For many weeks now, I have watched with concern and dismay on what is going on in Ukraine and Russia's involvement in it. I have several draft posts that I couldn't complete while the headline was timely.
I think that much of the problem is of the West's making. It's that same smug superiority that I detected from the American broadcasters during the Olympics. Russians are a proud people with plenty of history and culture to be proud of. (And some things to be less proud of, but don't we all.)
Shortly after the end of the Olympics, Russia started making its play for Crimea. I saw expert after expert say that Russia didn't really want to posses Crimea. They just wanted to make sure that they had continued access to their military bases there and that Ukraine didn't get too cozy with the West. We now know that all of that analysis was wrong. They have "accepted" Crimea into the Russian Federation.
At the time, I noticed something interesting in my blog stats here. In the past, there has been a significant amount of traffic from Russia. Usually, it was second below the US. It's not that I thought my content was so attractive to Russians. I figured that it was mostly bots and hackers, etc., but still. When all this stuff in the Crimea started happening, all the Russian traffic went away. I suppose that the Russian government is blocking sites in the US (and perhaps Western Europe, too).
So now, the Russian agitation has stepped up in Eastern Ukraine. Once again, Putin has said that he's not interested in taking over anything, but he'll "protect" ethnic Russians (or Russian speakers). I still haven't figured out what he would be protecting them from. It seems that the ethnic Russians are causing all the ruckus, even if they've had to be imported from Russia proper. Once again the analysts are staying that Putin/Russia is not interested in taking more territory for Russia. Just doesn't want undue Western influence.
I don't know if they are right or wrong about Eastern Ukraine. Maybe the analysts were really right in Crimea, but the ethnic Russians didn't get with Putin's program. After the vote, he had hardly any choice than to accept them into the Russian Federation once they asked for it.
I do know this. People in Russia are still not visiting my blog. It's still being blocked. Think about that.
Joyce over at From This Side of the Pond
has provided some Springtime questions for this week's Hodgepodge. Join us and play!
1. Thursday marks the first day of spring...to celebrate would you rather plant a garden or go for a walk in the woods? Would either of those activities be possible on Thursday where you live?
I would rather walk in the woods. It would be possible on Thursday but not likely for me.
2. When did someone last spring something on you? (or when did you last spring something on someone?)
Answer here is to numerous to mention. Something like 20 minutes ago.
3. We often think of spring as a time for new beginnings. What's something you'd like to start doing this spring?
I'd like to stop having to fight fires. It might help people quit spring things on me. ;)
4. Where do you like to sit in a movie theatre? When did you last sit there, and what were you watching?
I like to sit front center , not in the very first row, maybe about three rows back. It's combo for a couple reasons. First, it has to do with getting older and wearing glasses. I see better closer. The second is going to the movie Armageddon years ago. The movie theater was so full that I had to sit near the front. The sides of the screen went beyond my peripheral vision. When the spacecraft was dodging asteroids in space, I actually felt like I was in the ship with them. Luckily, it didn't cause motion sickness, but it is added a level of realism that I have always sound exciting. Sitting that close has helped me feel more engrossed in the movies I've seen ever since I've started doing it. So, unless I'm forced to sit someplace else, I always want to sit towards front in the center.
5. When you meet someone for the very first time, what do you want them to think about you?
That I'm kind and wise ... and beautiful. On a good day, it might be two out of three. Hopefully, I get at least one. ;)
6. March is frozen food month (yes, really!). Besides ice cream (gotta make you think a little) what's your most often purchased frozen food item?
Flash frozen chicken tenders. They cook up so easily in just a few minutes. :)
7. What's something you avoid?
Confrontation? If I see something really wrong or something that I'm passionate about, I will not hesitate. I might prepare, but I will act. However, for something superficial, something the only affects me, or because I'm bored, no way. I'm not one of those people the gets into a fight just for the sake of it.
8. Insert your own random thought here.
Crimea. Oy! I've wanted to post about it for weeks, but everything's so fluid that just as I'm about ready, the whole situation changes. None of the experts have a clue, so why should I?
I do think that the patronizing attitude the West has had about Russia and Putin and a lack of sensitivity to Russian history has a lot to do with the spot we're in. And, Russia is not like North Korea or Iran that can be isolated or forced into submission. (North Korea is willing to let all its people starve to death rather than capitulate, and it took over 30 years to get Iran to come to the negotiating table.) Russia is the biggest country in the world with vast natural resources. They could survive significant isolation for a good long time. That's one thing that Russia's good at, waiting out a siege.
Now we have the tiger by the tail. It's dangerous to allow Russia to get away with the annexation of Crimea. It's dangerous if we try to stop it. Putin can laugh at our sanctions, and he's right. Russia is the only country (except for maybe China) that turn the USA into dust.
We'll see what tomorrow brings.
So, Kim Jong Un is threatening to blow up the world. Perhaps, he's not threatening to blow up the whole world, but once that domino is tipped, who knows where it will end up? Didn't this guy ever watch WarGames? Doesn't he know that there is no scenario where anyone wins?
I am a child of the Cold War. Not only that, but as an Army brat, I spent almost all of the first 18 years of my life within a few miles of either a nuclear weapons depot or some other prime target of the Soviet Union. Do you know what that means? It means that I never worried about what it would be like to live in a world after a nuclear war. I knew that I would be vaporized within seconds. Once you come to terms with something like that, it's kind of comforting. You don't have to worry about the aftermath because you won't be around to see it.
The "theory" that kept the world safe during the Cold War was M.A.D., Mutually Assured Destruction. The idea was that only someone who was mad would risk such a thing. The problem with North Korea, or Iran for that matter, is that we don't know their objective.
