West Coast Observer: An abhorrent admiration

Let’s not have a repeat

By William Silveira

I happened to view the PBS News Hour with Judy Woodruff on February 15, and I came away shocked and frightened for the future of our country and the world.
    I am sure that many of you have read about the glowing reports of the wonderful work Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party were doing in Germany in the 1930’s. Their false and fatuous view of what was going on helped cement Hitler’s grip on power in Germany during that era. Among the Americans who were taken in by Hitler and the Nazis were Charles Lindbergh and Joseph Kennedy. Now I see the same sort of line being taken by Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, and a consultant to the American oil industry.
    You can watch Judy Woodruff’s interview of Page (or read the transcript) here, on the pbs.org website. The “graduation speech” Page refers to seems to be the one he gave in Moscow on December 12 last year^*. Why would a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign be giving a graduation speech at a school in Moscow?
    I was not particularly interested in whether Page had discussions with Russian operatives about the 2016 presidential campaign, or not. He denies it. What I found repugnant and concerning was his obvious willingness to overlook all of the evil things perpetrated by Putin and the Russian government and assert that we need to look at things from their point of view. Their point of view is that Russia lost control of Eastern Europe with the breakdown of the Soviet government in the early 90’s and that they should regain that control, because Eastern Europe should be in the Russian sphere of influence. Never mind that these countries don’t want to have their lives directed by the likes of Putin and his cronies.
    Carter’s view also overlooks the Russian alliance in Syria on behalf of the Syrian dictator, Assad. Assad’s murderous campaign has been aided by Russian rockets against civilian targets, with the displacement of millions of people. (But Carter and Trump don’t want them here!)
    Admiration for the most abhorrent totalitarian dictatorship the world had yet seen in the 1930’s led to a devastating war when it was almost too late to resist it. Page has long ties with the Russian oil and gas oligarchy, which forms an important power base for Putin. Trump has shown himself very willing to defer to the oil and gas industry. If Trump and his advisors share Page’s views of Russian intentions, we could find our national defense seriously weakened.
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* Carter Page’s graduation speech in Moscow, December 12, 2016 [about an hour]:

Copyright © 2017 by William Silveira