This article will be a feature for Sunday morning readers in the UK. As we’ve been remarking, Vlad looks relaxed, confident, cheerful. And why shouldn’t he? You’d be smiling too, in his position. As an example of UK cope, the article is highly amusing
Very amusing, as you said Mark. Lots of ifs and maybes, never failing to mention the words despot or dictator in all the 'right' places. But my favourite bit was this:
<<But this is not yet over. Ukraine has driven Russia out of the western Black Sea, which is open again to international shipping. We should be on our guard against the tendency that George Orwell observed during the Second World War, whereby intellectuals over-interpret each new military development – a tendency, he believed, not shared by ordinary people.>>
Yoking 'we' to 'intellectuals' certainly took some chutzpah. I ought not to project what the sainted Orwell might have said, but his respect for established institutions - including religion - and patriotism, suggest he would not have adopted wholesale Russophobia.
I thought I detected just a trace of "NATO: what's the point?" but that might have been wishful thinking.
I recommend Larry Johnston's account of his recent trip to Moscow, the short video clips are marvellous.
Yes, I watched LJ this morning and enjoyed it. And, yes, that took some nerve. This is a guy with no background to credibly comment on these matters and pretty much openly admits he accepted the official line hook line and sinker.
NATO in its current form should never have come into being, eastward expansion should have never occurred. Why? Because the USA & Canada should have exited after the Soviet Union collapsed. If the western European NATO members felt the need for continued collective defense those nations could have done as they wished. Instead, almost 80 years after WW2 ended the US is still involved up to our eyeballs in matters that are not any of our business, our own domestic security is a shambolic joke, the dividends of neocon foolishness .
I wonder how much of the conflict in Ukraine was to deny Russia a powerful industrial and manufacturing base that Ukraine represents and leave it an uneconomical, unsustainable and destroyed rump state in tatters with half the population gone.
The old saying: "the biggest problem with Poles is that they hate Russia more than they love Poland" - is still true, and is still going to hurt them in the future. Just like in the centuries gone by, Russia will always be on the easter flank of Poland even long after both EU and US Empire go into history books.
True. Memories die hard, and life was not pleasant under the thumb of the Soviet Union. However a leap of faith is needed, because they have a lot more to fear from the Nazis in Brussels than from Putin.
I understand that it's a leap for Poles, although Dmowski's views offer a basis for hope. Living in the past--centuries ago--is not a positive way forward for Poland--that past is never coming back and, as Dmowski argued, it wasn't nearly the golden past for most Poles that romantic novels portrayed. Nor is placing trust in Neocons a way forward--hard for me to believe Poles could have been that foolish.
Very amusing, as you said Mark. Lots of ifs and maybes, never failing to mention the words despot or dictator in all the 'right' places. But my favourite bit was this:
<<But this is not yet over. Ukraine has driven Russia out of the western Black Sea, which is open again to international shipping. We should be on our guard against the tendency that George Orwell observed during the Second World War, whereby intellectuals over-interpret each new military development – a tendency, he believed, not shared by ordinary people.>>
Yoking 'we' to 'intellectuals' certainly took some chutzpah. I ought not to project what the sainted Orwell might have said, but his respect for established institutions - including religion - and patriotism, suggest he would not have adopted wholesale Russophobia.
I thought I detected just a trace of "NATO: what's the point?" but that might have been wishful thinking.
I recommend Larry Johnston's account of his recent trip to Moscow, the short video clips are marvellous.
https://sonar21.com/moscow-trip-report/
Yes, I watched LJ this morning and enjoyed it. And, yes, that took some nerve. This is a guy with no background to credibly comment on these matters and pretty much openly admits he accepted the official line hook line and sinker.
NATO in its current form should never have come into being, eastward expansion should have never occurred. Why? Because the USA & Canada should have exited after the Soviet Union collapsed. If the western European NATO members felt the need for continued collective defense those nations could have done as they wished. Instead, almost 80 years after WW2 ended the US is still involved up to our eyeballs in matters that are not any of our business, our own domestic security is a shambolic joke, the dividends of neocon foolishness .
Neither sarcastic nor cynical: perfectly well said!
Second that, 100%
I wonder how much of the conflict in Ukraine was to deny Russia a powerful industrial and manufacturing base that Ukraine represents and leave it an uneconomical, unsustainable and destroyed rump state in tatters with half the population gone.
Poland may have achieved its aims.
The old saying: "the biggest problem with Poles is that they hate Russia more than they love Poland" - is still true, and is still going to hurt them in the future. Just like in the centuries gone by, Russia will always be on the easter flank of Poland even long after both EU and US Empire go into history books.
True. Memories die hard, and life was not pleasant under the thumb of the Soviet Union. However a leap of faith is needed, because they have a lot more to fear from the Nazis in Brussels than from Putin.
I understand that it's a leap for Poles, although Dmowski's views offer a basis for hope. Living in the past--centuries ago--is not a positive way forward for Poland--that past is never coming back and, as Dmowski argued, it wasn't nearly the golden past for most Poles that romantic novels portrayed. Nor is placing trust in Neocons a way forward--hard for me to believe Poles could have been that foolish.