Yeltsin is ready for battle, are you?

When Boris Yeltsin arrived in Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday, reporters asked
about his health. Yeltsin answered the reporters, saying, “I’m in
fighting form, ready for battle, especially with Westerners.”

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov tried to translate Yeltsin’s
remark into more diplomatic language, saying that Yeltsin “was talking
about the fact that … there is an ongoing struggle over the future
global order. China and Russia and a lot of other governments are for a
multi-polar world in the interests of all states.”

In other words, according to Russia’s foreign minister, the United
States wants to dominate the world and dictate terms, making other
countries serve America’s national interest.

Given this extraordinary statement about America’s position in the
world, we should ask ourselves: Is this really true? Are we a kind of
empire, greedy for hegemony and world domination?

There are those in America who think that we have become a threat to
peace. These people are disgruntled by internationalism in American
foreign policy, they are distrustful of Washington, and they hate
American big business — pointing to our recent intervention in Kosovo.
In fact, these
people sound a bit like the Russian and Serbian Communists in their
rhetoric.

Is America an imperialistic country as the Communists have long
claimed? Does America conspire against the good people of the world? Is
America forcing other countries to serve its interests?

On the contrary, a case can be made that the United States doesn’t
even serve its own interests. In terms of Kosovo, America gained nothing
from the intervention except an ongoing headache. As for what America
lost, there was a huge price tag on that intervention. We were forced to
convert a large number of nuclear cruise missiles into conventional
cruise missiles, decreasing our nuclear war readiness. We also lost the
good will of the Russian people, who are now prepared to vote for the
Communists, neo-Communists, and nationalists in the upcoming elections.

Is that how you dominate the globe? Is that how you force other
countries to serve your interests? What was President Clinton out to
gain by his Balkan adventure? There was nothing to gain. Perhaps we won
the good will of the Albanian people, but how is that going to help us
as Moscow and Beijing draw ever closer at the summit in Bishkek? It may
be controversial to say this, but the real threat to world peace lies in
Moscow and Beijing, as they continue to funnel weapons of mass
destruction to rogue states like North Korea, Iraq, Iran, and Syria.

Ironically, one of the things discussed in yesterday’s meeting
between the presidents of Russia and China, was how Moscow and Beijing
might oppose U.S. plans for a theatre missile defense. Meanwhile,
General Anatoly Kornukov, chairman of the coordinating committee of the
united air defense system of the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS), and commander in chief of Russia’s air force, has been leading a
military exercise called “Comradeship-in-arms 99.” It involves several
“former” Soviet countries, including Russia, Belarus, Armenia,
Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Kornukov’s war game is meant to test the CIS
air defense system — a kind of system unlike any in the world. Its
mission is to shoot down American missiles and bombers in a future
nuclear world war.

Here is the irony: Russia and China object to missile defenses for
America and its allies. At the same time, Russia and its “former” Soviet
republics are perfecting their own missile defense systems. This double
standard, by the way, is acceptable to President Clinton, who tends to
sympathize with the Russians on arms control issues. In fact, Clinton
has resisted calls to drop the ABM Treaty which is preventing us from
deploying ABMs to protect the United States. If anyone thinks America is
dominating the globe and bullying other people, it is time to think
again. How can we be forcing our will on other countries when we are
unable to defend ourselves because the Russians won’t give us permission
to drop the ABM Treaty?

Here is a perfect example of America putting the interests of Russia
ahead of its own national survival. Russia has been violating the ABM
Treaty for many years by deploying between 10,000 and 12,000 ABMs for
defense. The United States currently has no ABM defenses, no civil
defense shelters, and is extremely vulnerable to missile attack. All the
same, Russia wags its finger at us and says, “No, no, no, you cannot
deploy an ABM defense shield.”

Furthermore, when we try to create a theatre missile defense for
countries like Japan, a huge uproar follows. That uproar always comes
from Russia and China. These countries do not want America and its
allies to be defended from missile attack. And we have — so far — gone
along with this.

Such a big mean bully we are!

In this context, the idea of some sinister conspiracy by America or
NATO against the Serbian or Russian people is off the mark. Whatever we
may think of Clinton, he is not conspiring against the Serbian or
Russian people. Strangely, he is one of Russia’s best friends. Violating
the NATO charter
and violating Yugoslav sovereignty didn’t strengthen America’s global
position. It weakened NATO even as it bolstered the political standing
of the warmongers in Russia and China.

In the last analysis, as you look around the globe, the countries
that most often talk about a nuclear world war are those supported by
Russia and China. North Korea says the nuclear war is imminent. Saddam
Hussein has also intimated that “the final showdown” with America is
coming soon.

You have to listen carefully to what is being said. There are
dictators and terrorists out there who want to wipe America off the map.
Not only do these people thrive, but they are supported by Moscow and
Beijing. A thinking person has to ask why this support continues, and
why the leaders of these countries have the nerve to level accusations
against America.

The Russian leaders have a vicious mentality. Whatever you say, their
words and deeds are indefensible. They take billions of dollars from us,
and billions in food aid for their people, and they work against us on
every front. They speak ill of us at every turn. They conspire to assist
those
who would destroy us. In fact, they are building a war machine with
which to destroy the United States of America.

It is a vicious dog that bites the hand that feeds it.

America’s survival is at stake. The threats against us are very real.
And that is why it is wrong for Americans to fall prey to enemy
propaganda. It is wrong to say that we are the evil empire, that we are
planning a world war. The fact is, we have never prepared for a nuclear
world war. Our
nation is oriented entirely toward economics, not conquest. We are not
the enslavers of Tibet or the North Caucasus. We do not run a vast
system of forced labor camps.