Publius' Forum

-By Warner Todd Huston

Gorbie is wagging his finger at that big, bad U.S.A. and ABC News is helping him do it.

In a piece by Claire Shipman, Mikhail Gorbachev is claiming that we ”Americans Have a Severe Disease” because we see ourselves as “winners”, but that Russia’s attacks on democracy are just “some mistakes” made.

And once again, Ronald Reagan -- the man who REALLY ended the Cold War -- is ignored by a fawning media falling all over itself to genuflect at the feet of failed leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.

The pieces starts with this idiotic paragraph:

“Mikhail Gorbachev is generally regarded as the man who broke down the ‘iron curtain’ that separated the communist world from the West and thawed the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.”

No, Mz. Shipman, only the MSM imagines that Gorbie broke down the Iron Curtin. Anyone with any knowledge of the era knows it was the strength and good sense of Ronald Reagan that ended the Cold War and set the Soviets on the path of their last steps to dissolution.

To be fair, Gorbie did lightly scold Russian president Vladimir Putin … but only lightly.

Gorbachev said of Putin, "Putin has used and he will continue to use authoritarian measures…” But Gorbachev is sure that everything is going fine, just the same. “… but Russia will form a democracy. I know Vladimir Putin. He is a moral person”, Gorbachev concluded.

Yet, this “moral man” has cancelled elections, used his government to forcibly take over private businesses, jailed competitors and shored up a neighboring authoritarian, anti-democratic regime.

And of these many mistakes Gorbachev says “so what?”

"We have made some mistakes," he said, referring to recent attacks on Russia's democracy. "So what? Please don't put even more obstacles in our way. Do you really think you are smarter than we are?"

But for the leaders of the country that has freed a people, helped set up and foster elections, and fought terror all across the world, Gorbachev has nothing but harsh words.

According to Gorbie…

Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney are, "… are just hawks protecting the interests of the military -- shallow people,"

And he “wryly” said of Bush, "He's very determined. You can't say he does not have character."

But he reserves his worst criticism for the entire American people. "Americans have a severe disease -- worse than AIDS. It's called the winner's complex," Gorbie opined.

The Gorbie love ends with his last statement, "I want my grandchildren to live in a democratic country -- in a peaceful world. But it's hard to imagine because there are so many answers we still need to find."

I don’t doubt that it is “hard” for him “to imagine” since he excuses the anti-democratic actions of Putin but thinks the pro-democratic actions of the U.S.A. is a bad thing!

And leave it to the MSM to slavishly listen to this old crank’s nonsense.