Steve: You just laid out provocative exceprts but ignored the context. In addition, you lay these out in ways that suggest these activities were endorsed formally by the Russian government. Finally, the excerpts you chose do not take into account:
1. Economic and political changes inside Russia over the past 10 years. 2. Complicity of the U.S. and other Western Governments 3. Examples where, argubaly, the U.S. could accused of doing exactly the same thing. People more familiar with European history than I should comment, but, IMO the West's performance in Russia after the downfall of communism was stunningly similar to our performance in Germany after World War I. We won the war; we packed up and went home; economic chaos ensued. What Russia needed in 1991 to avoid chaos, economic disaster, people selling WMDs and eveyrthing else they could lay their hands on was a program similar to The Marshall Plan that rebuilt Germany after WWII. We didn't offer such and, no surprise, the outcome in Russia (for several years) was very similar to what the West experienced in Germany between the close of WWI and the advent of Hitler. Hell, we were hiring absolutely brilliant Ph.D. software engineers for $50-70 A MONTH -- and that was considered a high salary at the time. Levis cost $100; Microsoft sold its software at full price ($595 for Excel) and complained like crazy when Russians bootlegged copies. For instance, below is an exceprt from a 1993 column, "Looking East" that ran in the Boston Business Journal as well as the Megopolis Express, then a fledgling business/economics fortnightly in Moscow. "The vacuum created economic disaster and political chaos he sucked yet another dangerous fascist demagogue onto the world state. The latest brown shirt is Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky, the boss of Russia's Liberal Democratic Part, which drew 24 percent of the vote in the most recent parliamentary elections. "If nothing else the startling support for the fascist Liberal Democratic Party (a misnomer that does Mrs. Malaprop proud) and the horrific visions of Christmases past and future that it conjured finally aroused world leaders, who had previously seemed oblivious to resurging fascism and totalitarianism throughout Europe... "No doubt Zhirinovsky's sabre-rattling rhetoric will scare of cautious money and give everyone second thoughts about what communism's downfall has wrought. Nevertheless, increased capital investment and easier access to Western markets are the ballast Russia needs to correct its rightward list.... "Since the proclaimed end to the cold war in 1991, Western investment in the former Soviet Empire has been short on capital and long on barter; more absorbed with satiating pent-up demand for Western goods than focused on helping Russia develop profitable channels of commerce to the West..." The column concludes this way: "Two years ago the downfall of communism provided responsible capitalists with an unprecedented opportunity to demonstrate how making money could aslo secure the peace. What was true then is truer today. The bornw-shirt tide surging through Russia and Eastern Europe suggests that the West, the U.S. in particular, is not doing as much as it could be. Time is not on our side." The facts are: in 1992, anyone (including freelancers in the military) in Russia with anything to sell -- goods and services -- was selling them, literally off the back of a truck. To them, it was a matter of survival. The U.S. was warned that if the West didn't intervene economically and politically, weapons, including WMDs, military training, terrorists etc. would likely be sold off to the highest bidder. The U.S. dithered big time. Should we be disappointed at what resulted (temporarily)? Absolutely. Should we be surprised? Absolutely not. Is Russia an enemy today? Is Putin's past service in the KGB a problem? A competitor, yes. Enemy, no. But, surely you understand why Russians are miffed that we don't yet regard the terrorists in Chechnya (sp?) as terrorists? Ron Scott > -----Original Message----- > From: Steven Montgomery [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, November 14, 2003 9:02 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [ZION] Communism and the Terrorist Connection > > > Stanislav Lunev was a Colonel in Russian Military Intelligence (GRU). In > 1992 he defected to the west and subsequently wrote a book entitled, > _Through the Eyes of the Enemy_. In this book Lunev makes an interesting > revelation: > > "the support and sponsorship of terrorist actions is more than justified > for the GRU." He then tells how the Japanese Aum Shinryko cult > was trained > by Russian Spetsnaz squads. He then goes on, "Most of the Arab terrorist > groups were also trained by Spetsnaz," and "[In] the early 1990s, the GRU > decided that it would train any terrorist group that was able to > pay for it." > > > > -- > Steven Montgomery > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Communism is Satan's counterfeit for the gospel plan, > and . . . it is an avowed enemy of the God of the land. > (Marion G. Romney, 1st Presidency Message, September 1979) > > ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// > //////////// > /// ZION LIST CHARTER: Please read it at /// > /// http://www.zionsbest.com/charter.html /// > ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// > /////////// > > > ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /// ZION LIST CHARTER: Please read it at /// /// http://www.zionsbest.com/charter.html /// ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aaP9AU.bWix1n.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html --^----------------------------------------------------------------
