The Weekly Buchanan: Blowback from Moscow

A brilliant analysis by Mr. Buchanan on what our policy of "interventionism" has wrought with one of the world's most powerful countries:

The nationalism and anti-Americanism rife in Putin's Russia is blowback for our contemptuous disregard of Russian sensibilities and our arrogant intrusions into Russia's space. How did we lose a Russia that Ronald Reagan and Bush I had virtually converted into an ally?

We pushed NATO into Moscow's face, bringing six ex-Warsaw Pact nations and three ex-Soviet republics – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – into our Cold War alliance and plotted to bring in Ukraine and Georgia.

We financed a pipeline from Baku through Georgia to the Black Sea to cut Russia out of the Caspian oil trade. After getting Moscow's permission to use old Soviet bases in Central Asia to invade Afghanistan, we set about making the bases permanent. We pulled out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty over Moscow's objection, then announced plans to plant ABM radars in the Czech Republic and anti-missile missiles in Poland.

Putin has now responded in kind, and who can blame him?

What's interesting is that Putin's view that the United States has used the "War on Terror" to gain geopolitical advantage is the same as his political adversary Gary Kasparov (interview with Bill Maher here). The question must be asked: Has our foreign policy post 9/11 lead us into another Cold War?

Read Pat's column here.