IrrussianalityI’ve mentioned before that two of the major problems in international relations are state leaders’ lack of self-awareness and lack of strategic empathy. Given their imperial history, as well as their awful recent history of invading, destabilizing, and generally messing up foreign countries, you might imagine that the Brits would have learnt to avoid these pitfalls and developed a bit of humility as well as some understanding that others might not view them positively. But it appears not. No matter how they (or should I say ‘we’, since I have a British passport) screw things up, they/we still think that they/we are on the side of the angels whereas others are the devil incarnate, and that all the world needs is a bit more Britain.
If you doubted this, I suggest you take a look at a new article published this week by the British Defence Secretary, who goes by the good Scottish name of Ben Cameron Wallace. The bulk of the article – which appears on the UK government website – is an attack on Russian president Vladimir Putin’s historical essay on Russian-Ukrainian relations, which argued that Russians and Ukrainians were in essence one people, or at least very closely related peoples. Given that Putin wrote his piece some months ago, it might seem a little strange that Wallace would suddenly decide to respond. But his reply coincides with a decision by the British government to send additional weapons to Ukraine. It’s clearly therefore designed to provide some sort of moral justification for that move.
Wallace starts out by saying that Russia’s belief that it is threatened by NATO is a ‘straw man’. Why? Because – and you’ve heard this before – ‘NATO, to its core, is defensive in nature. … It is a truly defensive alliance.’
Really?
If the Russians were in Scotland …
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa
3 comments:
Excellent !
Give me 3 super powers any day of the week. 4 would be better or even 5 to protect me from the US leisure class and capital. Who are a bunch of war mongering psychopaths in a " one " party nation state.
I'm atheist and left wing that would enough to get me locked up in Guantanamo bay if these nutters ruled the world.
Here you go Footsoldier:
http://libgen.rs/. (Library Genesis)
You see, like universal healthcare free to all from cradle to grave, I am also for scientific publications (books, papers) should be freely available to all. Yeah, because unless your name is "Pythagoras," you really have no say in the matter. τέλεια και παυλα! as the wannabe Americans say in Greece ("end of story!")
And since I did bring up Pythagoras, the Pythagorean Theorem only applies to FLAT surfaces. (Einstein had to deal with that.) Did you know that? No one told me that when I was taught it some 40 years ago as a high schooler. hell, no math teacher brought it to my kid either and she's in her last year of high school
Also, you'd be hard-pressed to find the word "codomain" in an algebra text. It's shocking because it, like the domain, defines the function. What's the big deal, you say? Are you nuts! You'll be dealing with functions in EVERY math class you take in the future -- that's how big deal it is.
Like i have said: Schools... lousy teachers, lousy textbooks. Nothing ever changes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Hotel_(1932_film)
and i almost forgot,
Why would the Russians want to be in Scotland? Don't they have enough of their own lousy climate?
Post a Comment