Around this time 40 years ago the first Pershing II missiles were delivered to Germany, effectively ending, for all intents and purposes, the Cold War.
Happy anniversary! Congratulations. The USSR lost. Reagan and Gorbachev signed the INF treaty four years later. By that time, I recall, it was difficult to buy a decent bottle of red wine in Moscow. I know this as a fact because I was looking for one.
Yuri at ВАЖНЫЕ ИСТОРИИ kinda glosses over this episode in his article, titled, “Paralysis of will. What has happened to the West?” He instead fast-forwards us to the 1990s, examining the muddled thinking of policymakers post SS-20/Able Archer.
Yuri identifies the paralysis of will in paragraph #8:
The failure of the idea of the "end of history" [Fukiyama] and the steadily approaching triumph of liberal democracy is obvious, but the West has no other strategic concept. The inevitable appeal to the logic of the "clash of civilizations" [Huntington] does not occur. This is hindered, first, by the inertia of thinking, the inability of the majority of the Western intellectual community to recognize the bankruptcy of their views. And secondly, the unpreparedness of the ruling elites to make profound changes in economic and military policy, to mobilize the forces and means necessary to defend civilization. This, in fact, is the essence of the paralysis of will.
Agreed. I could argue that religious lunancy has also played a role, specifically Christian nationalism and the penchant of top US lawmakers to chaparone their teenage daughters at Purity Balls.
[Un]apropos of this, a Ukrainian promo for overdose medication struck my fancy yesterday:
Six of one: Half-a-dozen of the other
I have ridiculed the notion that Team USA, which has wasted hundreds of billions annually on homeland security, could not have easily afforded double, treble, quadruple its military assistance to Ukraine.
For the last ten years I have advocated the compulsion of every Ukrainian to serve his country, both in war and peace. The idlers and wasters perceiving dimly that I meant the cost to come out of their pockets and meant to use the admission that riches should not exempt a man from military service as an illustration of how absurd it is to allow them to exempt themselves, did not embrace my advocacy with enthusiasm.
As for Team USA, its members must stand to their guns now that the guns are going off. They must not pretend that they are harmless radical lovers of peace, and that the propaganda of inevitable war is a post-Soviet infamy for which Putin must be severely punished. When the Kremlin fire-eaters drank to The Day (of Armageddon) they were drinking to the day of which our fire-eaters had first said, "It's bound to come," at least to Ukraine.
I apologize for spoiling the saintly image with a halo which jingo jornos see just now when they gaze in the mirror, but it must be done if we are to behave reasonably in our day of reckoning, which is upon us.