Putin for POTUS

From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Tue, 2008-01-08 13:52

A quote from Spengler in The Asia Times, 7 January 2008

"God has a special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States of America," German statesman Otto von Bismarck is famously alleged to have said. I have only one New Year's forecast, namely that God will take a holiday, at least as far as America is concerned. The year just passed would be viewed as America's annus horribilis by any normal standard, that is, any standard except that of 2008, which will be the worst year for the US since 1980, when Jimmy Carter left office. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong in American policy, but not as wrong as it will go now. As in 1980, a lame-duck administration will confront economic and strategic reverses. But it is worse than 1980, for no Ronald Reagan is waiting in the wings to set things right.

[…]

The Americans, meanwhile, have met the enemy, and it is them. America has coasted on a quarter-century wave of power and prosperity since president Reagan won the Cold War and restarted the economy. America in the 1980s was the only model to be emulated, and a magnet for global capital flows. So compelling were American capital markets that by the late 1990s, almost all the free savings of the world sought an American home. In 2007 a trillion dollars of overseas capital poured into American markets.

Americans no longer had to save; the rest of the world saved for them and lent them money at the lowest interest rates in half a century. Americans no longer had to study; engineers from India to Argentina programmed their computers. And Americans no longer had to face a strategic challenge; after the death of the Soviet Union, so Washington believed, America need only export its self-image. Of all the great illusions of the post-Cold War era, this has turned out to be the most pernicious. [...]

The Americans are poorer at the end of 2007 than they were a year ago, and at the end of 2008 they will be much poorer still. They will be beholden to the Gulf States, Singapore, China, Russia or whomever can recapitalize a banking system that already may be technically insolvent. They will import less and the Asian economies will suffer.

[...]

Putin understands how to exercise power. Unlike Iraq, the restive Muslim province of Chechnya now nestles comfortably in Putin's palm, albeit with about half the people it had a decade ago. Russian troops killed between 35,000 and 100,000 civilians in the first Chechen war of 1994-96, and half a million were driven from their homes, totaling about half the population. But that is not what pacified Chechnya. Putin bribed and bullied Chechnyan clans to do Russia's dirty work for it, showing himself a master at the game of divide-and-conquer. Working from a position of weakness, Russia's president is the closest the modern world comes to the insidious strategic genius of a Cardinal Richelieu.

That is the sort of strategic thinking America needs. So my endorsement for the next president of the United States goes to Vladimir Putin.

One final note - Putin doesn't speak much English. But that shouldn't disqualify him. Neither does George W Bush.

re: chechen whine

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Wed, 2008-01-09 13:52.

"Thanks for the Kunta- Khadzhi info".

 

If you really want to show personal gratitude you could do so by directly addressing even ONE of my previous questions.

Chechian wine

Submitted by kappert on Wed, 2008-01-09 13:47.

Wine in Chechnya is an issue for almost 5000 years. The current Russian import ban for wines from Georgia led to an increase of wine production in Southern Chechnya. Investments were made and entire mountain slopes changed to wineyards (source: Russian Ministry of Interior, 2006). The wine is similar to the Georgian 'Telawi' and 'Tsinandali', dry, herb and clear. The wine production is the most important agricultural business in the region.
After the partial destruction of the refinery in Grozny, many Russian citizens moved to neighbouring Ossetia to work in the new Beslan refinery complex. Chechnian oil production should be now about 5 million tonnes a year (1971: 22 million tonnes) (source: Timur Aliev, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 2004).
Thanks for the Kunta-Khadzhi info.

In Reply to traveller RE: Chechnia

Submitted by Kapitein Andre on Wed, 2008-01-09 02:40.

traveller: What do you think this war [Chechen Wars] was all about? You definitely don't have your facts straight. They produce oil and gas and have even a damaged pipe-line which is probably already back on stream.

 

An amusing notion, but fundamentally flawed. The Russian armed forces are in Chechnia only to conduct operations against Muslim terrorists, prevent WMD proliferation and foster peace and democracy in general - just like the Coalition forces in Iraq...

'fox' breaking news: the de-kappert-ation of chechnya

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Wed, 2008-01-09 00:17.

kappert,I'm on to you,pal...

 

"One is tempted to throw a bridge across the spiritual world of Kunta-Khadzhi to that of Leo Tolstoi to Mahatma Gandhi..."

 

And who was Kunta-Khadzhi?

The Chechen Mahatma Gandhi.

 

see: www.chechnyafree.ru  (English version)

 

click on: Religion

 

see also: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy#A_Letter_to_a_Hindu_.281908.29

 

 

@KAPPERT

Submitted by Norman Conquest 304 on Tue, 2008-01-08 18:40.

You seem to be overoptimistic about Chechnya.

Mind you, I would like to taste Chechen wine. Where did you get this information from?

I thought that the Chechens (at least their wives, as usual) produced rugs. The Caucasus is well known for its high-quality rugs.

Have you ever heard of the Second Chechen War at all? This second conflict was orchestrated by tovarisch Putin, the Vertical Power freak who "will rearrange Chechen faces in the toilets". Have you heard of the Russian "filtration camps"? We did not see any demonstrations against these atrocities in front of Russia's embassies, mate. 

Moreover, I didn't know that Beslan was in Chechnya. Did your NYT say that? I've told you: never trust the NYT. 

So you really were in a hurry to bullshit us once more, mate. Just for your information, you're living on Planet Earth and this year is 2008 AD. Now who is late with his appreciation?

