- In the 1990s, many people thought Russian progress toward that home simply required new policies: With the right economic reforms, Russians would sooner or later become like us. Others thought that if Russia joined the Council of Europe, and if we turned the G-7 into the G-8, then sooner or later Russia would absorb Western values. Such privileges were never even extended to China, which is a far greater economic and political power. This is because we’ve never believed that China would be “Western.” But deep down we believed that Russia would someday join our club.
I can't get past the apparent hypocracy in this article. We all want it both ways. We wanted to defeat the Evil soviet union but we wanted all the people (Under the blanket term, Russia) to suddenly follow the example of the u.s. after hundreds of years. And now they have. Take what you can in the name of National security. But money/power/resources knows no borders. But we want to wipe our hands clean yet assume it will work itself out in our favor according to our "rules" which are interpreted on an individual basis. And now that some powerful individuals do not like the results..or more accurately their interpretation of the results..they flip the propaganda on and suddenly Russians are evil animals. Not to be trusted. "We've always been at war with Russia." Many things I try to understand I want wrapped up in a bow. So I can stop thinking for a moment and say, this is what I've gathered thus far. But when you draw a line in the sand it does not stop the wind from slowly blowing it away. No one won the cold war. No one won the world wasr, nothing ever ends it just changes. But we cling to our concrete perspective as if to admit being wrong or misinformed means death. We must understand ourselves first. There is no america, no russia no Europa. Just people. And as fellow people I wonder what you guys think of what I say. Hope to dialogue.