Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul: Apologists for Vladimir Putin

As Vladimir Putin’s tanks begin to roll forth from Russia like Sauron’s legions from Mordor, a pair of American villains is working hard to undermine our resolve against the greatest threat from Europe to American values and power, and indeed to world peace, since Adolf Hitler.

Evgeny Feldman, a photographer for the maverick Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, recently visited a book store in Moscow and tweeted ^[1] a photograph from amongst its shelves. Among volumes on one topical shelf such as The Crimes of the U.S.A. and The Third World War and Forward to Victory, in which authors offered bloodthirsty attacks on America and her values and called for its obliteration, one tome stood out. Emblazoned on its cover was the Russian title Прокончит с ФРС by an author identified as Рон Пол.

This was a Russian translation of 2009′s End the Fed ^[2] by former Texas congressman and presidential primary contender Ron Paul, latched onto by Russian nationalists as an admission by an American that America is a fundamentally evil country leading the world down a path that leads to global ruin.

Days earlier another former U.S. presidential primary contestant, Pat Buchanan of the disgraced Nixon administration, published an opinion column in which he asked, seemingly on behalf of the Russian Kremlin: “How Would We Feel If Putin Told Us What To Do? ^[3]” Sounding just like Neville Chamberlain, Buchanan viciously attacked Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for proposing legislation standing up to Russian aggression in Ukraine and Georgia, and urged the U.S. to simply ignore Putin’s bloodthirsty ^[4] reign of terror there.

Paul and Buchanan are two individuals who have been decisively repudiated — humiliated, really — at the polls by the people of the United States. More than two-thirds ^[5] of the American population currently views Russia as an enemy, precisely as Mitt Romney said during the last presidential campaign, and major magazine covers ^[6] bluntly and dramatically reflect the nation’s horror at Putin’s aggression. Indeed, signs of it are everywhere ^[7].

Yet the likes of Paul and Buchanan continue to beat the drum of appeasement and indeed collaboration with Putin’s evil, neo-Soviet regime. Time magazine called ^[8] End the Fed a “curious mix of the sensible and the delusional” and said that it teaches nothing about economics but much about what goes on inside Paul’s skull. The same can be said of Buchanan. Both men mix tiny bits of truth with great tidal waves of delusion to come up with policies that obliterate American values and world leadership and leave the field to despotic tyrants like Putin in the belief that nothing can touch Fortress America, which should simply watch the world burn.

Siding with Corker, Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi shows by his deeds that he knows Buchanan and Paul don’t represent sensible American policy. He recently fired off a letter ^[9] to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding that he investigate Putin lackey Mikhail Lesin, who has been feverishly buying up U.S. real estate ^[10] with funds looted via all manner of corruption. Lesin could be viewed as Putin’s Goebbles, deeply tied to the Kremliln’s English-language propaganda apparatus and struggling furiously to divide the U.S. from its allies and blunt American resolve on Ukraine and Georgia.

Over on the House side, Speaker John Boehner presciently warned the world ^[11] all about the dangers of Russian aggression before the last presidential election, but unfortunately the voters did not heed his advice and the Obama “reset” continued to fuel the fires of Russian aggression.

Indeed, it seems not even Vladimir Putin is as tough on the U.S.A. as Paul and Buchanan are. Putin recently let American traitor Edward Snowden’s Russian visa expire without renewal ^[12], a clear signal that Snowden is starting to be viewed as more trouble than he’s worth. And Putin is slowly dithering in his support for the maniacal pro-Russian forces in Ukraine who shot down a Malaysian airliner killing hundreds of innocent people. He’s provided these goons with guns and many Russian soldiers to lead them, but he’s ignored their pleas for Russian invasion and watched the elected government in Kiev launch a firm effort to seize control.

From Norway ^[13] to Japan ^[14], the entire world is united in horror at Russian aggression in Ukraine. Even the milquetoast Barack Obama has appointed a new tough-as-nails ambassador to Russia, John Tefft ^[15], who has proved his mettle by having the Kremlin pitch a hissy fit ^[16] before he’s even arrived in country. Putin has proved to be the greatest gift to NATO ever, reinvigorating and unifying the creaking alliance, which has now gotten to the brink of providing military support for Kiev to stave of Russian invasion.

But Buchanan and Paul simply do not care about facts or reality. Like the Russians themselves, Buchanan and Paul prefer to dwell in the world of illusions that was openly celebrated by the Russians during the opening ceremonies to this year’s Olympic Games, which Russia hosted. Instead of increasing American power and influence, and instead of standing up for American values, Paul and Buchanan urge the country to retreat like a tortoise into its shell.

More than 80% of Russians ^[17] (Russian-language link), for instance, believe because of the non-stop tsunami of lies on Russian state TV that it was the Ukrainian army, not the rebel forces, who shot down the Malaysian airliner. Vulgar, brazen displays of wanton Russian aggression on social media ^[18] confirmed how far out of touch with reality the Russians really are. The delusional attitudes of the people of Russia are eerily similar to those of Paul and Buchanan and even more disturbingly reminiscent of those of the people of the USSR.

Buchanan crazily argues in regard to U.S. demands that Putin release his grip on Ukraine and Georgia that while “a small, weak country might accept this dictation from a superpower” mighty Russia will never do so but will “tell the Americans just what to do with their ultimatum” and “laugh it off.” After it stops laughing, Buchanan says, Russia will then invade Ukraine and seize Kiev to block it from accepting military support from NATO of the kind Russia provided to Crimea.

Nobody can claim that Russia is small in terms of territory, and it certainly has nuclear weapons. But Russia has zero economic growth, it doesn’t rank in the top 125 nations of the world for life expectancy, and it exports virtually nothing except crude fossil fuels. Russia’s military history is littered with spectacular losses and victories so costly that they are better thought of as defeats. It has no significant allies, and the only real threat it poses is one of terrorism, like that posed by North Korea and Syria. Since when does America back down from terrorist bullies?

Buchanan’s text reads disturbingly as if he were threatening his own country on Putin’s behalf. He ends his diatribe by stating: “The American Imperium is folding up.” This is exactly the type of language Putin himself uses. The text is totally devoid of any hint or suggestion as to how the U.S. can combat Russian aggression in Ukraine in an alternative manner to what Corker suggests, meaning that what Buchanan wants is simply to deliver Ukraine and Georgia, and whatever other parts of the former USSR he wants, to Putin on a silver platter. The fact that Ukraine borders three NATO countries the U.S. is obligated to defend means nothing to Buchanan since he clearly believes those allies should be sold down the river as well.

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