You can sense an almost palpable hope among many influential Americans for a terrorist incident at the Winter Olympics to ruin the Russkies' fun. Let's try to game plan what would happen next.
1. If there is a terrorist attack, then Twitter would probably explode with Americans saying, "Ha-ha, Russians, you had it coming!"
2. Russians will hear about the most offensive American comments and take offense.
3. Within a few days, it will emerge that the terrorists had a few-degrees-of-separation connections with the CIA or the National Endowment for Democracy or the like, and/or NATO candidate Georgia, and/or shadowy Russian government agencies. Or all three.
For instance, the Winter Olympics are taking place very close to what's officially the territory of Georgia, but has been ruled by the Russian-supported breakaway Abkhazians for a couple of decades.
If you think I'm crazy that a little Internet searching would probably find some kind of link between terrorists and government officials of at least one country, consider the Boston Marathon bombing of last March. It turned out that the Bomb Brothers are in this country as refugees more or less because their Uncle Ruslan used to be married to Samantha Ankara Fuller, the daughter of the former top CIA troublemaker in the region, Graham Fuller. And then the FBI shot dead Ibragim Todashev, Tamerlan Tsarnaev's purported accomplice in an alleged earlier terrorist triple murder on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. But it turned out that Todashev was granted refugee status in the U.S. even though his father is a high official in Putin's puppet government in Ramzan Kadyrov's Chechnya.
What does it all mean? Probably ... just Chechens acting Checheny.
But then I'm the kind of horrible unAmerican stereotyper who thinks racistly that just because Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, and Solzhenitsyn were fascinated by the brave craziness of the Chechens, that young male Chechens really do feel some sort of cultural influence to act crazily brave.
4. Many Russians would then interpret these kind of weird connections to the Sochi terrorists as evidence of an American conspiracy, perhaps related to the on-going American conspiracy in Ukraine, which Victoria Nuland says the U.S. has spent $5 billion upon since 1991. (It's statistically likely that spending that kind of money over that many years on the fringes of Russia buys America a little bit of contact with whoever turns out to be, say, a brother-in-law's uncle of just about anybody who might blow up the Olympics.)
5. Americans, who are well trained to reject the entire concept of conspiracies, will interpret Russian interest in these links as proof of Russia's innately malignant conspiracy-theorizing transphobic whateverism that's doomed by the inevitable scientific workings of History to be overwhelmed by the triumph of democracy and gay rights, just as 31 consecutive state referendums voting against gay marriage were eventually overwhelmed by Democracy! So, many Americans will explain on Twitter, maybe we ought to bomb the Russkies just on general principles.
6. War actually won't break out. These days, war is so costly that it's stupid. Like Robert Gates in 2008 when Georgia invaded Russian-supported territory, Chuck Hagel doesn't want a war with Russia on his watch.
7. Other countries will observe these events with intense interest. Consider the nearby Turks, who, being Turks, are unlikely to conclude that any such events were just random bad luck.
I would imagine that Imam Gulen in the Poconos will argue to his enigmatic cabal of followers in the Turkish police that engineering this black eye for Putin just proves that the Americans are the puppetmasters, so we Gulenists are right to accept the support of Uncle Ruslan's ex-father-in-law and other elements in the American deep state while we establish our networks inside Turkey's security forces and America's charter schools.
But what will Prime Minister Erdogan think? He may conclude that this shows he better get even more with the program with Washington. Or it may convince him that he needs to ally with Iran and Russia against the insolent hyperpower. Who knows?
8. In the long run, police investigation would probably prove that the terrorist attacks really were mostly due to random young male hormones; but by then the world will have ratcheted over one more notch toward a lousier future.
So, my fellow Americans, can we just tone down the Russia-hatred a bit for two weeks?
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38 comments:
Our host asked: So, my fellow Americans, can we just tone down the Russia-hatred a bit for two more weeks?
Hunsdon said: Devoutly to be wished, but that's not the way I'd bet.
The normally excellent DM went berserk over Sochi and made a first class fool of itself. The comments section probably does not represent their readership that closely, but almost everyone who did contribute was telling them to shut up. Their UK readership is usually not particularly well educated and non-standard forms of the language show through. I can usually tell if the person writing is not a Brit. The same was true on the DT, except that a well educated foreigner might be able to fool me. Both papers beat the war drums over Syria and were derided for it. The dyed-in-the-wool Leftie or Conservative hasn't changed, but the opinion makers seem to have lost a lot of their power to influence those who are not absolutely committed to one or other ideological camp. We know we're being spun.
'Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, and Solzhenitsyn were fascinated by the brave craziness of the Chechens"
Source?
I don't know Steve. I think they are hoping for an attack so they can relive the 1972 games. Since there is no chance of reliving the '68 games with a gay guy raising his fist on the podium, they'll go for a few dead white people.
Justice for the CML is what normal people call vengeance.
You know, this might not end up the way that you fear.
A few months ago, the US military openly revolted against the idea of attacking the Assad regime, which was defending the Christians from the overt butcherous wahhabite nihilism of Al Qaeda.
And the US Military knows damned well that it was Vladimir Putin who stood up and saved Christianity in Syria [at least for the time-being].
