To borrow a classic malapropism: If my father were alive today, he’d be
turning over in his grave. Dad was a
passionate anti-Communist. Posted to
several countries in his two decades in the Foreign Service, he witnessed and
struggled against the Evil Empire, long before Ronald Reagan called it that.
The USSR is gone now and so is the
Communism that enslaved Eastern Europe. But,
while Russia may not be the great power it was before the fall of the Berlin
Wall, this does not stop Vladimir Putin from trying to re-establish Russia’s
dominance over its former territories and beyond. The former KGB operative remembers how
powerful Russia once was and sees no reason why it can’t reclaim its standing
as a super power. If he could see the
resurgence of his old enemies, Dad would no doubt proclaim, “They’re back!”
We
must not forget that today’s Russia is the inheritor of a history of tyranny
that enslaved its neighbors and murdered its own people on a horrific scale. Accordingly, we must see the opening
ceremonies in Sochi celebrating Russia’s glorious history as a gross distortion
and a massive lie. How can any country
take pride in the unimaginable scale of misery imposed by Stalin, the tens of
millions deliberately starved in Ukraine, the millions more frozen to death in
Siberian gulags. Russia can celebrate
its literature and its music, as well as the courage of its people through many
centuries of suffering at the hands of invaders. But it cannot celebrate its history of
despotism and soul-crushing inhumanity.
I have nothing but disgust for Meredith
Vieira, the abysmally ignorant American commentator at the Winter Olympics who
lamented the demise of the Soviet Union as “a bittersweet moment.” Perhaps she would enjoy riding bareback
behind Putin as he gallops to Russia’s final victory over a country that tolerates
such pathetic nonsense.
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