Opinion

When Did Russia Become Our Enemy?

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Elliot Resnick Chief editor of The Jewish Press
Font Size:

Liberal pundits consistently act shocked that Donald Trump seems not to regard Russia as America’s sworn enemy.  Their stance, though, is inexplicable to me.  When, pray tell, did Russia become our implacable foe?  In what sense, exactly, does Russia threaten the United States?

Listening to these pundits, you’d think we were still fighting the Cold War.  For over four decades the Soviet Union posed an existential threat to the United States.  Committed to Marxist ideology, the USSR fomented worldwide revolution and sought the annihilation of capitalism.  The United States – as capitalism’s torchbearer – was thus the USSR’s greatest enemy.

The Cold War, though, is over.  Russia may not be a modern democracy, but it no longer embraces communism and no longer hosts an intelligence apparatus promoting proletariat revolutions around the globe.  In other words, Russia poses no direct threat to the United States – or even Western Europe for that matter.  At best, it poses a threat to some of the old Soviet satellite states.  But a threat to Estonia, Latvia, or Ukraine is not a threat to the Unites States.

What should concern liberal “elites” is radical Islam – or, as some would call it, traditional Islam.  Like the old USSR, radical Islam dreams of global domination and sees the United States as the cradle of evil on this earth.  Tens, if not hundreds, of millions of Muslims dream of America’s destruction and nearly every week now we read of a member of the “religion of peace” slaughtering people in the name of Allah as part of a worldwide jihad against the West.

But liberals say virtually nothing about radical Islam.  When a Muslim slits the throat of a Catholic priest in France, the Democrats can’t even deign to mention it at their convention.  But Trump’s Russia comments?  Those apparently are too important to ignore.

Saudi Arabia is arguably the world’s largest exporter of terrorism, yet we treat its leaders as friends.  Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism and may soon become a nuclear power, yet we give it $150 billion.  China – with leaders as fanatical and steel-willed as those who led Japan in 1941 and who may very well launch World War III one day – is also handled with kids’ gloves by our pundits and leaders.  But Russia?  This country apparently deserves our unreserved enmity.

We need to get smart, as Trump would say.  Russia has zero designs on the Western world.  At worst, Vladimir Putin wants to restore Russia to its former glory under the czars.  In the meantime, he hates radical Islam.  So why not ally with him in crushing this cancer?  Why treat him as a pariah?  George W. Bush famously got along with him.  Why can’t this president – or the next one?

My point is simple: Russia is not the Soviet Union.  Let’s stop living in the past, and let’s start opening our eyes to our true enemies.

Elliot Resnick is an editor and writer for The Jewish Press and author of “Movers and Shakers: Sixty Prominent Personalities Speak Their Mind on Tape.”

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel