Fragments of a blog
Fragments of a blog
Suppose you’re a member of a racial, ethnic or religious group, and this fact is obvious to a stranger. You could put a high priority on your membership and make it a factor in your decision-making. Or you could view…
Let me digress from the gallant loser thread. I promise to continue with it later. Let’s move over to policing Iraq. I’m ready to admit that Americans did a great job kicking Saddam’s ass. But the US Army seems to…
As everyone should know by now, transition from an institutionally entrenched dictatorship to a pluralistic society almost always involves a period of lawlessness, chaos and public unrest. Post-war Germany and Japan are exceptions. Apparently, Allied occupation administration did its job…
There may be a dozen dozens of reasons why Putin kept supporting Iraq and let Russian secret services spy for Saddam. Stupidity is out of question. His ignorance of the goings-on may be one. He was once a relatively low-level…
(Continued) The Nazis’ looting of private art collections from Jewish families was not only mercenary but aimed at destroying a people by robbing it of its culture. Just by robbing them – no need to bring up culture – just…
What the heck is going on in Baghdad? Is the war over or not yet? A great number of Russians don’t seem to believe CNN coverage because they mistrust US government and media as much as they mistrust their own.…
It’s easier to defend American interests that promote American values. US politicians tend to pretend they are engaged in the latter when their actions are but the former. Too bad. US Army’s “setbacks” in Iraq seem setbacks only against the…
A shallow but entertaining piece from Russian Journal (not to be confused with The Russia Journal). An inelegant translation of some excerpts follows. It looks like the anti-Iraqi allies did not realize indeed what they were getting into. Americans planned…
US believes Russian technicians helping Iraqi defense: official I told you so a few posts ago. This piece is also amusing: U.S. Concerned About Russian Weapon Sales. Surely the US has known all along that a) Russia sold weapons and…
Kommersant reports that about 20 (!) people showed up to protest against the war in Voronezh, and a tiny few in Vladivostok. Nothing of note in the capitals, Moscow and St. Pete. Being an anti-anti-Americanist, I’m nonetheless not amused by…
The Philosopher of Islamic Terror by Paul Berman. [Post edited in 2021.] Gamal Abdel Nasser was the only Nasser whose name Russian announcers articulated with a stress on the second syllable: Nah-SER. The audience enjoyed punning on that surname because…
Typical Russian responses to the Iraq war? I don’t know how typical, but I’ll offer a few. Why? It’s unneeded and unnecessary. Wars should only be fought when there’s no alternative. It’s no good when one country plays cop, judge…