#5
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
March 14, 2002
THE LOT OF THE DEFEATED
The United States no longer takes a weak Russia into account
Author: Mikhail Khodarenok
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

DESPITE ALL THE TRADITIONALLY FRIENDLY RHETORIC, THE WHITE HOUSE UTTERLY DISREGARDS THE KREMLIN AS A FACTOR. THE EXPLANATION IS SIMPLE AND WELL-KNOWN: THE OUTCOME OF THE COLD WAR. IT ENDED ON DECEMBER 13, 2001, WHEN PRESIDENT BUSH ANNOUNCED AMERICA'S WITHDRAWAL FROM THE ABM TREATY.

Russia has lost its military strength - so it no longer counts

The tone of Russia's relations with the United States has noticeably changed. Washington's moves in the international arena do not take Moscow's opinion into account (or almost do not). Observers are under the impression that despite all the traditionally friendly rhetoric, the White House utterly disregards the Kremlin as a factor. The explanation is simple and well-known: the outcome of the Cold War.

The explanation is fairly logical, but the question remains open: exactly when all the details were finalized in the 55-year confrontation between the East and the West. If we define this moment precisely, much of what has been happening nowadays becomes more understandable.

Over the past few years, Russians have been persistently brainwashed into thinking that all wars end in negotiations and eventually in peace. The leader of one Russian political party recently even interpreted as peace talks what happened on the Berlin outskirts on May 8, 1945. This is where another false assumption is rooted, an assumption which is a logical corollary of the first - that "there can be no military solution to a problem". Any specialist acquainted with the fundamentals of military strategy knows all too well that there can be no military solution to a problem only when the political objectives of the war were not defined correctly in the first place.

In fact, wars end in victory for one side and defeat for the other. Human history shows that there can be no "draws" in armed confrontations, whether "cold" or otherwise, between nations and military coalitions. Even situations in military conflicts that appear to offer no way out at first sight actually mean someone's unconditional victory. As for the defeats, they are so shattering sometimes that the feeling of shame weighs down the mentality of the nation for centuries to come.

The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States began on March 5, 1946. The confrontation, spanning more than half a century, was initiated by Winston Churchill in Fultown, where he demanded the establishment of a British-American alliance for a resolute war on communism. And when did the Cold War end? Some observers say that it ended with the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991. But collapse of the empire caught the White House unprepared. It had not been predicted. Hence the advances the Clinton Administration made to leaders of post-Soviet Russia. Most probably, disintegration of the Soviet Union was ringed the bell for the last round of the confrontation.

The moment of truth came when the White House became finally convinced that the Russian bear had quietly passed away thanks to collapse of the Soviet empire and reckless reforms. This is a fact that cannot be disputed anymore - the Russian Armed Forces are not an organized force able to match on equal terms armies of industrially- advanced states in a conventional conflict for any more or less lengthy period. Russia does not have a modern combat ready military organization, it is as simple as that. What counts, however, is that Washington now knows - there can be no situation, not even hypothetical, when Moscow with its dependance on the West will use nuclear weapons against the United States or its allies. The half- century threat of nuclear apocalypse is history.

The date when the Cold War ended can be determined exactly: December 13, 2001. This was the day President George W. Bush announced America's withdrawal from the 1972 ABM treaty. It was difficult to see three months ago that December 13 could be the day when the confrontation ended, but the nature of the White House's ensuing steps makes it absolutely clear that this is precisely the day when Moscow lost the Cold War.

No one has been taking Russia into account since Bush's announcement, not in any sphere of relations. Even the latest Olympic Games confirm this assumption. It is not another round of confrontation in the spirit of the Cold War (or Cold Peace). It is an entirely different nature of relations between Russia and the United States. This is how one behaves only with regard to a loser who will not be able to put up any adequate resistance in the foreseeable future. Even in the negotiations over reduction of offensive nuclear arms, Washington ceased to heed Moscow. It informed the former enemy of the number of warheads it meant to retain - and that was that. Vae Victis! Woe to the defeated! History does not teach us anything else.

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