Ending the New Cold War with Russia
Ambassador Jack Matlock, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen
I had a conversation with Jack Matlock and Alexander Mercouris. Matlock is the former US ambassador to the Soviet Union who participated in negotiating an end to the Cold War.
The Cold War was declared over in 1989, and President Bush had instructed his administration not to treat the fall of the Berlin Wall as the victory of one side over the other, as he was resolute that the negotiated end of the Cold War implied “there were no losers, only winners.” When the Soviet Union collapsed two years later, in December 1991, the foundations for a workable post-Cold War peace began to collapse. The dismantling of the Soviet Union and communism improved the conditions for pan-European security, although it also enabled the US to propagandize the end of the Cold War as a victory rather than a negotiated settlement. A false history was constructed to legitimise a world order based on US dominance, which is now falling apart.
The adverts on Youtube are intolerable! They can't be turned off, so I have to sit through that shit which I won't, so I never get to see the video. What a depressing situation.
Ambassador Matlock was knowledgeable, informative and refreshing, showing little blind 'my country, right or wrong' type bias. He also appeared both moral and practical (as do you all).
I generally find most of your videos worthwhile, although they are long on history and short on analysis that seeks to explicitly predict the potential next steps in the conflicts. I find Alexander Mercouris generally quite reticent in considering the ways things may turn out disastrously.
As someone trained as a Neuropsychologist, I can tell you the human brain is specialized to predict the future. We do it, whether we are aware or not, because we do everything we do.
Yes, the past is very important, but less because it is an interesting story, and mainly because it allows us to have a basis upon which to predict the future... so that we can decide whether to take action and which actions are likely to work best, given our motivation.
As the Moderator, I submit that you stop your guests from talking about the past about 3/4 through the discussion and get them focused on applying what they have talked about, giving their honest and considered view of the various potential paths forward.