{"id":1484,"date":"2022-02-26T16:35:48","date_gmt":"2022-02-27T00:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/?p=1484"},"modified":"2023-03-05T10:54:53","modified_gmt":"2023-03-05T18:54:53","slug":"eat-crumbs-and-bask-in-empirical-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/eat-crumbs-and-bask-in-empirical-glory\/","title":{"rendered":"Eat Crumbs and Bask in The Glory of Empire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although Hitler made a fortune on the publication of <\/span>Mein Kampf<\/span><\/i>, few people have read his diatribe wherein he declared his hatred of democracy, Marxism and the Jews, and his belief that the Aryan race\u2014in particular, the Germanic\u2014was divinely decreed as the master race. Well, if you missed your chance to learn about his part in history and his advocacy for preordained nationalism, you now are witnessing its reincarnation. President Putin believes that Providence guides Mother Russia to rule all of Europe, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans\u2014what he terms Eurasia. He detests democracies, LGBTQ people, and anybody, including Slavs, even Russians, who dare to oppose his right to re-establish\u2014and extend\u2014the former Russian empire under his rule. Yesterday, he warned that any country opposing him would face the full force of Russian power. (Is this a reference to his nuclear arsenal?) His Eurasia myth promises to replace chaotic democracies anywhere with nationalist rulers who bow to his dictates. Of course, the beneficiary of this proposed nationalist empire can only be Putin and the coterie of his chosen sycophants, who are his Russian oligarchs. Those governed are destined to a limited or even meagre subsistence while told to bask in the glory of a powerful state and in gratitude to its supreme leader. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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What the world is witnessing in Ukraine today is not merely Putin\u2019s fear of Western hegemony, but his attempt to advance Russian dominance in Europe on his way to Eurasia. Ukraine is just another hurdle to overcome. Georgia, Crimea, and Syria are behind him. Belorussia and Moldovia may be next. He is acting on a long-held belief that it is his destiny to restore and <\/span>extend<\/span><\/i> the Russian empire to its full glory as ordained by Providence. As a result, he will concoct any imagined pretense\u2014whether it is to rid Ukraine of neo-Nazis and protect its Russian inhabitants, to counter NATO\u2019s infringement on Russia\u2019s hereditary lands, or to establish Russia as a legitimate counterweight to American power. Rather than a free democratic Ukraine, he will make Ukraine a vassal of Mother Russia like its former colonial status under Soviet rule. But the war he has initiated clearly has a purpose beyond Ukraine. Caesar recognized Gaul was divided into three parts and that he had to conquer all its parts before establishing the Roman Empire. Napoleon crossed every border with his massive army on his way to Moscow. And Hitler too was looking beyond Czechoslovakia on October 1, 1938, to extend his reign even beyond the point of Napoleon\u2019s failure. These world conquerors must unleash the hell fires of war and extend their dominion to match their inflated egos.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The twentieth Century has taught us of both modern warfare\u2019s enormous devastation and its unpredictability. I certainly cannot offer any bromide here. But we can better cope with this current crisis if we understand how it came to be. Putin\u2019s wars have a prelude where all the discordant notes were played in advance of the main theme.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That prelude began with Putin\u2019s sudden rise to power in 2000. From an unknown former KGB operative, he rose to prominence in St. Petersburg where he used his government position to enrich himself and his assembled gang of thieves. Meanwhile, he rose through the ranks of the KGB\u2014now the FSB\u2014to become its leader. Three months before President Yeltsin\u2019s unexpected retirement, he was appointed Vice President. Then, in January 2000, he inherited the presidency when the former President was forced into retirement at the end of 1999. (He was eventually elected in March of 2000 under a very dubious \u201cfree\u201d election.) The Soviet era and his KGB training had been the major influences in his life and on his mindset. \u00b9 And, shortly after Putin became the head of state, he consolidated his power by protecting and enriching the men\u2014mostly his St. Petersburg gang\u2014who would become his oligarchs. For Americans, his approach was not dissimilar to Trump\u2019s appointments of self-interested millionaires, lobbyists, and criminally prone individuals to government positions or to his \u201ckitchen cabinet.\u201d Trump\u2019s mindset was not dissimilar to Putin\u2019s.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It should not be surprising that Putin\u2019s intelligence network had noted Trump\u2019s potential as an \u201cidiot source\u201d long before he won the presidency. He had been weaned on laundered money from Russian oligarchs. And Putin tested this source, like any good KGB handler, by inviting him to Russia and offering him free publicity and a Moscow venue for his beauty pageant. Subsequently, he took advantage of the opportunity to support this source\u2019s campaign for the Presidency. He had his intelligence operatives engineer a massive online effort to support that candidacy. If he did not personally suggest, he most certainly approved of the man who volunteered to lead the candidate\u2019s campaign for free. That man was Paul Manafort, a Putin operative who had served\/guided Yanukovych, the Ukrainian President who also served at Putin\u2019s pleasure.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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When Putin\u2019s plan succeeded in duping American voters to elect his candidate, he must have been delighted to witness him –\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(1) reduce America\u2019s short range nuclear missiles deployed in Europe,\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(2) decommission the spy plane that had previously participated in mutually agreed overflights of American and Russian terrain,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(3) destroy the plane\u2019s state of the art surveillance equipment, thereby prohibiting its reuse,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(4) and reduce American support for NATO, even to the extent of pulling troops back from Eastern Europe.