Comments on: So Very Predictable

By: Daniel Larison

Daniel Larison — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:41:20 +0000

It’s not reassuring when they do it, either, but in their defense they don’t claim to be experts on Russia and its neighbors. The wrong spelling of the name is unfortunately quite widespread–it crops up in news stories as well as in commentary. The error is always lamentable, but that’s the least of my problems with Applebaum’s column.

By: christian c.

christian c. — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:57:40 +0000

“Also, it is not reassuring when Applebaum keeps referring to it as ‘the Caucuses.’”

How do you feel about it when both of your “Takimag colleagues” do the same?

By: Eunomia » Anti-Russian Bias

Eunomia » Anti-Russian Bias — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:37:36 +0000

[...] Charles Ganske has an interesting post about the war and the overheated anti-Russian reactions in the English-languageÂ media, echoing my complaints about predictable Western commentary on Russia: CNN briefly portrayed Russia as the big red USSR while showing Americans where South Ossetia and Georgia are on the world map. Hugh Hewitt, one of the most popular conservative talk radio show hosts in America, cited a report on the air from Austin-based Strategic Forecasting Inc. asserting that Russia was using the Georgia campaign to intimidate all of the former Soviet republics. The report, Hewitt seemed to imply, suggested a master plan by the Kremlin to revive the at least a rump Soviet Union through military might. Hugh Hewitt’s guest, Larry Kudlow, a popular conservative commentator who hosts the highly watched “Kudlow and Company” TV show on CNBC, called Russian leaders “war criminals”. A news announcer on the same national talk radio network said that Russian forces had reportedly killed 1,400 people in the region, even though this was actually the number claimed by the South Ossetians as victims of Georgian shelling and bombs. Headlines on AOL news said, “Russia Invades Small Neighbor”, which makes for a more dog bites man headline than, “Russia puts troops into small region invaded by former Soviet republic asserting sovereignty over disputed territory”. The U.S. taxpayer funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website published a ridiculous article by Echo Moskvy radio’s Yulia Latynina, calling South Ossetia a “terrorist state” and comparing the region to the PLO or Hezbollah statelets in southern Lebanon — as if the South Ossetians were sending suicide bombers and rockets into Georgia. [...]

By: Daniel Larison

Daniel Larison — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:28:57 +0000

And they have a plan. Sorry, neocons-as-Cylons jokes are too good to pass up when the opportunity arises.

Yes, I read your back-and-forth with Chang. I thought it was funny, and a bit unnerving, when he invoked nameless “analysts” who have talked of Russian expansionism. Of course, these “analysts” have just as little evidence as he does that there is any “expansionism.” Expansionism in my understanding requires actual expansion beyond pre-existing limits. In fact, what Russia is doing so far is merely defending the status quo. While Georgia is reasserting its sovereignty in areas where it has had none, it is still technically the revisionist and irredentist power in this conflict.

By: Grumpy Old Man

Grumpy Old Man — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:05:44 +0000

Gordon Chang over at Commentary's contentions will engage on the merits. Abe Greenwald, on the other hand, demeans the word "hack." "Mani-hack" is more like it. Chang says things like "I have no [in]tention of abandoning any democracy that wants our help." Really. That was my politics when I was 11. These people are very scary, and although they've had a few setbacks, they may well be temporary. They are prolific, they have a formula, they know how to appeal to fear, and the military-industrial complex is at their back.