"Living standards in Chechnya have improved a lot since 2005, at least on food, health and education level".

Breaking news: Chechnya will join the OECD next year and the G7 in 2010. Right?  

@KAPPERT

Submitted by Norman Conquest 304 on Tue, 2008-01-08 17:22.

I can only agree with Traveler.

I don't think I am late. "Comrade" is of course a reference to the pervasive totalitarianism Russia still has to come to terms with (arbitrariness, double standards, private life violations, etc).

Helena Bonner would agree with me.

The Weekly Standard: Elena Bonner fears for the future of Russia.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/557aigdd.asp

or you can read it in Russian if you prefer: http://www.inosmi.ru/stories/07/04/23/3507/238768.html

This would be good training before you move there, hum?   

In a previous posting, I wrote that Russia had made tremendous progress in terms of economic revival and democratisation. However, the country still has a long way to go.
As regards the next US president, one thing is certain: if Obama is elected, let's hope he will be a one-termer. His presidency will be a real failure such as that of Caius Maximus Peanutinus Cretinus Carter. The Bush Administration has not failed at all. It has not yet finished the job it was elected for. I wish that GWB could stay for a third term. But fine, the US is a constitutional democracy.
I would like to endorse John McCain. Supporting the separation of Hillary and state just like some other people support the separation of church and state, I would endorse any of the current Republican candidates.
BTW, do you have any news about our friend "Failed-Gaspromises-Schroeder"?

A cynical joke?

Submitted by ScanAmMan on Tue, 2008-01-08 16:29.

I must assume the nomination is a cynical joke due to dismay over the current candidate list for this office. But not knowing the protcol on TBJ I am curious about the use of a personal pronoun, i.e. "my endorsement", when the article is "From The Desk of TBJ".

Cynical is also a good word to describe Vlad, as well as ruthless, murderer, and most aptly - a fascist leader. Although the definition of fascisim is normally one who uses extra-legal powers. In the case of VP he simply controls and manipulates the Courts and Duma.

A frightening, fascinating, insightful read on the reign of Putin and his secret police - and by implication our (The West) continued complicity - can be found at David Horowitz's FrontPage.com, titled From Russia With Death. The archived symposium/interview from one year ago included:

Oleg Kalugin, a retired Major General of the Soviet KGB.

Richard Pipes, a Professor Emeritus at Harvard who is one of the world's leading authorities on Soviet history.

Vladimir Bukovsky, a former leading Soviet dissident who spent twelve years in Soviet prisons, labor camps and psychiatric hospitals for his fight for freedom.

Jim Woolsey, director of the CIA from 1993-95 and a former Navy undersecretary and arms-control negotiator.

Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, the former acting chief of Communist Romania’s espionage service. He is the highest ranking official ever to have defected from the Soviet bloc.

David Satter, a senior fellow of the Hudson Institute and a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Yuri Yarim-Agaev, a former leading Russian dissident and a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group.

Andrei Piontkovsky, a member of International PEN-club, currently a Hudson Institute Visiting Fellow

and can be found at:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=8AF03A7C-65B0-4FBF-8158-938FA06CB1DC

Fortunately I don't think putting Putin in a boxcar and sending him to the USA would have much effect but his rise and methods are a dark warning against the rise of the totalitarian state from whatever side of the stage.

PERSONS LIKE TOVARISCH KAPPERT

Submitted by Norman Conquest 304 on Tue, 2008-01-08 16:09.

This article is just preposterous. Moreover, if the silly twit who wrote it really wants Putin as his next President, he should just move to Russia, a country known for its respect for elementary liberties and essential values such as free speech, rule of law, property rights, transparency, accountability, sophistication, etc.  

I have no time to waste trying to demonstrate this. Persons like my dear friend Herr Kappert should just do their homework and be consistent: move to Chechnya then. 

I think you would be disappointed, Kappert. Actually, have you ever heard about the Russian saying: "In the country of comrades, there are comrades who are not comrades for the comrades".

You are just impressed by Russia's relative economic success based upon looting, oil and gas. Greed is one of the seven "deadly" sins, Comrade Kappert, oh you, our great "enlightened" and "enlightening" German, our new Karl Liebenicht of the superior nation. 

Maybe you are too late with

Submitted by kappert on Tue, 2008-01-08 16:36.

Maybe you are too late with your appreciation. The 'comrade' time is over in Russia, as you may have heard. Of course, this article is a joke so, please, have some fun. Thanks for the JohnHopkins article. By the way, no oil, nor gas in Chechnya, it's in the mountains, too hard to drill.

@ kappert

Submitted by traveller on Tue, 2008-01-08 17:14.

No oil, no gas???
What do you think this war was all about? You definitely don't have your facts straight. They produce oil and gas and have even a damaged pipe-line which is probably already back on stream.

Mea culpa!

Submitted by kappert on Tue, 2008-01-08 18:14.

You are absolutely right, there is oil in Chechnya. I was too hasty in writing. I was referring to the Southern part, where the chechnian tribes are living, essentially from wine production. The oil industry is mainly in the hands of Russians, living in the big cities with Russian ethnical majority, linked to the Kavkaz-Pipeline and the refinery in Beslan. However, after the terrible Yeltsin-war, troops were withdrawn, things have been negotiated and terrorist groups were isolated by the work of the police. Living standards in Chechnya have improved a lot since 2005, at least on food, health and education level.

appetite

Submitted by kappert on Tue, 2008-01-08 16:30.

I only can tell you: A Adzhabsanda is delicious, you smell the garlic for days ...