Posted on 01/09/2010 2:55:00 PM PST by WesternCulture
When I grew up, the Soviet Union was considered a super power.
Today it doesn't even exist.
Isn't it amazing how rapidly the images of national power can shift?
I'm Swedish and know a little about fighting Russia. My family and our ancestors have done so for centuries.
We have been shot at, raided, ambushed etc. But never intimidated from defending Nordic freedom.
I'm no hero. Several of my ancestors were though and the least I can do in order to honor them is to stand up for what eternally is true and right, help build my own country and support the allies of my nation, among them the rest of Western Europe and the United States of America.
By today, it is I who sit here enjoying an expensive Italian wine on a Saturday evening (nota bene, I'm poor by Swedish standards, like I use to point out on this site) while the average Russian lives like people did in my part of the world during the days of the Great Depression.
Is it even possible to build a super power on the backs of a disillusioned population?
Hitler failed. Stalin failed.
Western Europeans as well as Americans ask themselves how to deal with Russia of today, a nation that apparently does not wish to belong to Western Civilization.
If the NATO would've have launched a major strike against the Soviet Union during the reign of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, the Soviets would've faced severe problems of, literally, fueling a counter attack.
Today, they've got fuel and the last thing we Western Europeans wish to do is to start another war with Russia. We have invaded them a lot, yes, but it is also obvious that the age of geopolitics is a bygone one.
I can easily see why they don't trust us, but their hostility and distrust is a major mistake on their behalf.
They are invited to the sit down at the big table of European brotherhood, so to say. We Western Europeans are not Fascists and Nazis. We are Europeans.
In this climate of opportunity and good will, what do they choose to do?
Of course, they decide to, repeatedly, violate NATO territory by flying their fighter planes over Norway.
Alea iacta est.
But there are even more challenging threats than that of Russia possibly gaining confidence enough to strive for influence over Western Europe again.
The risk of collapse from within.
First, we have the spread of Islam.
From Wikipedia:
"(..)while there are 6 million genuine followers of Islam in Russia, there are more than 20 million officially self-identified Muslims, a number that has risen by 40% in the last 15 years."
Secondly, the average Russian has little understanding of concepts like liberty and citizenship. This leads to several disadvantages from a national perspective.
A Russian will fight back if his village is invaded by Charles XII, Napoleon or Hitler, but won't lift a finger to rescue a distant Russian city.
Sooner or later, such a lack of national unity and will of sacrifice will result in national collapse.
Russian mafia, the force that today is in charge of the Kremlin, could probably maintain some sort of order for decades on, just like the mafia of Sicily once appeared to actually rule a part of a major region of a G7 member boasting a population of five million.
Russia has over 140 million inhabitants. Few of them understand how truly oppressed they are.
There was great bravery among the Sicilian mothers who took to the streets in order to let the mafia know they could not afford to lose another son.
They got support, not only from all of Italy, but from all of the freedom-loving world.
In Russia, there are plenty who praise Stalin, Peter the "Great" and other incompetent former rulers like there is no end to this farce.
Who is to blame?
Perhaps the only one to blame is the demon of historical heritage.
Serfdom existed until the 1860s in Russia, but despotism remained and thereafter the Russians were plagued by the brutality and oppression of Communism.
Today, Russia is like Chicago under the reign of Al Capone.
Just like Chicago of the 1930s, in the long run, couldn't have survived by being a smugglers' haven, Russia won't survive by selling her women on the streets of Berlin, Vienna and Stockholm or any other sort of shady business.
BUT if Russia wishes to really become prosperous and strong, perhaps even become a part of the new Europe, Russia will have to realize it today is little less than the Somalia of Western Civilization.
When I grew up, the Soviet Union was considered a super power.
Today it doesn't even exist.
I wouldn't be "writing off" Russia, if I were you. They still have a role to play in organizing a large group of Muslim nations, including Iran (whom they are helping now) in an invasion of Israel -- as we're told about in the Ezekiel 38/39 account of this.
Don't be writing them off yet... :-)
If I was a Russian I would also drink to excess. Za Vas!
ML/NJ
“Don’t be writing them off yet... :-)”
- You’re right.
