Putin Gets It and We Don’t

By David Goldman, PJ MEDIA

Middle East politics amounts to managing the decline of a failed culture. Nothing expresses Arab failure more vividly than Egypt, a banana republic without the bananas, now living on a $14 billion or so annual subsidy from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States. With 70% of its population living in agricultural areas, it imports half its food, and would starve if not for the Saudi check. ‘

Egypt is beyond the point of no return economically, and American foreign policy is beyond the point of no return intellectually. Americans of both parties–Obama and Kerry on one side, and Sens. McCain and Graham along with the Weekly Standard on the other–believed that by waving the magic wand of democracy over this cataclysmically failed state, all would be well. I characterized this consensus as “Dumb and Dumber” earlier this year.

The outcome, of course, is that Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov turned up in Cairo this week to hear his Egyptian counterpart declare that America’s erstwhile Arab ally wants to restore Russian-Egyptian relations to their level during the Soviet era–when Egypt was an enemy. As the Jerusalem Post summed up the mess:

The more persistent the denials, the clearer it is that a marked shift is taking place in international ties that until recently bound the world’s single superpower with the most populous Arab state. The Russian ministerial visits were preceded by a visit by the chief of Russian intelligence and by Russian naval vessels.

More important, the visits by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu involve a major sale to Egypt of sophisticated Russian military hardware – clearly a counter move to the American halting of weapons supplies.

The Egyptians are essentially saying that they can shop elsewhere and not have to shell out cash. According to reliable reports, another exasperated American ally, Saudi Arabia, is footing the bill for this transaction to the tune of $4b. The Russians may receive additional compensation in the form of access for their navy to port facilities on the Mediterranean.

Like it or not, this smacks of a return – if not fully in substance then at least in appearance – to the days of the Cold War when Egypt enjoyed unstinting Soviet support, enabling Moscow and Cairo to thumb their noses at Washington.

Vladimir Putin gets it, and we don’t. He backs the Assad regime in Syria against Saudi-supported rebels. He is cracking down ruthlessly on Muslim terrorists in the Russian Caucasus, using Stalin-era forms of collective punishment. Nonetheless Riyadh is footing a $4 billion bill for Egypt to buy Russian arms.

The Saudi monarchy is fighting for survival, against Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood organized on the model of 20th-century totalitarian parties, and against Iran. Iran is fighting for survival; after its fertility rate fell from 7 children per female in 1979 to just 1.7 today, today’s youth bulge will turn into an unsupportable elderly dependent ratio. Egypt is fighting to pay the grocer’s bill every day. It is not within America’s or anyone’s power to reverse this decline. Putin understands this and exploits their struggle for survival. I have advocated a Richelovian foreign policy on behalf of American interests; now we watch helplessly as Russia pursues such a policy in its own interest. Fair is fair: Putin has more brains and insight than anyone in the American foreign policy establishment, and he is winning by laps rather than lengths. I have no objection to the ritual denunciations of Russia in the conservative media, but a bit of reflection on why Russia runs circles around us might also be in order.

Last month I heard George W. Bush address a large Jewish gathering. He complained about the growing isolationist mood in America. Does it occur to him, or to the punditeska that egged on his “freedom agenda,” that the source of isolationism is the utter failure of our utopian efforts in the Middle East and revulsion at their human and economic costs?

November 15, 2013 | 12 Comments »
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12 Comments / 12 Comments

  1. yamit82 Said:

    it used to be one of my favorite poems as well

    Strikes to close to home now?? As for the Chinese troops, I’ve heard that one for years, I lisren to “Coast to Coast” at night. You can recieve it on Sirius radio.

  2. Considering the significant economic difficulties of the West, it is clear that most of the Muslim world (and their culture) is a recipe for CATASTROPHE. No need to blame IL.

  4. @ yamit82:
    We have gone so overboard with this anti-bullying hysteria. I’m sure whatever took place with the Miami Dolphins has always gone on in NFL locker rooms. Its not bullying since these guys are mostly equal in size and strength. And if it was verbal abuse, so what? Get over it. There’s a story out about a college football player whining that his coach is “bullying” him with verbal and physical “abuse”. And hitting coach of the Miami Marlins, Tino Martinez, had to resign because his players were whining he “abused” them. American men are being turned into wussies, even big and strong athletes. These situations have always gone on in sports. Its only now that it has become controversial in our current hypersensitive society and victim culture.

  6. @ yamit82:

    I wrote a post to Pam Geller’s article about Jews being injured by NYC street gangs. Do you get her, Honeybee is advising Jews to stop being a victums and to exercise their 2nd admdnment rights.

  10. Bullies Rampant In Obama’s America
    So let me get this straight. The lead story on last Friday’s NBC Today show wasn’t the usual stuff about promoting Barack Obama’s left wing agenda as you might expect.

    Or maybe, in an indirect way, it was.

    It seems that a 6-4, 320 pound NFL tackle making $390,000 a year who allegedly was educated at Stanford named Jonathan Martin left the Miami Dolphins, hired a lawyer, and threatened to file a lawsuit because his fellow lineman, Richie Incognito, BULLIED him.

    And NBC (along with the rest of the media) is taking this nonsense seriously.

    That sound you hear is Curt Gowdy turning over in his grave.

  12. What is Obama really up to? How much is diversion and detraction?

    Where is the American and European Media?

    WATCH Chinese Troops on American Soil

    The Communist People’s Republic of China was invited take part in a massive drill dubbed GridExII that took place on November 12-14, 2013. The drill simulated the detonation of a massive nuclear warhead high above the skies of the United States, creating a giant EMP—Electro Magnetic Pulse—that took out the U.S. electrical grid, communications, banking services, and all computers, simulating a helpless America completely dependent on its all-wise government.

    According to declassified (but heavily redacted) intelligence documents released in 2011, the Chinese were reportedly working on a “Super Electromagnet Pulse Bomb.”

    China is gearing up for war against the United States, and their top weapon is a super electromagnetic pulse bomb that can blanket the U.S. and send America back to the Dark Ages in less than one second.

    And no doubt the Chinese have perfected this EMP bomb by now.

    So exactly why the Chinese are involved in a drill of this nature is unclear. The only logical explanation, as crazy as it sounds, is that the Department of Homeland Security—Obama’s “Civilian National Security Force” (the entity overseeing this drill)—is secretly working with the Communist Chinese government!

    Which is not surprising, given that Barack Hussein Obama has long been suspected of being an ardent Marxist.

    Read more at http://www.westernjournalism.com/chinese-troops-american-soil/#F1DM55UgI88muPhd.99