And I have this sneaking suspicion that if the US Military is given orders to attack Russia, then it's entirely conceivable that there could be another open revolt against the orders.
It's not all that difficult for me to envision someone like a US Rear Admiral appearing in a press conference with Putin, pledging an entire USN Fleet to defend Christianity in Russia from the wrath of Obama and his Frankfurt School masters.
And everyone in the Red States standing up and applauding in unison.
Anonydroid at 5:22 PM said: Source?
Hunsdon: Don't have the Pushkin and Lermontov references off the top of my head, but read Tolstoy's "The Cossacks" and "Prisoner of the Caucasus", and there's a section in The Gulag Archipelago about how there was one nation that wouldn't roll over for the regime, one nation that wouldn't give up, one nation that even the guards were afraid of----the Chechens.
Terribly sorry, but you'll have to do your own research on Pushkin and Lermontov.
Dont forget good old Bandar told Putin this summer he could control jihadis on Putin's south border. Bandar has to get a number!
"Like Robert Gates in 2008 when Georgia invaded Russian-supported territory, Chuck Hagel doesn't want a war with Russia on his watch."
Obama has caved to the powers that be on economics, but not in foreign affairs. He was for the Wall St. bailouts early on and appointed the Yellen-Fischer duo, yet he also appointed Hagel, hasn't started a war with Iran and backed away from one with Syria. The Libyan episode was sad, but minor compared to Bush's and Clinton's (remember the bombing of Serbia?) wars. Romney might have boycotted the Olympics by now if he had won.
Why this economics/foreign affairs split?
One guess:
A lot of complicated-looking nonsense is associated with economics. Maybe Obama is working under the erroneous assumption that guys like Summers and Fischer are world-class experts in a real field of knowledge as opposed to grubby operators in a field not unlike politics, but with more money in it. Foreign affairs are easier to understand intuitively.
Occam's Razor tells me the most likely terrorist attack will come from Black Widows.
I agree, except for #1, at least as far as the mainstream media goes. There, the only acceptable response would be condemnation of the attack and solidarity with the Russian people, if not their government.
This would apply only to the mass media, mind. The Slates and Salons of the world have their own mandate. There, you could expect some pieces about how dead Russians just means fewer bigots, and some posts from Weigel about how the GOP's response is really just a smokescreen for the American right wing's homophobia.
Let's really war game your scenario by adding this to the mix. There is a terror attack at Sochi, but like Munich, it targets Israeli athletes.
Now discuss amongst yourselves.
Ever since "diana" accused iSteve of becoming an "anti-Semitic sewer" a few days ago, Komment Kontrol has returned with a vengeance.
If you're like me, then you won't have any luck speaking honestly about this topic.
Or, for that matter, about any of a bazillion other topics.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
It sucks to see the Dark Enlightenment kow-towing in fear before The Frankfurt School, but it is what it is.
It's weird I feel like one of those losers who admired the Nazis in the 70s. Is it wrong to feel sympathy for the Russians?
Creating enemies to distract people from domestic problems is the tactics of a desperate government.
OT, but Drudge has a link to a Telegraph article that an intelligence gene has been discovered:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10631319/Is-intelligence-written-in-the-genes.html
Oops.
Sorry about that.
LOL'ed.
"Let's really war game your scenario by adding this to the mix. There is a terror attack at Sochi, but like Munich, it targets Israeli athletes.
Now discuss amongst yourselves."
what if they target only gold medal russian athletes, will russia drop from the standings?
Steve seems to reflect your average non-Southern, Non-ethnic minority American viewpoint. This viewpoint is - why run around getting in disputes, wars, nasty situations with foreigners unless we have to, combined with a "don't bother us, and we won't bother you" mentality.
Unfortunately, people like Steve are always outnumbered by minorities filled with ethnic hatreds, war-mongering Southerners, Greedy Globalists, tub-thumping World Crusaders and World savers, and Liberal Imperialists.
Its John Adams-George Washington vs. LBJ-Woodrow Wilson. And Wilson-LBJ always seems to win.
Um Saudi Arabia flat out threatened Russia with terrorist attacks if Russia didn't go along with western invasion of Syria.
So, if anything happens, they're kind of the prime suspect.
And it's not exactly a secret who their allies are
Waydaminit
I thought that Putin was the great vanquisher of the Caucasians.
That's certainly one of the main reasons he came to power in the first place.
And that tough guy demeanor, (certainly with more physical prowess than Cesar Romero or Burgess Meredith) is one reason the paleos like him so much.
So don't worry-no terrorism.
Putin, defender of Christianity.
He certainly taught those Georgian Hindus and Ukrainian Buddhists about turning the other cheek.
war-mongering Southerners
I'm not so sure this really exists, at least not out of line with what's common in other regions.
There does seem to exist (or at least used to) some version of the Scotch-Irish borderer "we're always at war, really, so once we're in a fight we can't back down". One reason why it's important to avoid getting into needless fights in the first place.
So, my fellow Americans, can we just tone down the Russia-hatred a bit for two weeks?
Telling Americans to "tone down" anything is a good way to end up with egg on your face.
