NY Times - January 27, 2002

Organizing the World to Fight Terror

By IGOR S. IVANOV

This is FS Net reaction to Ivanov's editorial piece in NY Times that is available at:

The barbaric acts of terrorists in New York and Washington were indeed a tragedy of worldwide scale. It is no coincidence that President Vladimir Putin compared them with the Nazi crimes of World War II.

If they are barbaric then why your government continue to finance those who perform barbaric acts? Why not imposing sanctions on Iran and Iraq and stop exporting nuclear and military technologies to those countries? Russia recently announced selling nuclear reactors to Burmese junta and North Korean communist leadership. Isn't it the time to stop being a hypocrite? Who had the motive to commit those barbaric acts? Arab extremists who hate Israel and America or maybe someone who couldn't become WTO member, someone who long time complains about unfair and special conditions for joining WTO? Isn't it Russia that had the most grudge against WTO before September 11th? Isn't it true that after September 11th Russia's membership has been sped up and many conditions imposed to Russian membership have been removed?

It is impossible to compare Nazi crimes with communist crimes. During 40 years of Stalin's reign of terror, 60 million people ended up dead thanks to him while during 20 years of Mao's reign of terror another 60 million people ended their lives thanks to communist terror. If we add Pol Pot's crimes, Milosevic's crimes, Castro's crimes and crimes of all other communist criminals that would add up to around 250 million casualties not to mention trillions of dollars lost and hundreds of millions of human beings whose lives were shattered. It is a fact that communism (Red Death) is far bigger disaster than the Black Death that hit Europe in 14th century and took 25 million lives.

Half a century ago Russia and the United States, despite enormous political differences, combined efforts against Nazism.

So what? There are no Nazi states today, just Russian satellites who act like outlaws.

Now we are joined by common democratic values

What democratic values you have in Russia today? Closing independent TV stations, charging everyone with terrorism who opposes Kremlin Stalinist rule?

The defeat of the Taliban is only the beginning of a difficult road.

It is the road to final victory against communism. World Freedom Tour has just begun in Kabul.

Thus was born the United Nations, which has served as a universal mechanism ensuring world peace and security.

It is a fact that during existence of UN there's been more wars than ever before so please tell us was there just a single year where no wars have been waged in the world? Constant vetoes from superpowers and sharp divisions created state of constant chaos around the world.

We lack reliable mechanisms to counter them or to prevent new acts of terror, or to keep weapons of mass destruction from falling into the hands of terrorists.

Fact is that terrorists obtain weapons of mass destructions exclusively through Russia so it is mostly your problem but nobody is that stupid to believe that your statement is true. If it is so easy to obtain weapons of mass destruction in your country then how come Chechens or any other groups who oppose Kremlin can't obtain them in Russia? It is very convenient that all those Russian sponsored outlaw states who hate America easily obtain those weapons or technologies to produce them from Russia. Why is Russia currently building or delivering nuclear reactors to military junta in Burma, North Korea and Iran? Stop being hypocrite comrade Ivanov, Stalin days are long time gone. No one believes in Stalin's lies today.

Russian-American cooperation can play the decisive role in creating such a system.

How about withdrawing your support for outlaw countries like Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Cuba, Serbia and Belarus? That's all you need to do.

Common sense suggests that work in this direction would be better conducted under the auspices of the United Nations and on the basis of strengthening international law.

You and China are the biggest obstacles to that thanks to your constant vetoes and continuous support for unconditional sovereignty like it was case in Serbia in 1999 when Milosevic decided to destroy Albanians in Kosovo and you rejected any ideas of military intervention that would upheld international law and guaranteed basic human rights to all citizens of FRY.

Regional organizations can also contribute, as in the efforts to create a new quality in relations between Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The only purpose of NATO is to protect Europe from communist terror from Russia. There are no deals possible between NATO and Russia until democracy comes to Russia and people are able to elect their own government not to be governed by police state.

The experience of the last decade proves that such cooperation can be effective only if it is based on the principles of equality.

Outlaw states and Russia as their creator are and will be enemies of the civilized world forever until they either abandon their terrorist and totalitarian ways or they are defeated by the United states and NATO militarily.

At the same time our countries started a dialogue on a probable new agreement on deep cuts in strategic offensive weapons because we are no longer adversaries.

This is a good one! Don't make us laugh this much in the future. Totalitarianism and democracy will always be enemies.

It is symbolic of new global conditions that Afghanistan, which for decades was a stumbling block in relations between Moscow and Washington, has become an example of close cooperation of our countries in the struggle against terrorism.

Actually it was your imperialistic drive towards Indian Ocean which was the reason for your military intervention in 1979. that led to millions of casualties among Afghan people. I don't recall Afghanistan having territorial demands against U.S.S.R. or that anyone from Afghanistan committed any act of terror inside U.S.S.R. like it was the case with September 11th attacks on the United States. What is even worse is that some of the terror attacks recently in Russia were committed by FSB in order to blame Chechens to justify invasion and destruction of their homeland because of Russian imperialist ambitions. Those who want to tell the truth are kept silent and labeled as terrorists like it is the recent case with independent TV-6 and its owner Boris Berezovsky. His TV was brutally removed from air thanks to actions of the largest state oil company LUKOIL who was minority shareholder. That is not enough for Putin's FSB government so now he wants Mr. Berezovsky indicted on charges of terrorism!? I don't recall independent journalism being labeled as terrorism and if that is what you call terrorism than the United States and the rest of the world will fight you with all means necessary.

FS Net Editor

PS: This editorial was intentinaly delayed because of lack of news on recent terrorist charges brought by Russian FSB government against Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky. Full story is available here.