Iron Curtain, Part II
Filed under: Russia
I have a strong admiration and regard for the valiant Russian people and for my wartime comrade, Marshal Stalin. There is deep sympathy and goodwill in Britain -- and I doubt not here also -- toward the peoples of all the Russias and a resolve to persevere through many differences and rebuffs in establishing lasting friendships. It is my duty, however, to place before you certain facts about the present position in Europe. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow. The safety of the world, ladies and gentlemen, requires a unity in Europe, from which no nation should be permanently outcast. It is from the quarrels of the strong parent races in Europe that the world wars we have witnessed, or which occurred in former times, have sprung.--Winston Churchill, Fulton Missouri, March 5, 1946
Just as it was the British who warned us half a century ago of the dangers brewing in the USSR, the valiant Britons once again step to the forefront to warn us in the strongest, clearest terms about the threat we now face from neo-Soviet Russia. Faced with Russian refusal to extradite accused Litvinenko killer Andrei Lugovoi (as we've already shown, the Kremlin's constitution-based excuses are a pure sham), Britain has done the only thing it could do, respond with an appropriate show of force, and expelled four Russian diplomats from London.
Do you dare to imagine the reaction of the Russians, dear reader, if a publicly anti-American U.S. defector, living in Russia, were suddenly killed by radioactive poisoning in Moscow, with contamination spread around the city endangering thousands, and the Kremlin announced it knew who the killer was, and he was in Washington DC, and America refused to extradite him for trial in Russia? Can you imagine how the headlines of Russia's state-owned newspapers would scream?
It is time for the world to hear Britain's valiant warning and act on it, to rally to Britain's cause and demand that Russia give the Litvinenko killing justice rather than obstruction. It is time for the people of Russia to feel the consequences of endorsing KGB rule of their country, time to stand up for the values of democracy that have given us such a high standard of living, so far above the squalor that is modern Russia (with its sub-60 male lifespan and $3/hour average wage). America in particular must stand resolutely beside her British allies, just as Tony Blair stood beside George Bush before the US Congress in the aftermath of 9/11.
For once again, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent.
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