McCain's People and Obama's People Are Heading For Moscow

by ANDREI TEREKHOV, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, August 6, 2008

We have learned of a bipartisan commission being set up in the USA to prepare a report for the next president regarding Washington's policy on Russia. The commission includes politicians, diplomats, and experts - including some with direct influence on the foreign policy views of the presidential candidates. According to our sources, the commission will send a delegation to Moscow in November.

With three months to go before the US presidential election, the Nixon Center and the Belfer Center at Harvard University have initiated the formation of a commission to analyze Washington's policy on Moscow.

The group's task is to convey to the next president the importance of maintaining constructive relations between the USA and Russia. The co-chairs of the new commission are Senator Chuck Hagel (Republican) and former senator Gary Hart (Democrat). Judging by the group's composition, it intends to send a loud
political message. Its activities are supposed to result in a substantial report, to be delivered to the president-elect by the end of this year.

The commission is supposed to prepare the report for the next leader, as well as for the new Congress and interested members of the public; it is also supposed to evaluate US national interests and priorities in relations with Russia. It has been set the task of presenting some recommendations to the next president's
administration on advancing American interests in the course of interaction with the Russian Federation.

The commission includes few academics specializing in Russia, but plenty of people directly involved in American policy-making, with practical experience in the Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, and Bush administrations. It includes Pete Peterson, former commerce secretary and board member at the Council on Foreign Relations; Robert Blackwell, former aide to the National Security Advisor; General Charles Boyd, former deputy commander of US forces in Europe; Richard Bat, former deputy secretary of state in the Reagan administration; James Collins, director of Russian and Eurasian programs with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former ambassador to Russia; Susan Eisenhower, president of The Eisenhower Group; and Robert Ellsworth, former deputy defense secretary and envoy to NATO.

The commission also includes some specialists who have made recent direct contributions to shaping American policy on Russia: Thomas Graham, special presidential aide and senior director for Russia in the National Security Council during the Bush administration, and Graham's predecessor in that role, Mark
Medish.

Carla Hills, former US representative at trade negotiations, will help shape the next US president's views on Russian-American economic cooperation and its prospects. Developing cooperation in nuclear weapons non-proliferation should be handled by former senator Sam Nunn, who worked with Richard Lugar to lay the
foundations for a program aimed at ensuring security for nuclear materials in Russia. The commission's list of heavyweight experts also includes two former national security advisors: Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft and Robert Macfarlane.

We have obtained a copy of a statement from the commission, stressing that each of its members is acting in an individual capacity. But it's hard to ignore the fact that it includes advisors to Barack Obama and John McCain. For example, Chuck Hagel recently accompanied Obama on a tour abroad. Sam Nunn and Lee
Hamilton are among the leading foreign policy advisor to the Democratic candidate. Macfarlane and Bart are acting as advisors to McCain.

The bipartisan nature of the commission makes it likely that its recommendations will be heeded by either Obama or McCain, whichever of them wins the election.

One way or another, observers agree that both Obama and McCain could become entirely different people - and perhaps more pragmatic leaders - after moving into the White House. Rather than the dramatic slogans they use today, they will need quality analysis, in areas including Russian-American relations. This should be provided by the new commission, which will send a delegation to Moscow in November, after the election. According to our sources, the visitors may be received at the highest level.

Translated by InterContact

Comments

[Howard Mettee]

I don't know what has happened to the Western media or the liberal press. They used to at least attempt to present a balanced picture, and in many cases succeeded. Maybe since 9/11 they have been gathering their wagons into a closing circle that says dissent (read other points of view) only emboldens our enemies so we better present a united front! So nobody cares about the Russian side of any major international dispute - it's only important to stress our own interests and interpretations. To hell with what anybody else thinks when we are protecting our way of life. Right?

The world didn't used to work this way, and the press knows it, but they still play the game of the government and rarely challenge its unilateral interpretations of international relations. Is the world really that simple fellows? You didn't used to think so. How can it be now? Try looking at who's stoking the former republics to come over to the west, and then ask if we'd put up with what we expect the Russians to do. Maybe we should look into the mirror. My dad used to say if you walked in the other guy's shoes for a while, maybe you'd understand him a lot better. Is the press doing this for us today? Unfortunately they are failing us - this exalted fourth estate is just another patsy today. Where can we turn?

[Brandon Jones]

Howard,

Sadly much of what you say is true. As Peter Drucker put it in his book, Management, "Indeed the danger of total propaganda is not that the propaganda will be believed. The danger is that nothing will be believed and that every communication becomes suspect....The end result of total propaganda are not fanatics, but cynics..."
It is clear that we in the west are not meant to believe that Russia has the right to its own defense, or can in any way work independent of our demands. It is sickening to think that a majority of people are believing that Russia instigated this crises.
One ray of hope is that many people are turning to blogs for formative discussions and opinions because the professional media has so discredited itself that it is becoming obsolete. Keeping the internet free is the key to an informed public. This would be the first time in American history that so many of the public have uncensored privy to information from around the world. Keep in mind that the architects of our constitution knew that we needed an informed public to have self rule, even though it has been missing from us until recently.