Defending Western Movie Values

I am beginning to lose track of who is posturing about what. In his most recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Secretary General of NATO present a breathtaking and head-spinning re-interpretation of the history of the last twenty-five years:

With Russia, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has tried long and hard to build a partnership that respects Russia’s security concerns and is based on international rules and norms. Regrettably, Russia has rejected our efforts to engage. Russia has trampled on all the rules and commitments that have kept peace in Europe and beyond since the end of the Cold War. It is now clear that Russia regards the West as an adversary, not a partner.

Handsome is as handsome does. I note that SG Rasmussen does not present a single instance of NATO having extended the hand of peace to Russia. Russians can offer dozens of examples of having been snubbed, dismissed, and opposed. Both of the examples SG Rasmussen presents, Ukraine and Syria, are cases in point.

In the Russian view the democratically-elected (and pro-Russian) government of Ukraine was overthrown in a violent coup by a group of right-wing Ukrainian nationalists with the support and/or connivance of the West. In the case of Syria could ISIS have risen there in the absence of Western support for forces opposing Assad (of which ISIS was one) or the support of Western allies? The Russians have been warning of exactly the outcome we’ve seen since the rebellion began.

SG Rasmussen portrays the course of action he supports as the defense of Western values:

Our liberal international order—embracing freedom, democracy, the market economy, common rules and norms, and renouncing territorial conquest—has brought unprecedented peace, progress and prosperity to billions of people. This has been an historic achievement. So we must stand up with greater confidence for our principles and our values.

These values are now under threat. They cannot be taken for granted. As we approach the end of over a decade of fighting in Afghanistan, there is a temptation to turn inward. But the world will not become less dangerous just because we wish it to be. Threats will not go away just because we want to look away. We must keep a global perspective and counter isolationism and retreat.

I don’t think he’s defending Western values. I think he’s defending Western movie values. You can tell the hero from the villain because the hero wears a white hat and the villain a black one. The Russians? They’re those guys over there in black hats.

The hero rides into town, defeats the black hat-wearing bad guy, and rides out again at sunset. In most of the world’s towns it is not nearly so simple. Once having ridden in we can’t simply ride out again, at least not without leaving chaos in our wake.

We need to learn that riding into town implies that we’ll be willing to stay indefinitely regardless of cost in lives or money. High Noon is the reality, not the Lone Ranger. I just don’t see us as willing to bear those costs.