Why The Neutralist? The term Isolationist implies a narrow Fortress America outlook and is used as an epithet. The term Neutralist does not indicate someone hiding out from the world. No one calls the Swiss isolationists. The Wilsonian world view is old, tired and wrong. Our interventions have been less and less successful and now the failure can no longer be covered up.

Monday, September 25, 2017

Reds Under The Bed Redux

A late friend of ours was an old time lefty who saw the Soviet Union as if not a workers’ paradise, at least morally superior to the U.S.  One of his favorite phrases about American cold war paranoia was our fixation on “Reds under the bed.”

It was a bit overwrought, as we were engaged in a struggle with an entity that gave as good as it got. We might have avoided the long cold war, but it was a real conflict.

It must have been fun as we seem to  be in conflict with the Russians again.  It may no longer be the U.S.S.R.  There is a pile on and as Jimmy Durante would put it, “Everybody wants to get into the act.”

It’s serious as God himself wants to find some reds under the bed.  Morgan Freeman, is taking time off from playing the almighty onscreen to descend to opine on international relations   With his tinsel town buddy, Rob Reiner ,are celebrity members of The Committee to Investigate Russia.

We at the Neutralist have a funny feeling that God, er Mr. Freeman is not going to be working on any studies, looking up footnotes, etc., nor is Mr. Reiner.  Not that they don’t care about what Russia is doing to our democracy.  We are upset as well.  Listen Putin, we are capable of screwing up our democracy by ourselves, so butt out.

Just because a couple of thespians provide window dressing does not mean there is no depth to this important committee.  There isn’t any, but Reiner and Freeman are not the reason.

The problem is outlined by Leonid Bershidsky at Bloomberg View in his article, Wanted: Russia Experts, No Expertise Required.  His subtitle, Jingoism has replaced scholarship and a spirit of real inquiry when it comes to Russia. That's a mistake, says it all.  The fanaticism of the anti-Russki crowd means study and reflection are out of place.
The group has Clapper, but under a better system he would be in disgrace for perjuring himself before Congress.  The chickenhawk Max Boot is on the team, but really, do we have to treat an Iraq invasion tout with any seriousness?

Take some time to read Mr. Bershidsky.  From our rather shallow research into the man (wikipedia) it appears he is no Putin toady.

Follow us on Facebook.

No comments: