GOP candidates attack Russia to gain political advantage: Analyst

Don DeBar, an anti-war activist and radio host in New York, made the remarks while commenting on Republican candidates’ recent bellicose, threatening statements about President Vladimir Putin and Russia.
 
“Candidates try to outdo each other on who would be tough guy with Russia. It echoed the scenes I have seen most of my life really where Russia was the demon – the Soviet Union -- they use two terms interchangeably here Russia or Soviet Union, and who was going to be toughest on the Soviet Union and on ‘communism,’ which was the demon of the time, that possessed Russia,” DeBar said.
 
“You can’t go wrong thumping your chest in the face of Russia in American politics, but the objective condition of the world of course is different, and you see an expression of that in Rand Paul, who basically called off Christie on it,” he added.
 
During the fifth GOP debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday night, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said not only would he establish a no-fly zone over Syria, he would shoot down Russian warplanes that violated that zone.
 
"Well, I think if you're in favor of World War III, you have your candidate," Senator Rand Paul responded, looking directly at Christie.
 
Former Governor George Pataki and former Senator Rick Santorum said they would also impose a no-fly zone and shoot down Russian planes that violated it.
 
DeBar said, “There’re a lot of contradictions here, because some of the candidates running – I won’t say all of them, by a long shot, but some of the candidates running -- have an understanding that the objective conditions are different and that Russia, it really has no adverse interest to the United States, outside of that part of the American elite that wants to have complete control over the Russian territory and extract the wealth from it to their benefit, but many of them are realistic and understand that they can partner with Russia where everybody make out well and are looking out at that, I think, in the background.”
 
“For example, George Pataki when he was duking it out with Santorum -- you know, ready to impose no-fly zone and shoot down Russian planes -- Pataki got elected governor of New York on one promise only that he was going to restore death penalty, and it happened at point of time when Donald Trump, as a matter of fact, was calling for the death penalty for some guys who allegedly raped some woman in Central Park that did 20 years in prison and turned out were not guilty. Pataki did in fact get the death penalty reinstated and then no one was executed in New York since,” he pointed out.
 
“So I’m wondering how much of his bravado was just that, and how many of the others have real politics sense behind them.  If you look at Nixon in the same way, Nixon was the anti-communist crusader who ended up making rapprochement with China, and détente with the Soviet Union,” the analyst noted.
 
DeBar said that "the scary thing is that there are some people who are making policy, who clearly don’t have concerns with that, and they’re not all Republicans. Hillary Clinton, and even Bernie Sanders were using the same rhetoric and Clinton’s record as secretary of state is as belligerent as of any Republican president we ever had. So I am concerned of ALL of the candidates."
 
In his concluding remarks, DeBar said, “Donald Trump is the one who said he would sit down and talk with Vladimir Putin, and he got another boost in [polls] as consequence of that. So I think political landscape exists where people might move off this position. I don’t know what is driving other than this historical tradition, but the objective condition is very troubling since we are in fact putting people on the battlefield facing each other.”