The (Ex) Washington Realist

I am not sure it is really important (thugh think it is) but there is no logical equivalence in the U.S. and Russia's claims about nations being free to choose alliances. First of all, the Russians don't mean that they must form a bond with, say, Venezuela simply because the latter wants or needs it. At the same time, this is more or less what the speakers at that symposium seem to imply in regard to Eastern Europe and America. Second, and more importantly, I guess nobody believes that people in charge of American foreign policy are serious about this freedom. Eastern Europe must be free to choose an alliance, of course, with the U.S. only.

This whole "debate" highlights very well how hypocrisy makes a country disfunctional in an area, about which it cannot speak honestly to itself. It blocks any real debate, it scares serious and honest people out of the field. Unfortunately, demagoguery is best done by fools. In the area of international policy, the U.S. has long become a slave of its own lies, much like the old USSR. Fortunately for the Russians, it doesn't seem to ne the case with them. Probably they've learned their lesson.
 

High time to use some other folks at such gatherings.