Article

2008-08-22 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2008-08-22 12:23|| || Front Page|| [7 views ] Top

#1 G(r)om, I usually like your non-sequitur, but here I am perplexed : if I understand you correctly, you basically think all gentils are hostile one way or an another to jews, and you think the USA bully Israel into self-destructive behavior... do you think that russians are less antisemitic than say western europeans, and that russia is less harmful to Israel than America, too? I find your russia-rooting confusing, and even a bit amusing as seeing with whom in the french blogosphere this puts you with (hint : they don't like "zionists", and they too are derisive of western democracies and the "West").

Posted by anonymous5089 2008-08-22 12:58|| 2008-08-22 12:58|| Front Page Top

#2 The Russian Federation's scarcest resource is people. It cannot ignore the 22 million Russians stranded outside its borders after the 1991 collapse

Well, RusFed shoud drag them back into Russia proper. It is a no brainer. Instead they are scheming about territory, which would likely create a conflict at some point in which a lot of people would die, Russians inclusive.

Real smart, Pooty! It is no longer "nas mnogo".

Posted by Spike Uniter 2008-08-22 13:03|| 2008-08-22 13:03|| Front Page Top

#3 The Russian end game. What scares the Russkies is that soon, sooner than they like, the Americans are going to have a real first strike capability. Instead of adjusting behaviors to match that environment they're doing stupid authoritarian tricks to speed it up. A lot of people are going to pay the price for letting the bear play this game.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-08-22 13:09|| 2008-08-22 13:09|| Front Page Top

#4 Americans are playing Go. We flip Russia's pawns to become our allies.

Posted by ed 2008-08-22 13:42|| 2008-08-22 13:42|| Front Page Top

#5 If all Russian politicians were wise, why did they lose the Cold War? How is it that they managed to lose the greatest number of people during WWII, by allying with Hitler to enable the invasion of Western Europe, which then led to the invasion of Russia? It seems to me that Russian politicians are only clever, and many cases, too clever by half. In other words, a lot like gromguru, who is obviously a Russian first and an Israeli second.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2008-08-22 14:16|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2008-08-22 14:16|| Front Page Top

#6 The other key point is that Spengler has this really weird fixation on Islam as the biggest threat to the West. It is not. There are two countries that can, on command, kill tens or hundreds of millions of Westerners - Russia and China. Islam is a nit, as it has been since the Ottoman empire lapsed into decrepitude three centuries ago.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2008-08-22 14:32|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2008-08-22 14:32|| Front Page Top

#7 If all Russian politicians were wise, why did they lose the Cold War?

His talking about now ZF. (Clinton, Bush II, Obambi)

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2008-08-22 14:50|| 2008-08-22 14:50|| Front Page Top

#8 Hey, A5089 ever heard the expression "The worst kinf of deception is self-deception"?

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2008-08-22 14:53|| 2008-08-22 14:53|| Front Page Top

#9 Zhang, you have a point. However, Islam is a tick, not a nit. It can grow feeding on your lifeblood, and may give you encephalitis. I wouldn't underestimate its virulence, even if it seems to be somewhat contained at the moment.

Posted by Spike Uniter 2008-08-22 14:53|| 2008-08-22 14:53|| Front Page Top

#10 Hey, A5089 ever heard the expression "The worst kinf of deception is self-deception"?

Mine, or yours?

Posted by anonymous5089 2008-08-22 14:57|| 2008-08-22 14:57|| Front Page Top

#11 g: His talking about now ZF. (Clinton, Bush II, Obambi)

Please. Bush 2 peeled off Georgia and Ukraine from the Russian orbit. Russia is now merely getting back part of of Georgia, at the cost of Georgians now thinking of themselves as completely separate from Russia. What's worse - Russia has now pushed most of non-Russian Europe squarely back into America's arms. The beauty of American under-reaction is that it makes clear to countries in the region that the real dispute isn't between Russia and Uncle Sam - as many of them want it to be. It's between Imperial Russia and their continued independence. And EUnik's are getting the message - that Germany and France will hand them over - gift-wrapped - to the Russians with a smile. Putin is clever as Russian leaders always are - and Saddam Hussein was - in a way that mainly works with internal rivals.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2008-08-22 15:02|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2008-08-22 15:02|| Front Page Top

#12 "Aw, shucks."

