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President Putin might be right about the US
Not much credence was given last week to President Putin's semi-valedictory speech blaming America for creating a new level of distrust which might lead to another Cold War. It was simply taken for granted that the boot was on the other foot, as it had always been assumed to be in the case of the Cold War proper.
In my view - as an erstwhile Cold War warrior - this assumption is dangerously complacent because, with the benefit of hindsight, it is no longer certain the Cold War proper was all the Soviet Union's fault.
It was America that, in conditions of great secrecy, invented and developed the atomic bomb and, without informing or consulting their Russian allies, dropped two on Japanese cities. Nor was that all. The US then proceeded, in total secrecy, to build an even more murderous weapon, the H-bomb.
What would we have felt if the Russians had secretly developed an atom bomb and without consultation with her allies, forced Hitler into surrendering by dropping two on Germany; and then, to rub in the magnitude of their advantage gone on to build an H-bomb?
When it comes to obsessive secrecy and ruthless deceit, the American record is as bad, if not worse, than the Russians'. As for evil hegemonic intentions, what more damning evidence for them could there be than America's ruthless development and use of nuclear weapons?
This does not mean that Putin's suspicions today are well founded; only that with America's record they are more than understandable. For countries other than Britain this will come as no surprise. It is time the penny dropped here too. ·
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Mr. Worsthorn, I'm sure Anna Politkovskaya's death in a nation whose Media Minister's chief qualification for the job was his assassination experience in the elite KGB Vympel hunter unit, supports your praise for Putin's ever-so-egalitarian commentary on the US. Bully for you. Had you written such a thing in Russia today, you would be a rising star in United Russia and perhaps a Duma deputy with a Dacha. Did you get your head caught in a stapler?
You're a two-faced son of a pig! The Soviets were allies of convenience at best and of necessity at worst. They sure as hell were nobody's friends except for a few French Commies. That the US, Britain or any other so-called ally should share anything - let alone nuclear secrets - with old Joe is a real stretch of a warped imagination. Like pissing into the wind, old boy, you got your shoes wet this time.
This must be the same Worsthorne who, during the first Gulf War, castigated the Germans for not being there; he being fully aware that their Constitution forbade it... and being fully aware that his readers had zero knowledge of that fact.
This is not the true voice of conservatism, this is the voice of a populist America basher and opportunist.
Once again that erstwhile defender of all that is good and right, has leapt into the breach to educate us poor simpletons of our fate at the hands of the deceitful Americans!
Well said, Sir Peregrine! As ever, you are the voice of true conservatism. Whereas Putin's neocon enemies are old Marxists from back in the day, notably the Harry's Place website, which is the latest manifestation of Straight Left, the most unerringly pro-Soviet faction within the old Communist Party of Great Britain and among its nominally Labour fellow-travellers. That is why they oppose Putin, and thus support the only viable alternative to him, namely the totally unreconstructed Communist Party of the Russian Federation. They have no concept of Russia as, in common with all the Slavs (not least including the Serbs), the bulwark, against Islamic and other threats, of the the civilisation defined by the Biblical-Classical synthesis; on the contrary, they define themselves precisely by their opposition to that synthesis, which is the West.
Interesting take on history. While the work on the bomb was done in the United States I do believe that Great Briton was very much involved. From my understanding it was your PM, Mr. Churchill who was far more aware of the Soviet Union's long term goals than was Roosevelt. Nevertheless without being informed directly, Stalin was very aware of the program.
As for the use of the bombs, history still has to decide the justification.
I'm old enough to remember when Peregrine Worsthorne was a highly respected journalist. It seems a very long time ago.
When did he start displaying these symptoms? Are you encouraging him?