Any offended foreigners who are puzzled by how the First Amendment works are welcome to
1) Dry their eyes
2) Have a cookie
3) Take a break from Twitter
Steve, you really think they want to turn World War G into a hot war? Also, does the use of World War G and hot war in the same sentence make you snicker? And is this a priori evidence of something? Discuss.
I don't think Pushkin believed the Chechens were braver than the average Russian in his circle of friends, much more than half of whom showed extraordinary bravery as soldiers, Decembrists, naval officers, duelists, spectacular drunkards, and even one or two Christian martyrs. Of course, he believed his circle of friends were elite among Russians with respect to their level of passion, and he found some analogy to that passion in the quasi-warrior quasi-criminal barbarians whose ancestors had chased off everyone else who lived in the mountains south of the Ukraine. Tolstoy was an inveterate whoremonger who liked the Chechens because their way of life would have precluded his personal and shameful style of being a whoremonger, and, as a bonus, they did not openly condemn whoremongery, as the good Orthodox Russians who Tolstoy wanted to feel superior to had a tendency to do (hence, in part, their negative depiction in much of his frequently PMS style of fiction). Lermontov died very young and few, if any, contemporary Russians care about who he respected, and I doubt a single Russian expects him to have had an accurate view of the world (although they appreciate his poetic genius). By the way, for those interested in Russia, the biggest story of the year is not the Olympics but the canonization process by the Orthodox church of many of the type of people Solzhenitsyn wrote about. Hardly any coverage whatsoever, as far as I can tell, in the Western press. Well, as the English guy wrote nine or ten wars ago, the truth is great and will prevail.
So, my fellow Americans, can we just tone down the Russia-hatred a bit for two weeks?
No. Those goddamn Russkis have it coming. Unless, that is, Putin gets a sex change.
Telling Americans to "tone down" anything is a good way to end up with egg on your face.
Any offended foreigners who are puzzled by how the First Amendment works are welcome to
1) Dry their eyes
2) Have a cookie
3) Take a break from Twitter
The First Amendment protects US citizens from government censorship. That's all. It's not some sort of universal license for Americans to say anything they want without any negative consequences whatsoever.
The federal government can't lock you up for pissing on a Quran, but try telling an irate Muslim about the First Amendment before he chops off your head.
"And that tough guy demeanor, (certainly with more physical prowess than Cesar Romero or Burgess Meredith) is one reason the paleos like him so much."
You are so completely wrong about this, the neocons are the ones that love the tough guy, but only if it is the US president, for all other world leaders they want them to be prostrating puppets to the president (thus their hate for Putin). Paleos like him because he openly backs Christianity and does not adhere to PC thinking like abortion, homosexual marriage, open borders etc.
Were the people who are now so worried about terrorism in Sochi worried two years ago about what would have been a more likely event, terrorism at the London games?
"Source?"
Gay?
Southerners are not war mongers. They just are not swpl beta male pajama boys in a one ie.
Most guts think Russian women are hot and American women people of Walmart.
This is the media following Barrys hissy fit orders. Passive aggressive.
That is what the second amendment is for. Also immigration policy, a sane one.
Do you mean Christian Zionists?
"The federal government can't lock you up for pissing on a Quran, but try telling an irate Muslim about the First Amendment before he chops off your head. " - that is why we have the second amendment.
Americans, who are well trained to reject the entire concept of conspiracies, will interpret Russian interest in these links as proof of Russia's innately malignant conspiracy-theorizing transphobic whateverism that's doomed by the inevitable scientific workings of History to be overwhelmed by the triumph of democracy and gay rights, just as 31 consecutive state referendums voting against gay marriage were eventually overwhelmed by Democracy!
5.5. Jon Stewart repeats back statements from Russian analysts while raising and lowering the tone of his voice in an oh so knowing way. Steven Colbert will ironically agree with the Russians but will suffer conflicting emotions due to cold war nostalgia. The home audience will experience a modest surge of positive emotions for agreeing with the underlying politics.
"Paleos like him because he openly backs Christianity and does not adhere to PC thinking like abortion"
Huh? Russia still has the highest abortion rate in the world. There are virtually no pro-life Russians. Even socially conservative people see it as simply a form of birth control.
1. David Sirota will write an article entitled "Lets hope the Sochi bomber is an Orthodox Christian Slav"
2. When the investigation proves the bomber was a Chechen, David Sirota will write another article entitled "Why was Putin hoping the bomber would be a swarthy Muslim?"
3. If the victims are Jews, the bomber will, like Todashev, be swiftly killed in police custody, and his name will disappear from public consciousness.
4. If the victims are non-Jewish whites, the bomber will, like Dzhokhar, appear on the cover of Rolling Stone. As a result, he will enjoy a lifetime of conjugal visits from beautiful young airheads hoping he will "blow up my womb with babies".
"3. If the victims are Jews, the bomber will, like Todashev, be swiftly killed in police custody, and his name will disappear from public consciousness."
Wouldn't the Jews love an opportunity to present themselves as victims, if the identity of the victims was to be a factor?
I think there are people and agencies on both sides who yearn for the days of the Cold war. It brought their lives meaning and a certain perverse stability.
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