DID RUSSIA JUST WIN THE COLD WAR?

Below is an opinion piece - "The cold war is over and guess who won" - that appeared in today's Bakersfield Californian. It's one of the better reviews of what's happening in our world that I've read. I've included a couple of Sun Tzu quotes, for those who understand the bigger picture presented by the author. Enjoy.  

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The cold war is over and guess who won

Sal Moretti

For hundreds of years Europeans have called it the Great Game. Americans know it as the Cold War. Whatever the name, that war with Russia is over. The bad news? Looks like Russia won.

Well, bad news to some in America, but not all. It seems a whole lot of patriots seem unfazed and quite a few corporations stand ready to profit handsomely. There’s more good news! Not a nuke was fired, not a shot heard, if you don’t count Ukraine, and who does?

Thank you, Russia, for bringing peace to the world, and stability to our country. We were teetering on the edge of catastrophe when you came in, assisted our new leader to victory, and vanquished that foe of real American values. It’s good to know we can be friends with a communist dictator. You are a true world leader.

While we were rendered impotent by internal division, you acted decisively. You took on the quagmire in Syria, that which we were reluctant to do, and stabilized that war ravished country. No worry that everyone who used to live there is either dead, dying or fled to Europe. Not to be confused about your soul, you intentionally struck the rebels’ hospitals with bombs. The dead don’t hate. I’m glad we’re friends. Based on what we saw in Aleppo, I’d hate to be your enemy.

The Syrian engagement was a stroke of brilliance. By propping that government, you left many Syrians no option but to flee, and flee they did to Europe. In fleeing to Europe, you destabilized all of the countries of who’ve been opponent in the geopolitical struggle of the ages.

A few agents of ISIS snuck into Europe during the stampede, helping to inflame the world’s great threat: Terrorism. Not one to be conflicted by your ideals, you support the Shia of Iran against ISIS in Iraq and Syria but support the Sunni Taliban in Afghanistan, against us. That we can be friends with Russia while you support the enemy we fight and die for in Afghanistan is a true testament to your diplomatic prowess.

In your greatest feat, possibly the greatest story of our time, you interjected yourself in that greatest tradition of the free world, the American election, and amazingly enough, you helped get your candidate elected!

That’s not the most amazing aspect of your feat.

In the aftermath, as the truth was revealed of what you had done, America’s institutions and leaders expressed deep concern and mock outrage as they tried to move past this inconvenient truth.

The divided American public was most interesting: The powerless stamped their feet. Those in power blamed the liberal media, the intelligence agencies, and their vanquished foe.

America moves on. There are great business deals to be made with Russia, and we don’t need to let our core values get in the way. Besides, isn’t making a whole lot of money a core value of America?

In the great contradiction of conservative America, befriending Russia, that beacon of the socialist state, is less repulsive than compromising with American liberalism. We’ve been here before. Remember, when we influenced the elections in Latin America and beyond. Is the fruit bitter when we taste it? Apparently not.

We’ve been invaded by cyber warriors and succumbed to the tactics of disinformation and deception. Mission accomplished, Russia. You are master of the arts of war, old and new. This is so much better than old war. I mean, I still have Netflix. A friend calls it whining about the results of an election when some question real news that strongly and evidentially suggests Russia had an intentional impact on the election.

Whining? Funny, during the Iraq War buildup, those who questioned the justification for war were called unpatriotic. Important and unpopular questions seem to beget name-calling. I guess it comes with the territory. But questioning and discernment is a gift of God and our duty as Americans.

We don’t need to wave the white flag of surrender in this war. We’ve got plenty of fight left in us, but we start by uniting as Americans against a common foe, not uniting with a common foe against other Americans.

Sal Moretti is superintendent of the City of Bakersfield’s Solid Waste Division and a board member of Kern County’s Homeless and Veterans’ collaboratives.

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And, yes, Vladimir Putin is going to play Trump like a drum.

- Mark