It would constitute a major mistake to write off an industrialized nation of over 140 millions armed with nuclear weapons and housing at least 3 million pimps smelling of fake brandy:)
“I don’t want to rule the earth, or even the people in Idaho. I just want to be left alone.”
- But what if the Russian mafia handed you the keys to a brand new Ferrari and some skinny Latvian teenage drug addicted girls saying:
“It’s for you to keep, yankee doodle dandy!”???
“If I was a Russian I would also drink to excess. Za Vas!”
- Sounds nice.
But “Za Vas” is South Slavic tongue nicht wahr, amico mio?
Is your post in answer to 3 recent posts regarding Russian power?
How Russia Is About to Dramatically Change the World
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2424479/posts
Russia opens oil port that will supply China Japan and South Korea
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2424078/posts
While US disarms, Russia and China build up their military
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2422833/posts
The mafia seize power and hold it and rule regions and people, and prosper...and so can the russians.
They appear to me to be a dysfunctional people (at least the ruling class is). But then we are all dysfunctional in some way. We see the dysfunction of others more clearly than the dysfunction in ourselves. But even so, it seems to me that the russians are above the rest in their level of dysfunction.
But they have strengths too. In some ways, compared to russia, the west is a band of quarreling grandmothers. Politely being rude to each other over things that don’t matter.
That toast was taught to me by a Croat as a Russian toast so go figure.
“Is your post in answer to 3 recent posts regarding Russian power?”
- No, like said, my family and my country have been fighting them for centuries.
That is my drive and it wont go away, but I AM prepared to welcome Russia as a member of a free, independent non-Muslim Europe if they wish to join us.
I don’t hate Russia and we Swedes are not “victims”, we too have tried to build an empire here up north in Europe. However, in the 19th century, we began to understand that industrialization, not empire building, was the key to economic upheaval and national progress.
Russia of today seeks influence through outdated means.
Let them go on building oil ports.
My home city, Gothenburg, could build 20 stealth submarines able of wiping out such ports on a daily basis.
The threat is real:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khaa3y0i87s
The Vikings were finally defeated by heavy cavalry in Medieval France, but no other culture has ever ridiculed Scandinavia in the art of naval warfare..
The United States is at the lowest point defense assets wise since between WW1 & WW2 and instead of closing and simply idling plants capable of defenses production we leveled ours. We failed to learn from past mistakes.
Islam wants Israel wiped off the face of the earth. Russia wants money and a return to it's world power status. All the makings for it are there just waiting to happen. China will join as well. The fall of the Soviet Empire will be brief and was allowed as a window of time for the sake of The Gospel. When the M.E. and Islamic nations cut our oil off we will plummet into Chaos. When China then cuts us off from virtually every item we need the U.S. will in effect be powerless to stop this. The U.S. can't stop it but He who watches over Israel and never sleeps will indeed bring the end to it all.
The United States as a people have rejected GOD and allowed our leaders to dictate the abandonment of morality. Then there is the fall of the churches. The ushering in to the very Pulpit itself the abomination that causes desolation as it's leader. We are no longer under GOD's Grace and protection as a nation I fear. That is not to say all are following this but the nation as a whole has turned it's back on GOD and allowed Satan his foothold. What were we to expect to happen as a result?
I'll give you a ray of hope. Like you, the younger people I talk to understand that it is Chicago in the '30s (they use that exact analogy). But, they believe that this will pass and the older generation doing this will die off. If the average Russian young person is any example, there's a good chance of this happening. It will be the challenge of the West to make sure this happens: we must reward good behavior and stand firmly against misconduct, and punish outright bad behavior.
Modern Russia is not the Soviet Union. It is as you said a collection of Mafiyas, vying for political power so that they can exert economic control. The Western notion of abstract entities following rules of conduct is not unknown, and they do pretend to follow such rules, but it is a clever scam for them. To the extent that they get away with it they retard the future for themselves.
We must force them to change that behavior for all of us.
There are people in Russia who understand all of this but still they play the game there, as they must for now. But like the kids say, we have a generation. If that new generation can be enlightened and incorporated without them damaging the West permanently, then Europe as a whole will benefit. If not, then Russia will be a canker sore on the World, and will probably end up being riven into warring fragments, and will have to erect physical and social walls to protect itself.
