Final Word from Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Miloš Jakeš told Pavel Pilný in their book Příběh komunisty that Mikhail Gorbachev merely confirmed his "shameful involvement" in the fall of the Communist regimes by accepting a medal of honor for this from Václav Havel in 1999. From the very beginning in 1985, Jakeš said, Gorbachev put separate meetings with the U.S. first, and then he threw his German comrades to the crowds and to the West German justice system. Jakeš died a year ago but would probably see similarities today. The U.S. put separate meetings with the Taliban first and then threw its Afghan followers to the crowds. The peaceful handover of power in Afghanistan is being presented in the media as a coup that took even Western intelligence services by surprise. The image of the old master - this time in Washington - is being desecrated, even as a new leader with U.S. support and a proper Havel-like prison pedigree is being installed. It's a sort of reverse-Velvet Revolution, made out of very cheap velour. [ Czech Republic Soviet Union USSR Communist Party KSČ secretary-general Joe Biden president ]