Russia

In the 19th century before and after the Crimean war [1854-55] quite a few British politicians observed that Russia could be trusted less than the Arabs. Like the Arabs, the Russians were enigmatic, deceitful and unpredictable. As a popular song circa 1878 recorded, "We don't want to fight, but by jingo if we do...We've got the ships, we've got the men, and got the money too! We've fought the Bear before...and while we're Britons true...The Rooshuns shall not have Constantinople..." The song aptly sums up the fear of Russian expansionism. Fast forward to today and the same fears apply.

Back in the 19th century the Rooshuns were an obvious threat to British control of the Middle East. Allowing the legions of Tsarist Russia to control Constantinople, the Dardanelles and the eastern Mediterranean and influencing the entire Near East was viewed as a political-economic threat worthy of war. Hence the Franco-British support of Islamic Turkey against Russia in the Crimean war. This effort effectively saved the tottering Ottoman empire and kept Russian influence out of Greece and the Near East until after World War II.

But the Russians, stubborn, proud, mischievous and sure of themselves never relented from imperial ambition. Dictatorial, non-Western and tyrannical regimes have ruled Russia for 1000 years. In 1917 they invent a fantasy ideology, a brother to the future fascism of Hitler, and named it Communism. The only communal aspect of Russian fascism was its shared mass misery and colossal piles of dead. Post 1989 we now have Putinism a dictatorship by a gang in the Kremlin modeled on the old Tsars employing modern technology and Soviet style propaganda and controlling all industry deemed to be pertinent to national power.

As British Prime Minister Palmerston remarked in the mid 19th century: "Peace is an Excellent Thing, and War is a great Misfortune. But there are many things more valuable than Peace, and many things much worse than war. The maintenance of