#6477 #6478
#8 - JRL 6476
Date: Sun, 06 Oct 2002
From: "Stanislav Menshikov" <menchikov0@lycos.com>
Subject: re Hahn/6471
Reading Mr. Hahn’s comment on my latest column reminded me of the unhumorly and didactic style characteristic of Communist newspaper editorials under the old Soviet Union. “Spreading freedom and democracy” is a phrase used by most countries with a claim to world leadership and the divine right to export their particular model of whatever they wish to call it to other nations.
In a preceding column, I mockingly compared the Bush doctrine with the Brezhnev one. And also tried to explain that freedom and democracy are products of domestic development, not imports from outside. The space of my column does not permit me to repeat this A, B, C every time. The gist of my argument is that the US has no special right to export its model any more than Stalin had the right to impose communism on other nations, or Colonial power their civilization on “backward natives”. The outcome of these attempts throughout history has always been disastrous for nations who tried to prod others into their ways of life and belief.
Hahn seems to believe that non-military means of prodding “regime change” in some cases are preferable to military ones. For affecting such change in Iraq military intervention is all right (at least before that country has the means to defend itself). For “weak” Russia with its nuclear potential, economic sanctions seem to be sufficient. To quote Hahn, “In Russia's weakened condition, economic containment, if necessary, will be a sufficient tool for pushing any hostile regime out of the Kremlin. The method can be demonstrated if, as is unlikely, that Russia decides to exercise its UN veto or otherwise seeks to thwart US efforts to remove Sadaam from power”.
Do I detect a threat here, or am I dreaming? Pushing a regime out of the Kremlin in retaliation for vetoing a UN resolution is a very concrete illustration of what I had in mind when I said the new US doctrine gave me the creeps. I myself may not like Mr. Putin or other guys around the Kremlin, but pushing them out of power is certainly none of America’s business.
As Hahn explains, this will be just for starters. What follows is also illuminating: “Any new Iraqi regime will be "encouraged" to reneg on its debt to, and contracts with Russia. The oil barons can say bye-bye to $40 billion in contracts they and others have in the works. That would only be the start. Many other countries can be so encouraged as well”.
Readers of the JRL should be thankful to Adjunct Professor Hahn for supplementing Ms. Rice’s and Mr. McFaul’s arguments in such a helpful way.
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