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Putin was busy –<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0(1) amassing a 600 billion government surplus in a strained Russian economy, perhaps as a future war fund established at the expense of the Russian people,\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(2) establishing a favorable bilateral relation with the President of Belorussia who later would allow the placement of the Russian military on Ukraine\u2019s shared border just north of Ukraine\u2019s capitol,\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(3) and planning the elaborate movement of 70-75% of Russia\u2019s military resources from all sectors of the country to strategic locations surrounding Ukraine.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over a period of years, Putin had been able to concoct this elaborate plan to attack and subjugate a democratically free state. In his mind, he was on a divinely ordained mission to restore the Russian empire that had fallen victim to the hegemony of European democracies and to the United States. Does his elaborate plan not remind us of another obstinately determined deranged visionary of more recent vintage?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, I refer to Adolph Hitler. Of course, Hitler revealed his megalomania much earlier than Putin. In 1924, he had been arrested, trialed, and convicted of treason. But he denounced the verdict in his rebuttal: \u201cYou may pronounce us guilty a thousand times over, but the goddess of the eternal court of history will smile and tear to tatters the brief of the state prosecutor and the sentence of this court. For she acquits us.\u201d After his 24 days (about 3 and a half weeks) in court, he spent another 9 months in the Old Fortress at Landsberg where he dictated <\/span>Mein Kampf<\/span><\/i> to his forever loyal Rudolf Hess. \u00b2 His self-proclaimed bible fortified his quest for power and subjugation. Putin, likewise, has written lengthy treatises justifying his tactics, much of its philosophy torn from the pages of Ivan Ilyin\u2019s writings. Note that Ilyin \u201cbegan his article on \u2018Russian Nationalism\u2019 with the simple claim that \u2018National Russia has enemies.\u2019\u201d \u00b3 How frequently have we heard this refrain repeated by Putin? The world is Russia\u2019s enemy until subjugated by Russia under its nuclear umbrella. And Putin has no need to call upon some goddess to justify his actions, for Divine Providence already guides him. But, as warned in the Bible, \u201cBeware of false prophets who come to you in sheep\u2019s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves\u201d (Mathew, 7:15). And further, \u201cThey speak visions of their own mind, not from the mouth of the Lord.\u201d (Jeremiah, 23:16). One such ravenous wolf has concocted a scheme out of his bewitched mind to swallow up the nation of Ukraine. He has become our 21<\/span>st<\/span> Century Hitler. And the sword he wields is not the \u201csword of the spirit\u201d (Ephesians 6:17), nor Hitler\u2019s blitzkrieg, but a nuclear bomb. Putin threatens an apocalypse unless granted unbridled power over the lives of innocents.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The lesson of history here is plain: as Lord Acton stated, \u201call power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely.\u201d The quest for power is not an uncommon human trait. But so is the urge to form communities and social justice. For the past 234 years, the United States has struggled with both traits. How have we survived? The answer: we revive the power of our union and its guarantees of liberty and justice for all. And we do so at the polls. For example, we just voted out of office a pretend dictator. Throughout our history, we have used our Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms to correct any waywardness from their provisions and to right the course of our democracy. No human society is or remains innocent of wrongdoing. The virtue of democracy is its ability to right its course. When America loses this ability, it loses its place in history as perhaps the best hope for humankind. All who support democracy must stand together, otherwise we will face the same recourse that the Russian people face today, that is, subjugation to a maniacal tyrant or\u2014in America\u2019s case\u2014to a rogue political party fallen under the spell of a Putinesque fanatic. Of course, our \u201cfanatic\u201d is less likely to speak in religious terms, but in terms of wealth. But history has shown us that men who seek absolute power (yes, they are always men) surround themselves with sycophants who feed off the trough of that power.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Americans must support Ukrainians, for their struggle is the same as ours. They were developing a democracy just as we have been struggling to preserve ours. Our futures are intertwined. And the world depends upon our success in this struggle. May God help the Ukrainian people and guide us to form societies and governments that guarantee liberty and justice for all.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The alternative is a return to feudal conditions, aristocratic rule, and sworn loyalty to a monarchized system under a soulless dictator.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span> ______________________________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u00b9 If you really want to understand this man and his objectives, read \u201cMr. Putin,\u201d authored by Fiona Hill and Clifford G. Gadddy.\u00a0And, if you want to know how he rose to such power, read Karen Dawisha\u2019s \u201cPutin\u2019s Kleptocracy,\u201d where his brutal rise is extensively documented.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b2 William L. Shirer, \u201cThe Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,\u201d pp. 75-79 (quote taken from P.78).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b3 Timothy Snyder, \u201cThe Road to Unfreedom, p.28.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although Hitler made a fortune on the publication of Mein Kampf, few people have read his diatribe wherein he declared his hatred of democracy, Marxism and the Jews, and his belief that the Aryan race\u2014in particular, the Germanic\u2014was divinely decreed as the master race. Well, if you missed your chance to learn about his part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-domesticissues","category-foreignpolicy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3UqUK-nW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1484"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1661,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484\/revisions\/1661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}