AS "DEMOCRATIC" Russia acts to bomb and shell rebellious Chech- nya back to the stone age, Americans ought to feel disgust for their government's complaisant policy toward the horrors taking place.
There is very little Washington can do to halt the near-genocide in the small republic in the Caucasus Mountains. But it should not in word and deed whitewash the slaughter, which it is doing.In a stomach-turning statement the other day, the State Department indirectly compared Boris Yeltsin, whom history will see as the Butcher of Grozny, with Abraham Lincoln.
And, in addition, the American taxpayer is unwittingly paying for part of Yeltsin's war on the independence-seeking Chechens.
In its firmest support for the Russian army's brutal suppression of the Chech- ens, the State Department likened it to America's experience with the Civil War. Here are spokesman Michael Mc-Curry's words:
"We have a long history as a democracy that includes an episode in the history of our own country where we dealt with a secessionist movement through armed conflict called the Civil War."
There are so many things wrong with the statement that you hardly know where to begin.
First, the Civil War erupted 133 years ago. It is intellectually dishonest to use a mid-19th century tragedy to justify a late-20th century crime. We expect more from statesmen today.
Second, Lincoln tried to deal with the South's secession by political means. It was only after the Confederates shelled Fort Sumter that he ordered military action.
Even Yeltsin's mendacious propaganda machine does not claim that the Chechens attacked Moscow, St. Petersburg or any military base in Russia.
In contrast to Lincoln's efforts to avoid war, ever since Chechnya declared its independence in 1991, Yeltsin has tried to undermine the republic through armed attack, subversion and now all-out war. He never offered Grozny enough autonomy that might have satisfied it.
Third, Lincoln pursued the Civil War partly to free the slaves. Again by contrast, Moscow is crushing the Muslim, non-Slavic Chechens to keep them under its neo-imperial yoke.
Hoping that Russia becomes a normal country with a market economy, the United States is pouring billions of dollars in grants and loans into it. But money is fungible, and every dollar sent there frees up a dollar to buy Chechen-killing bullets.
Setting aside the morality of helping to finance Yeltsin's ugly adventure, will the loans ever be repaid? Congress' General Accounting Office puts the odds at 2-to-1 that Russia will default.