According to this Washington Post editorial *, Zbigniew Brzezinski doesn't agree with Bush's comparison of Islamic radicalism with communism. He doesn't just believe that the comparison is unsound. He believes that it's "unwise."
Why would the comparison be unwise? Brzezinski says:
The analogy to communism may have some short-term political benefit, for it can rekindle the fears of the past while casting the president in the mold of the historic victors of the Cold War, from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan. But the propagation of fear also has a major downside: It can produce a nation driven by fear, lacking in self-confidence and thus less likely to inspire trust among America's allies, including Muslim ones, whose support is needed for an effective and intelligent response to the terrorist phenomenon.When he talks about America's Muslim allies, whose support is needed for an intelligent response to the "terrorist phenomenon", he's talking about the Saudis who are sponsoring the current suicide bombing campaign in Iraq.
He's also talking about the Iranians. In fact, Mr. Brzezinski was partly responsible for Jimmy Carter's "headless chicken" response to the hostage crisis. He saw Islamofascism as a perfect weapon to use against Moscow and the communism he feared.
The second stage in Brzezinski's grand strategy was to incite the Muslim peoples of the Soviet Union to revolt against Moscow and thus frustrate its global schemes. The Bzrezinski strategy had been partly inspired by Helene Carrere d'Encausse, who, in her book "The Fragmented Empire," predicted the disintegration of the Soviet Union as a result of revolts by Muslim minorities. When the Islamic revolution started in Iran, the Carter administration saw it as the confirmation of its assumption that only Islamists could muster enough popular support to provide an alternative to both the existing regime and the pro-Soviet leftist movements. The Carter administration went out of its way to support the new regime in Tehran.One thing you can say about Brzezinski - he may be a commiephobe, but he's no Islamophobe.
Brzezinski loathing for the evil commies in Moscow is still evident, despite the fact that he's already won that particular war:
I think we're seeing with Mr. Putin the final gasp of the Soviet era. The Soviet system is dead, and the Soviet Union has disintegrated. But the Soviet elite still dominates Moscow politically, and through Moscow it dominates Russia.His loathing for "Soviet" Putin is so intense, he's willing to ally with the Islamofascists to get him.
Brzezinski is one of the many "hawkish" founders of the pacifist, multiculti Peace in Chechnya organization, which supports the Chechen rebels in their war against Russia.
Peace in Chechnya is still supporting the Islamofascist "rebels", even after the Beslan massacre. So is Brzezinski:
It should be cause for concern to U.S. policymakers that only one major foreign statesman comes close to emulating Bush's rhetorical emphasis on the Islamic aspects of the current terrorist threat, and that is Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin has deliberately seized upon the theme of Islamic terrorism to justify his relentless war against the Chechens' aspirations for self-determination.The Chechen's aspirations include the establishment of an Islamic caliphate under apartheid Sharia law. Their aspirations also include "more Beslan-type operations in the future" because, as Chechen "rebel" leader Basayev claims, these Islamists are forced to torture and slaughter defenseless kids.
Justifying his attacks on civilian targets, he states: “We are at war and we look at the reality, and not at whether the population has weapons in their hands. We look at the reality of their participation in this war.To strike down their white-whale "soviets" in Moscow, Brzezinski and his fellow supporters of peace in Chechnya are also willing to support Besayev, Islamist attacks against children, and the Sharia-ruled Caliphate. They're willing to support an organization that crushed and burned thousands of Americans into ash on 9/11.
Brzezinski and his ilk are fighting for something, but it certainly isn't freedom.
* Link thanks to PeakTalk
At least the idiocies that fall from his lips are not driven by partisanship, but rather pathologies that link back to the old country.
He's a smart guy, but kind of a chump. And, while I'm at it, a little creepy looking.
I think it's his eyes. They have an Ahab-ish intensity
Also, I don't know many people that are "Pro-Putin" at this point, and I think even Bush walks a tight rope in supporting him, while still supporting groups that are opposed to his Soviet style ambitions in former republics including the Ukraine and Chechnya.
And it's not just Brzezinski who is concerned about alienating Muslim allies in our rhetoric, there are people in Bush's administration who are concerned about it, as well as other mid-east commentators like Fareed Zakaria, who write extremely intelligently about the issue.
That being said, I don't wholly disagree with your point that Brzezinski retains too stringent of an anti-communist perspective on things, despite the global shift, however the man has always been a brilliant thinker, and I agree with him that Bush seems determined to irritate our allies ( both islamic and other ) and isolate us from the international community until and unless it is convenient for him to enlist their aid.