"The current relations between Russia and the West are largely determined by actions and decisions taken with the view of the tragic events," says Boris Makarenko.
Photo: Dmitry Lebedev
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The World without 9/11
The Price of the Question
There’s a simple way to found out how important a certain event is. All you have to do is imagine what would be if this event had not occurred. Where would America, Russia and the world be today if the 9/11 never happened?
America would have three thousand happy families of those who in reality died in the attack. Police would not be patrolling on trains to New York. Americans would be still coming to airports thirty minutes before the flight and would not have to take their shoes off for security control. Cars of American liberals would probably not be sporting “Big Brother Reads Your E-Mail” stickers. In another thing, America would not have the central national security hub.
There would surely be more far-reaching consequences. George W. Bush, the first U.S. president to lose the popular in 112 years, would not be the leader of a nation at war and would not secure himself the second term so easily. His administration would not be dominated by right-wing conservatives who dragged the nation into the reckless campaign in Iraq which has already killed almost as many Americans as the jets which crashed into the Twin Towers on 9/11. The nation would not be so bitterly divided, and the once perfectly safe American financial system would not be in financial crunch.
The name al-Qaeda would be known only in intelligence services. The Taliban would still rule Afghanistan, and Saddam Hussein would not have had a noose around his neck. Kyrgyzstan would not host the U.S. military base. The NATO would not be in a heretofore unimaginable split between Americans, Germans and the French.
What would happen to Russia? We would not hear these imbecile calculations that the total wealth of those killed in the New York towers would be enough to feed an African country during one year. This suggestion clearly comes from the they-had-it-coming sentiment. In Moscow, street vendors on Arbat would not be selling matryosha dolls with bin Laden’s face. There would be no sharp disappointment over the failed anti-terrorism alliance with the U.S. where Russia hoped to gain sizeable profits such as complete freedom to act in former Soviet republics. Relations with the West would not go sour so abruptly, triggered by the Iraq war and Crusade for Democracy. Then Russian authorities would find it more difficult to defend confrontation foreign policies and come up with an idea of the so-called sovereign democracy.
This short list of the consequences of 9/11 is enough to show that the current relations between Russia and the West are largely determined by actions and decisions taken with the view of the tragic events. On the one hand, international terrorism remains to be the common enemy. On the other, both Iraq and Crusade for Democracy keep Russia and the West far apart, sparking crises in Ukraine, Georgia, Kosovo and hindering discussion on the conventional Armed Forces in Europe treaty and the anti-missile defense.
The sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks was commemorated across the globe, Manhattan and the St. Catherine Church in Moscow alike. But mourning services are heard around the world which is still bitterly divided. We still have to bear the brunt of forcible decisions caused by policy makers’ inability to overcome disagreement in the name of war on the global threat.
Boris Makarenko, first deputy director of the Center for Political Technology
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 12, 2007
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