? Will Trump cripple us as a nation, leaving a metaphorical limp long after he’s gone? Is fascism out of the bag?
I’m not sure I like this Russian novel.