Posted by Perfesser 2008-08-22 15:05|| 2008-08-22 15:05|| Front Page Top

#13 The Russians have never been clever in diplomatic nuances. A quick back stab, not-so-subtle threats, making strange alliance choices that work for that war but bite their ass in the next, they have been very clever. Seeing 30 years down the road... not so much. Not that the West has been better since our leadership and governance change every 8-12 years.

Posted by DarthVader 2008-08-22 15:07|| 2008-08-22 15:07|| Front Page Top

#14 wait till the f**kers land on Park Place

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-08-22 15:12|| 2008-08-22 15:12|| Front Page Top

#15 The Americans I know play chess, Monopoly... and p0ker. But Spengler does insist on his imaginary, stereotyped Americans. That's what his readers expect. As for the stupid Russians being all dead, it is a clear attribute of Homo sapians that new stupid people are born all the time.

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2008-08-22 15:14|| 2008-08-22 15:14|| Front Page Top

#16 Feh. He can call himself "Spengler" but I call him Uwe Parpart. He's a bitter German curmudgeon if there ever was one.

Posted by Scooter McGruder 2008-08-22 15:44|| 2008-08-22 15:44|| Front Page Top

#17 Yep! We get possesion of all the real estate in our battles. They just get rooked when they play against us head on. They play a right clever game in their heads and a clumsy one on the ground. I think that will show up clearer when we look back at the Georgia move five years from now. Most of the near abroad countries will have sought cover from the west and Russia wont be able to stop it with more heavy-handed maneuvers.

Posted by Richard of Oregon 2008-08-22 16:09|| 2008-08-22 16:09|| Front Page Top

#18 Meh. This guy never played Monopoly with some of the people I've played Monopoly with. It can be a strategic game if you are a devious type.

(Of course, the kiddies in my neighborhood preferred Risk, even though it tended to flare up into fights requiring the parental units to confiscate the game.....ahhh, good times, good times.....or even Mastermind and Othello.....)

Posted by Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields 2008-08-22 19:23|| 2008-08-22 19:23|| Front Page Top

#19 Chess, the rules are fixed, the playing peices are set in stone, the playing field uniform and unvarying.

Compare to real life, where the playing field changes while you are on it, the playing pieces come and go and never seem to be the same in function twice, and the rules are fluid.

Monopoly is a far better game because it makes you deal with randomness. Chess does not. Which is why most chess grand masters are usless at anything that requires dealing with the messiness of reality.

So grom, that leaves you being the rigid stupid one.

Posted by OldSpook 2008-08-22 19:30|| 2008-08-22 19:30|| Front Page Top

#20 That settles it: the next Rantapalooza will feature drinking, story telling, drinking, Monopoly, and drinking ...

Posted by Steve White 2008-08-22 19:41|| 2008-08-22 19:41|| Front Page Top

#21 You're on!

Posted by lotp 2008-08-22 19:44|| 2008-08-22 19:44|| Front Page Top

#22 Sounds like fun to me.

Posted by Deacon Blues">Deacon Blues 2008-08-22 19:48|| 2008-08-22 19:48|| Front Page Top

#23 and Risk...but it will have to be a three-day event...

I attack Irkutsk with......

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-08-22 19:51|| 2008-08-22 19:51|| Front Page Top

#24 I think we're all playing GMT Games' Twilight Struggle.

Posted by Eric Jablow">Eric Jablow 2008-08-22 21:15|| 2008-08-22 21:15|| Front Page Top

#25 I've long suspected that "Spengler" is a Rantburg lurker.

Posted by mrp 2008-08-22 21:17|| 2008-08-22 21:17|| Front Page Top

23:55 JosephMendiola
23:50 JosephMendiola
23:44 Lampedusa Glack5566
23:36 newc
23:21 3dc
23:19 3dc
23:10 Anonymoose
23:07 Procopius2k
22:58 badanov
22:57 DarthVader
22:53 Mike Kozlowski
22:24 Frank G
22:13 CrazyFool
22:09 DMFD
22:08 Frank G
22:02 Mike Kozlowski
21:59 Mike Kozlowski
21:48 Frank G
21:45 Abu Uluque
21:42 CrazyFool
21:23 OldSpook
21:17 mrp
21:17 DarthVader
21:15 Eric Jablow