Bush – Putin Summit : a suggested agenda

Before visiting Moscow this week, Condoleezza Rice let loose a litany of complaints about Vladimir Putin's Russia.

It's no wonder Russians complain about mixed signals from Washington. This waffling, between public berating of Putin for squeezing the opposition and public praise for Russia's anti-terrorism activity, ultimately supports the status quo. This is just what Putin wants - he said himself at his meeting Wednesday with Rice that he hopes relations stay exactly as they are. And despite talk of Russia being a test case for U.S. President George W. Bush's democracy-spreading global agenda, the status quo seems to suit Bush fine for now, too.

Now before we continue with our hectoring of President Putin on Democracy in Russia, we need to remember that for freedom to be secure in the long run, it has to be curtailed in the short run, till the murderous mentality of those who want to establish a theocracy based on the murderous mentality of Islam are not eliminated like Aslan Maskhadov was. Only after all such criminals are no more, can our experiment with democracy bring peace. President Bush needs to keep this in mind while formulating the future strategy of the Global War on Terror (GWOT). He can learn a lesson or two from President Putin, instead of hectoring him on the niceties and civilities to be observed by a leader of a democratic nation.

We also need to recollect how during World War 2, we destroyed the Nazis by allying ourselves with Stalin’s USSR and China (then under joint Nationalist and Communist rule) which hardly were democratic nations, so we should have no hassles about aligning with Russia and China today to destroy terrorism. Islamic Terrorism is far more pervasive than was Nazism, since Islam is basically a form of theology-inspired terrorism having an emotional grip on the psyche of one billion and a half Muslims.

Presidents Bush and Putin need to stop Russian-American relations from going into a nosedive

If not halted soon, the nosedive in these relations will be a cause of worry for the future course of the War on Terror.

We agree that both the USA ad Russia are different countries and have divergent interests, but they also have one overriding common cause in fighting and winning the war on terror.

Both of us are fighting the same enemy. But both have divergent interests too. The Russians were wanting to have pro-Russian governments in Georgia and in Ukraine, These Russian objectives have been frustrated by the West, mainly by the USA. Yes, the current governments there represent the will of a majority of the people of Georgia and Ukraine, but are not those which Russia would have preferred viz., Eduard Shevardnadze in Georgia and Viktor Yanukovich in the Ukraine. The West disregarded Russian preferences and let the anti-Russian, but popularly supported leaders like Viktor Yushchenko, (the current president of Ukraine) and Mikhail Saakashvili (the current President of Georgia), to get elected. But then when fighting a common enemy and that too one who is as cut-throat as the Jihadis the Russians and the Americans needs to overlook, such small niceties.

This message holds true for both the USA and Russia. If not, both will undermine each other in the common effort to the benefit of the Jihadis and to the detriment of the entire civilized world.

Yes, immediately after 9/11, the Russian President Vladimir Putin had asked the Americans to jointly undertake the fight against the Jihadis, by first targeting Saudi Arabia the fountainhead of the Jihadi terrorist outlook. But the USA baulked at the prospect of upsetting oil supplies to the West, and decided to go after Iraq, following the successful completion of the short and swift Afghan campaign. The American aim in attacking Iraq was to frighten the Saudis into co-operating. This has worked only partly, as seen in the perfunctory efforts being made by the Saudis in fighting terror on their homeland, and making cosmetic changes in their school curriculums, which call for death to all non-Muslims and holding all male elections to local civic bodies.

But these Saudi efforts are only meant to stave off any resolute US action against the Saudis. As 9/11 told the USA and the West about the ruthlessness of the Jihadis, Beslan did so to the Russians. Both are convinced that the Jihadis have to be fought to a finish. But the Cold War temperament still hangs over the mindset of both the USA and Russia and so both continue to play petty games to outwit the other. This could prove disastrous for the war effort and benefit the Jihadis.

The moves by the USA to support the Viktor Yushchenko, the president of Ukraine and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili have not gone down well with Russia and President Putin in particular – who is a very sensitive but a determined person. He struck back by offering to sell missiles to Syria and give nuclear technology to Iran. We realize these moves could turn out eventually to be feints to deflect any further anti-Russian moves by the USA. But such moves hurt the overall effort in the war against terror.

After Beslan, the Russians had said that their military is readying itself to strike at terrorists everywhere across the globe. But helping out Iran and Syria with nuclear and missile technology is hardly a way to do so!

And unlike Nazism, Islam is not limited mainly to one nation. So it is all the more critical for the USA and Russia to unite on the war on terror, without making a fuss about the perfections of Russian Democracy. Let the Russian people worry about that. Russia under whatever form of government does not threaten the security of the USA. So President Bush needs to be focused on the commonality of interests between the two, rather than on the different ideas that he and President Putin have about democracy for our respective countries.

The same holds true for China and its human rights record. The Chinese human rights record too, does not threaten American security interests. So it would be foolish for the USA to be fastidious on this issue of democracy in Russia and China. And it would be wise for the Americans and Russians to learn from history. When the Terrorism of the Islamic Jihad started 1400 years back from Arabia, the Muslims faced two formidable powers of those days the Byzantine (Roman) Empire and the Sassanid (Persian) Empire. These two empires were rivals of each other and had fought a protracted war, quite similar to the Cold War of our age. When the Islamic Arab invasion began, these two powers refused to display foresight and did not unite against the Islamic Jihad, and consequently the Muslims defeated and destroyed both the empires one after another, and forcibly converted the population to Islam. Today the Muslim Jihadis hope that Americans and Russians also play the role of the Byzantines and Sassanids so that the Muslims could once again prevail over both. In fact the Al Qaeda, refers to the Americans as Rome and the Russians as Persia. We hope this wisdom dawns on the Americans and Russians too. We also hope that the camaraderie displayed when the two Presidents met at Bratislava is preserved and shapes the future course of relations between these two great nations - the United States and the Russian Federation. And most importantly, we hope that as a follow up, to the Bratislava summit, the upcoming Moscow summit (when Bush visits Russia), really serves its purpose, by culminating in the formation of a formal Russo-American military alliance that would decisively defeat the Islamic Jihad and destroy this threat to civilization once and forever.

So can the Moscow Summit, replicate the understanding generated at the Tehran and Yalta Summits between Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill during World WarII?

We Americans would do well to remember that in a long term and titanic effort which the war on terror is going to be, there need to be many small compromises. The Russian aberrations with regard to democratic finesse and niceties need to be ignored and the USA also needs to be far more sensitive to Russia's sensibilities. Only then can a rock solid alliance among all Western (Latin American, Asian and African) nations be formed. An alliance of which the USA, Russia, France, UK, Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Spain, Italy, as also India and China would be an active military a part. The USA cannot fight and win this war alone. It is high time we Americans showed more maturity and far-sightedness in dealing with potential allies like Russia China and others.

Such and understanding can be the basis for an the agenda of the upcoming Bush – Putin Summit. Is any one from the White House and the Kremlin reading this?

Story credits: Novosti and News on Terror