That great rumbling sound you’re hearing is history resuming. Reports of its death, or that it has “sides”, were greatly exaggerated. We see tonight, as we have seen again and again and again, century after century, that imaginary “order” based on political and diplomatic abstractions — or on anything but a vector-sum of power, fear, the lust of empires to expand, and the existential concerns of human peoples for the security and preservation of their heritage and folkways — is nothing but a polite and evanescent fiction.
Decades of historical ignorance, hubris, greed and folly regarding Russia, from both of our major parties, have brought us to this moment. If you have a child, spouse, brother, sister, or parent in the military, how will you feel if he or she is sent to die in Ukraine, a place where none of our national interests are at stake, in order to satisfy the narcissistic longings of our ruling elites?
How shabby and dismal it all is, and how easily preventable this debacle might have been. But here we are. Thank God we’re in such wise and capable hands.
11 Comments
I wouldn’t worry about US military being placed in Ukraine. No reason to wade into that looming quagmire where we have no interest. Had Russia been treated better from 1990 on, we may not be in this predicament. Then again, as long as V. Putin is running the show or even alive, I’m not sure the rage that consumes him over losing his country will ever be satisfied no matter what we do or did. For now he will have Ukraine to go along with Belarus and Kazakhstan-RUBK.
Ukraine is no match and they know it so it would be well to fight and then fall back and disperse to form a concerted long term resistance thus tying down Russia. Even better would be to link up with like minded souls next door in Belarus who narrowly missed removing their Putin backed puppet dictator.
https://turcopolier.com/the-wisdom-of-dr-stephen-cohen-and-avoiding-war-with-russia/
You’ve, perhaps Malcolm, some goodly number of John Batchelor’s archived discussions with Mr. Cohen?
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I wouldn’t have a problem with setting as a border those nations of the Visegrad Group; providing they provide their frontline troops. Perhaps LtCol. Vindman may volunteer to serve on the Ukrainian’s front lines – if so that’s okay by me as well.
Much of our foreign policy is awful, because officials are unable to do the correct, realistic thing without getting torpedoed by their political opponents. Thus, Trump is unable to dial back NATO and bring Russia into the fold because he’s the alleged handmaiden of Putin, and neither could Obama, because the Republicans would accuse him of being a Soviet spy. Now, things have escalated beyond the point where NATO will ever be dialed back. Our parasitic, reckless MIC (which should have been halved in 1991 and trimmed again when we finally left Afghanistan) will get everything it ever wanted because the alternative is Putin and Xi take over the world.
I’m sure there’s a term of art for this arrested dialectic but I don’t know it. I’ve asked the philosophy professors at the Orthosphere if they can help me out or maybe you know, Malcolm. Basically, it’s a situation where both sides of a debate stand ready to punt the issue outside the Overton frame, whichever side raises it. So what should be up for vigorous debate is never debated.
The only solution is someone with enough political capital to break the logjam and have a “Nixon goes to China” moment.
Trump actually took the plunge with North Korea, and it will be disgracefully forgotten.
Hi AG, nice to see you again.
I’ll have to think about this — the closest I can come off the top of my head is the Abilene Paradox, but that isn’t quite it.
Really it’s more like two people fighting in deep water: the water’s always available as a weapon to either party, so each side tries to push the other’s head down into it when they pop up. A reliable boogeyman like our old foe the Russkies dependably serves the same purpose, no matter who’s momentarily on top over here.
And behind the scenes there are always powerful interests for whom friction and confusion always means profit.
Hi JK,
I’ve been thinking about Stephen Cohen, and those many fascinating discussions with JB, a lot lately. I don’t have any of them archived, but I wonder if they are still up online — a lot of Batchelor’s podcasts have been wiped.
Oh no – I just looked for Stephen Cohen, and it turns out he died, back in 2020! I had no idea; I just thought he was more or less retired.
He had lung cancer, and died at 81.
Oh man….
Anti-G,
“Basically, it’s a situation where both sides of a debate stand ready to punt the issue outside the Overton frame,”
Isn’t that just the nature of liberal democracies? Immediate decisive action is not the hallmark of democracy. I don’t know who has any political capital enough to engage any debate needed. It may just be an exercise in futility to worry over debating when forces are on the move right now and they have no desire to debate.
Whitewall – it’s a little different than that. It’s kind of a “third rail” phenomenon, like cutting Social Security or repealing Title VII.
So, e.g., you’ve got Red China. No Democrat can touch it, because the Republicans will accuse them of being filthy Bolsheviks. No Republican iwill touch it, because that would be consorting with communists, hoist on their own petard by the commie Democrats themselves.
Then Nixon comes along with his high opinion polls and solid electoral majority (301 electors vs. 191 electors–and an anomalous 46 electors for George Wallace) in 1968 and says goddamit, I am going to China. So he does, in February 1972. Nine months later, he is re-elected with a Reaganesque super-majority.
But nobody other than Richard Nixon in February 1972 could do that without getting shredded from their left and right flanks. So again, it’s an “arrested dialectic.” There should be vigorous debate, like on whether we repave roads or build passenger trains, but either side is ready to bludgeon the other one, whichever side raises it. So what should be a healthy, vigorous dialectic is stymied.
A-G, that makes good sense. In view of Malcolm’s latest post after this one, I had to rethink based on the summary of events that are linked in it. My reactions are rooted in an almost instinctive, visceral habit re anything Putin-Soviet-Russia-Cold War mind set. Probably because I saw some of their handy work fifty odd years ago as well as that of their proxies nearly as long ago.
Hopefully someone can break that ‘third rail’ paralysis and then as a clencher, say out loud what the article said must be kept covered up regarding our clandestine agencies and Ukraine. As of now, we are a ‘super power’ minus the super and the world knows it.
A commenter at The Orthosphere thinks it’s a “holiness spiral,” which seems like an apt phrasing.
So was World War I, here in America.