#15
Peace After War (Itogi)
November 21, 2001
Russia and the U.S. must realize they are united not by
the "common criminal" bin Laden, but by a common civilization
by Leonid Radzihovsky
(www.therussianissues.com)
Is the Russo-American alliance going to outlive Osama bin Laden? This question might seem far-fetched: the "father" of our newfound friendship is safe and sound. On the other hand, the Taliban marked Vladimir Putin's visit to the U.S. by such an unprecedented "strategic retreat" that one is tempted to feel victorious. It is true that this could be a "cunning maneuver," but such maneuvers are normally referred to as defeats. Therefore, we can conclude that the military part of Afghanistan operation will soon be over. At least, there will be a long pause in the war.
Sadly, our friendship with the West always came down to a simple formula: "The Russian cure has helped, the Russian cure can be disposed of." The friendship between the Russian Empire and Europe did not outlive Napoleon's defeat just like the friendship of the Soviet Union and the U.S. did not outlive the end of Hitler.
Is it going to be the same way this time? Will Putin's "Texan Two-step" be the high point of our relations with the U.S. only to be followed by a fall? Or will it become the beginning of an unprecedented rise?
First of all, let us hope that behavior of the American elite is not determined by the "healthy optimism of idiots." Drinking champagne in victory, which, by the way, belongs to the Northern Alliance, is a good thing. However, only incorrigible optimists could believe that "the nightmare is over" and the world has returned to September 10th.
No matter how the war in Afghanistan ends, it is not going to solve the problem of terrorism. Even if bin Laden is killed or captured, nothing will be over. The struggle against Islamic fundamentalism, economical, political and psychological, will take decades. Tectonic shifts in Asia are happening as we speak and the U.S. and NATO still need a geopolitical ally.
The question is: who could be a long-term ally in this struggle against extremism? Until recently, Russia was not seen as an option. The West was always eager to join a tactical alliance with Russia. The formula behind such alliances is well known: "to fight to the last Russian soldier." Russia, from Suvorov to Zhukov, never spared its men in European wars. The West always valued Russia for its "otherness": the Russian tsars could easily do what their Western counterparts could not, namely, kill as many of their subjects as they wanted. For that, Russia was valued at a difficult moment and feared or despised after that moment was gone. The "other" and "alien" land of terrible, but na?ve, bears was first used and later abandoned.
Today the situation is different. Russia is not paying with the blood of its citizens for an alliance with the West. Russia is a Western country now. The West must now learn to love Russia not for its "otherness," but for its "sameness." In a democratic and capitalist Russia, human life is valued just as much as in the West. No one is going to send Russian soldiers to fight for other countries' interests anymore. This new Russia can become a Western ally in a conflict of civilizations for the first time precisely because it belongs to Western civilization.
Russia is no longer a mercenary-state. It is now a partner-state. It is a strategic partner not for weeks or a month of a war, but for years of peace; it is a partner in a long cold war against Islamic radicalism.
Let us be fair. It was not only the West that was unprepared for a true alliance with Russia. The Russian elite feared this alliance as well. The Iron Curtain was built on both sides: the Russian elite felt its "otherness" just as much as the Western elite. A strategic alliance was equally impossible on both sides. Today it is equally possible, but just as difficult.
If the West realizes that Russia - for the first time in history - is "one of us", the problem of a "Russian competitor" will be gone for good. The U.S. did not hesitate to help its competitors after the war because it saw them as civilized allies against the Soviet Union. Why should anyone fear the economic recovery of a Russian ally today?
As for Putin, he must break the resistance of that part of our elite that fears openness to the West and use common patriotic demagogy to justify these fears. Putin's agreements with Bush are important, but it is much more important to realize that we are united not by the "common criminal" bin Laden, but by a common civilization.