Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Abe Greenwald - Losing The Caucasus
On November 2, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian will meet in Moscow , where Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will play peacemaker and try to find a way to end the on-going conflict. This meeting should have happened in Washington , with George W. Bush presiding.
I was in Azerbaijan in August, just days after Russia invaded neighboring Georgia, and it is impossible for me to overstate the earnestness of pro-Western sentiment in the country. (I've written about it here, here, and here, and Michael Totten has a piece about the same trip here.) To a man, Azeris practically begged for American help in resolving the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijan's Nagorny Karabakh region. Sadly, following the Palestinian model of victimhood, there was a lot of talk about the all-powerful Armenian lobby and its supposed influence in DC. There was no other way for Azeris to understand why America didn't do more to help a post-Soviet moderate Muslim territory with decidedly democratic aspirations...
We can't have four-year election seasons and serve as guardians of the free world. How about we shorten the bataan death march to the white house by a few years or so...?
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, p.44
You know, I can't quite stop :)
Indeed, while we're chattering about trivia here, serious things are happening elsewhere.
I guessed that the "geopolitical panic" accompanying the Coming of the One would start about six or eight months from now. The Coming was supposed to make everything better with our allies.
Apparently not, and the panic is starting much sooner than expected -- even before the election:
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/10/provocation_of_the_day_is_euro.php
"Empty of content" and "utterly immature": au point exact.
And here's more cold water:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Columnists/Where_McCain_scores_over_Obama/articleshow/3641429.cms
The Coming of the One: the disaster is already starting.
I noticed that the Times of India story concentrated on where the candidates stand on the issues. If our press did the same thing, the MSM's election coverage wouldn't be such a waste of time.
Just suppose McCain said, in English, here, what Sarkozy said about Obama, in French, there - ?
Would the sun, moon, and stars fall out of the sky at the statement of such obvious truth?
Just suppose McCain said, in English, here, what Sarkozy said about Obama, in French, there - ?
Would the sun, moon, and stars fall out of the sky at the statement of such obvious truth?
The LA Times would hide the tape...
Binah,
The geopolitical panic comes from 8 years of GWB. I can understand you position given the anti-science stances you've taken in previous posts (climate change). You say trust your own experience...I say look at facts. What's more likely, that Bush has undermined the US and our foreign policy in so many harmful ways or that other countries are so anxious about an Obama presidency that they're freaking out. You're infantilizing other countries. I find the kavana of your posts to be, per the Rambam, full of intention but lacking awareness.
"anti-Science"? Have you ever looked at Binah's climate change archives on his home site? You may disagree with his conclusions, but anti-science is not a term I'd apply to them. Binah is, btw, a trained scientist.
What's anti-science about questioning global warming theories? Science is all about asking questions.
And, speaking of facts, awfully cold October we're having here in the American northeast. Didn't they just have snow in Britain..?
I for one could not care less what "Europe" thinks about the US.
Euros have been jealous of the US since WW2.
Euro birthrates are in decline and immigrants are making parts of Euro their own.
Europe is a dying civilization.
I don't want the US to suffer the fate that Europe faces in the near future.
That's why I'm voting AGAINST obama and FOR John McCaina and Sarah Palin.
BTW, where's Joe Biden? The Obama gang is keeping Biden under wraps to keep him out of trouble.