The United States as a people have rejected GOD and allowed our leaders to dictate the abandonment of morality. Then there is the fall of the churches. The ushering in to the very Pulpit itself the abomination that causes desolation as it's leader. We are no longer under GOD's Grace and protection as a nation I fear. That is not to say all are following this but the nation as a whole has turned it's back on GOD and allowed Satan his foothold. What were we to expect to happen as a result?
As I've said, in many posts and places on this board, before -- Obama is obviously God's judgment upon this nation for the evil of its ways. And even that is not a severe enough judgment at this time.
See the following from another post of mine...
That evil and oppressive governmental idealogy of Islam and the way of implementing it by Sharia law is already making inroads right here in this country — the good ole USA. We’re about to see a “takeover” of the U.S. by the evil and oppressive idealogy of the government of Islam (that is aiming for world-wide conquest and has stated that the U.S. is *on its list* to take over...)
And for those people who need some additional facts about what the evil and oppressive governmental idealogy of Islam is doing, look at some of the following.
There’s no question about it... the enemy is *Islam* itself and the evil and oppressive and false idealogy that it perpetrates. Some say the problem is “fascism” (instead of the basic oppressive governmental idealogy of Islam, itself). But, that is to engage in “political correctness” and nothing more... and sidetracks people from the *true enemy* in this war.
In one generation we’ll see, right here in the United States that “Islam” is the enemy and not “fascism”...
Muslim Demographics...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU
and also, this...
Islam: What the West Needs to Know - FULL LENGTH ENGLISH VERSION
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-871902797772997781
and then, looking at this...
“The Third Jihad” (video - abridged version of film)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2271522/posts
This is the allowance of “false gods” to take over this nation because of the ignorance of the people of the land in regards to the true God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob...
And so, we see that we’re going to have the “false god of Islam” ruling over the USA and running the USA in just one generation from now.
- I've found out that there are many expressions in the Russian language for “Cheers!”
A very common one is “Na zdrave!”
In Croatia and other parts of the Balkan, people often go “Zivio!” when having a drink together.
In that part of the South Slavic language territory, “Za Vas” is also common. It simply means “To You!”. But from what I can see, Russians don't cheer in this fashion.
Perhaps I'm wrong.
This, however, will NEVER be wrong about Slavic drinking culture and related issues:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slivovitz
Ahhhhh!
It is important to note that Russia has only 140M people, only 80% of whom, or 112M are Russian. Over 6.6M square miles. And 73% of all Russian citizens live in the cities.
Huge tracts of southern Russia, with far better climate than northern Russia, are virtually empty. And in the South, most of the -istan nations are likewise nearly empty. Of course northern Russia is even emptier.
We share the same farce because in the USA, there are plenty who praise Carter, Bill the "Rapist" and other incompetent former rulers.
- Very true.
If we only dare to acknowledge the problem, we will find proper ways of dealing with the issue of the Wild East.
Sooner or later we will have to anyhow.
Ronald Reagan, apparently, wasn't afraid of Russian evil.
Are we?
- (Being European) It's not for me to say what presidents of the US have been good or bad for the nation, but I guess it's safe to say something is wrong about a guy who
1. Disastrously failed trying to rule America but just won't apologize and go away.
2. Today travels the world, enjoying fancy dinners while slandering his own nation.
Luckily enough, all Americans aren't like Carter and all of us Europeans aren't like Chirac.
The Free World is presently in a war together and one day, school children will read about how civilization defeated Islamofascism.
In that future which I am sure is to come, Carter and Chirac won't even get acknowledged as footnotes to World History.
The Cold War cost the U.S. trillions in current dollars (to say nothing of Americans killed in Korea and Vietnam). Soviet propaganda and useful idiots in the West caused enormous distortions in the the politics and social organization in the West.
The death throes of Russia, who holds 10,000 more nuclear weapons than all the countries of Scandinavia combined, are fraught with peril for her neighbors. (Did I mention you can see Russia from Alaska?)
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