why freedom matters in Belarus…Georgia…Romania and Beyond
Originally published at Perches in the Soul. You can comment here or there.
There was an article about Belarus in The Wall Street Journal this weekend!!! I am pleased to hear that people care. Because it really does matter and its not just the principal of thing. The article talks about how what happens with Russia’s future is an inside and outside political game. The outside is the former soviet republics and satellite nations like Romania. These countries are what separate Russia from Europe and really from the rest of the western world. These countries are small and most Americans probably couldn’t pick them out on a map but their freedom is essential to peace and stability in the region and really the world.  Russia has cut down on religious freedom and freedom of the press in recent years, all NGO (charities, churches, human rights groups) have to register with the government, prominent journalists have been killed in the dead of the night. This may not make the evening news 7000 miles away in Washington but it matters.
Why you ask? The usual reasons things matter in foreign policy: oil, power and blood. Russia controls a big part of Europe’s oil supply and the oil passes through many of the former soviet republics. Russia has friends like Iran and China. Russia is becoming better armed all time and already has increasingly bad human rights record. I am not suggesting that we as the west should go in and try to mess around with the region and play police or micromanger for these corrupt, struggling infant democracies but we shouldn’t take them for granted.
Let’s all remember that it was our indifference after helping the Afghans win against the soviets that brought us the Taliban…
not the same situation, but the same principal. The battle for a free whole Europe is not over, its really only just begun.