Today Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post hits on the classic maxim of modern geopolitics – when in doubt, blame the Americans. Rosa Brooks provides a prime example to prove Hiatt’s point, but then again, maxims wouldn’t exist if they weren’t right at least once in a while.
This narrative of American provocation cites a long list of grievances, but the principal and original sin is NATO expansion. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States encouraged the newly free nations of Central and Eastern Europe to join a military alliance whose founding purpose had been containment of the U.S.S.R. Russia hated the idea from the start, and the United States should have known that Moscow, once it recovered its strength, would exact retribution.
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Conveniently missing from this “provocation” propaganda line is the fact that NATO has offered Russia an honorary seat at its conferences for consultation, and admitted Russia into the G-8 (even allowing it to host).Both these shows of respect are now subject to being revoked because of Russia’s outrageous aggression in Georgia.Both are routinely ignored when Russian propagandists talk about “provocation.” Which is why, now, Russia finds itself utterly alone in the world, tilting at windmills and looking like a clown.
Actually they can count on the support of Alexander Lukashenko, Hugo Chavez, and Gerhard Schroeder – bastions of international credibility.