I was reading one of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia books recently, The Silver Chair. To be more precise, I was listening to it on CD, as read by Jeremy Northam. In any case, there was a reference that the villain wouldn't mind being killed if she knew that the people who killed her would die too. What I'm hearing in the news is that this may be more of Kim Jong Un's perspective. In which case, M.A.D. doesn't really work.
We've been hearing for a couple of weeks now how all this sabre rattling is meaningless. The North Koreans always do it, yada, yada, yada. But, what if we have a young kid full of testosterone, who feels invincible? What if he doesn't know what's best for his country, his people, or most importantly himself? I'm not saying that what's best for him or even his country is what's best for the United States or any other country. But certainly, annihilation isn't best for anyone.
Another question is, would we be willing to do it? Does the United States have the political will? Would we be willing to live with the repercussions? How would China, Russia, or any other nuclear country feel about it? What would be their response(s)?
Guilt remains in the U.S. over the use of nuclear weapons on Japan to end World War II, despite the fact that the U.S. government was not fully aware of all of the long term effects of their use. Moreover, the U.S. government had every reason to expect that a defeat of Japan using conventional weapons would be long and bloody with an extremely high casualty count on both sides, based on the Japanese resistance in previous battles and on other island. This was even after the outcome of the war seemed inevitable.
Did President Truman make the right decision? An argument can be made for both sides, but the bottom line is that he made that hard decision. Does President Obama have the political will to back up the promise of retaliation should North Korea attack us or our allies with nuclear weapons? I don't know, but we better all hope that Kim Jong Un thinks he does. And, Kim better believe that the whole world will support Obama. Otherwise, we may all find out how accurate the simulations in WarGames were.
Is it strange that I find all this talk of nuclear war kind of comforting and familiar? In the more recent Casino Royale M states how much she misses the Cold War, and I have to agree. Even though you knew that at any moment you could be vaporized, you knew who your enemies were. They were the ones that had the nuclear missiles pointed at you. There were rules, and you could predict the limits of their conduct. Now, the gloves are off, and it's a much more dangerous world.
I have many South Korean friends. Some of them live in the United States, but they all have family in South Korea. Many of them have family in North Korea for that matter, even if they haven't had contact in over 60 years. Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, please send some good vibes or say a prayer. The people there need all the help they can get.
The U.S. election is over. Meanwhile, the world has still been spinning. Life and strife have continued. No, the rest of the world was not put on hold though it did seem that way sometimes looking at the U.S. news media.
Syria has been raging. Greeks have been protesting, and China has been having a leadership transfer celebration, among many other things. Could it be that some of these places held their breath to see who the U.S. president would be? I suppose it's possible, but many of them have been busy fighting to stay alive.
Oh, and I almost forgot. Iran fired on a reconnaissance drone in the Persian Gulf. Naturally, this happened just before the election, but it wasn't reported until after the election.
You know "they" say that foreign policy doesn't really decide elections. Most people only care about domestic issues. I say that if any of these things blow up, foreign policy will become domestic issues. Truth be told, they already are.
I was 11 years old in November 1979 when the United States embassy
was stormed in Iran, and "The Hostages" were held for 444 days. Are you familiar
with the ABC news program Nightline? It started as a nightly update about
"The Hostage Crisis." I remember it like it was yesterday, and yet, I
also remember it like a child.
When I saw the reports
this Sept 11th about the breach of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and the
storming of the consolate in Benghazi, I had a physical reaction. My
first involuntary thought was, "How is this possible? Have we learned
nothing?" My reaction surprised me. I mean, protests against the United
States and burning the flag have become downright passé. I would have
thought that I should be able to watch and analyze the events
more dispassionately.
It was also around this time that I
saw the trailer for the film Argo for the first time, and I felt the
same physical reaction that I had on Sept 11th, only more so. It was
then that I understood, and I remembered. The trailer actually did such a good job of
tapping into my emotions that I didn't think that I could go and see the
movie. In the end, I couldn't stay away. It was well worth my trouble.
Argo is a film "based on actual events" of how six U.S. embassy personnel, who made it out of the embassy during the confusion, were smuggled out of Iran with the invaluable assistance of Canada. So, in that way it's like Titanic. You know the ending. However, it is also a commercial film, not a documentary, but a powerful one.
I have to hand it to Ben Affleck (producer, director, and actor). In some ways, the movie is very formulaic, the one competent operative surrounded by a bunch of idiots. One difference, it really happened (with some editorial liscence). The story telling is very tight, and the tension is constantly building. Then there are the visuals, which feel so real. During the credits, they have comparison photos from history and the recreated shots in the film, impressive.
It was a time when it felt like the world was exploding. As Syria and Turkey trade fire at this very moment (among many other things), it feels that way again. Argo, a relevant and powerful movie for our time.
Several years ago I did this survey with some friends who visit this blog, but considering this blog's new focus, I think it's worth another look.
The Political Compass gauges not only the "Left" and "Right" leanings on an economic scale, but also on the level of government involvement, which the site refers to as a social scale. Overall, I think that the site does a good job of objectively describing the different locations on the grid from a political science perspective.
It also plots the location of well known political/economic figures from the 20th Century, which is great to put the grid into context. In addition, it plots the positions of world leaders.
Here, I think that website demonstrates a slight skew to the left, meaning that some of the current figures appear further right than you might expect. However, the site makes the determination based on their actions rather than their stated positions. When thinking of politicians, this is reasonable, but it doesn't necessarily take their working environment into account.
So, where are you on The Political Compass? Click Here to take the test. In the interest of full disclosure, I'll tell you that my most recent score was a -1.25 Economic/-4.75 Social. That will make a lot more sense to you once you take the test and read the analysis.
Let us know how you scored and what you think of the test.
commentary,current events,Ukraine,world politics
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