Moscow Warns of a New Cold War
Soviet View of History Dominates "New Russia"
March 10, 2003
By Toby Westerman
Copyright 2003 International News Analysis Today
www.inatoday.com
As the United States and its allies prepare massive invasion and long-term occupation of Iraq, America's "strategic ally" in the war on terror is warning of "a new Cold War," which would "jeopardize the most important achievements" in recent U.S.-Russian relations.
The trigger for another Cold War is the U.S. determination to act independently in world affairs -- especially with help from Great Britain.
Moscow condemns the present willingness of the U.S. and Britain to "go it alone" in their confrontation with Iraq, and attributes U.S.-British cooperation to Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister during WWII and staunch anti-communist. Churchill is also the cause of the first Cold War, according to Moscow.
The assertions were carried by the Voice of Russia World Service, official broadcasting service of the Russian government.
Moscow is taking particular exception to Churchill's March 1946 "Iron Curtain Speech" in Fulton, Missouri. In the address, Churchill coined the term "Iron Curtain," as he described Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and most of the Balkan Peninsula. The speech is generally credited with rallying the free world against Stalinist military expansion.
Employing Soviet Cold War clichés, however, Moscow describes Churchill as seeking to "eliminate the …balance of power in the world. Churchill dreamed of using force against [the Soviet Union]," declared Moscow.
The "balance of power" to which Moscow refers is the Soviet military occupation of Eastern Europe. Although Russia did not possess nuclear weapons at the time of the "Iron Curtain" speech, the Soviet Union acquired atomic weaponry in 1949 through espionage networks in the U.S. and Britain.
U.S. and British cooperation against the USSR "became an ideological principle of British and American leadership for so many years," Moscow stated.
Following Churchill's speech and Truman's assistance to Greece and Turkey the following year, "a new alliance [NATO] was set up [in 1949] …[and] Europe evolved into two camps…" declared Moscow.
Observers note that Europe did not "evolve" into "two camps," but resulted from the existence of two very different societies. The free and democratic West stood in sharp contrast with the Soviet-dominated, communist East.
Churchill recognized the reality - as did few others - that the West faced the real possibility of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin launching a successful attack into the heart of a still-devastated Western Europe from bases in Eastern Europe - behind the "Iron Curtain."
Churchill firmly believed that America's possession of atomic weaponry prevented an attack by the numerically superior Red Army immediately after the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
The threat of a Red Army attack upon Western Europe remained a constant danger from the end of WWII.
Moscow today states that there is a "new relationship" between the U.S. and "democratic" Russia, especially following the terror attacks of September 11. Russia and the United States are "partners" in the war on terror, the Voice of Russia asserts.
Despite declarations of cooperation with the U.S., the "new" Russia is renewing old Soviet propaganda attacks not only aimed against Churchill, but particularly against the United States.
Moscow periodically denounces the concept of an "axis of evil," declaring that the U.S. "needs an enemy as much as it needed an enemy during the Cold War," and is reviving Soviet-era charges that Washington seeks "global superiority" and "world domination." Moscow declares that the war on terror is really
an extension of Harry Truman's Cold War policies.
America's "partner" in the war on terror maintains its Soviet-era alliance with every nation which the U.S. considers to be a supporter of terrorism, including Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.
While America's "strategic ally" in the war on terror aids those nations supporting terror networks, the U.S. faces a growing threat, apart from Iraq, of well-trained terror cells operating in Latin America.
In our next report, International News Analysis Today will look at the Latin America terror threat and how it is financed, as well as provide updates on the Iraq crisis in the "Headlines" section on INA Today's homepage.
Copyright 2003
International News Analysis Today
INA Today.com
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