So what's the scoop? What is the bottom-line? What do we make of these?
The undersigned is going to pass temporarily. Oh, here we go, just take a crap on my head, that's fine, I love the smell of shit in the morning. WAIT! Just give me a chance. Thank you.
Okay...Now...Anybody have a pith helmet, peut-etre? OK! Well, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO LIKE THIS but I ain't skaed. Actually, I'm a little scared. Ok! Fine! I'll get to the point. I have to re-read Putin's speech. Here! I'll help carry my cross, No! Don't trouble yourself, I'll do it. I'll walk to my struggle session calmly and submit to a yin-yang. I did not read Putin's speech paragraph, pause, think-by-paragraph as I did Lavrov's. There was too much info for me to digest. It overwhelmed me, short-circuited my old, frayed wiring as well as broke my back and ruined my eyes.
Get the ink ready, gather the hammer and nails for INCOMING! This is the worst part:
Friends, if I have any left, enemies, I'm going to have enough of those right quick, I say, my fellow homo sapiens, the undersigned is troubled by American actions toward Russia for the last 25 years. So many of the Russian grievances are spot-on. I at least cannot wave them aside. Yet the invasions of Ukraine were wrong, murderous, despicable. At the same time, America sanctioning Russia is ineffective and blatant hypocrisy. Russia did not sanction the U.S. for its invasions of Iraq, Libya, the Balkans. There is not a moral equivalence there with Russia's brutal, cynical, lying invasions of Ukraine. Not moral equivalence. I agreed and still, perhaps temporarily, support the sanctions but all the American foreign policy cognoscenti pulled the back of the coats of those like me, like McCain, who were already running off storming the barricades and giving full throat to sanctions early, often, and severely.
The undersigned has concluded that Ambassador Derek Fraser was correct on two counts: We should talk to the Russians and keep talking. And he was correct that there are enough common grounds for the two countries to keep talking, enough substance that we can still make progress on. It should be easier to keep our tone moderate and respectful, it is at least necessary and is the right thing to do.
Substance: I am not hopeful. I think there does need to be an undoing of the substantive decisions America made to expand NATO east, to pull out of the ABM treaty. We need to act more in concert with Russia, not present them and our Western allies with a fait accompli.
I will sprout wings and fly, that is the chance we will re-do NATO. We should, imo, go the extra mile, whatever that entails, to incorporate Russia into some re-worked pan-European security treaty that protects Russia "equally," in Lavrov's words. We have divided Europe, made European security divisible, by excluding Russia.
It seems to me, but only that, that giving up the nuclear shield idea and rejoining the ABM treaty should be easier, but I could be wrong. I don't see that happening either.
So, lets us then start with the tone of our interactions with Russia. The Mad Irishwoman needs be removed from the UN. Her confrontation with Churkin was the most embarrassing, insulting thing done at the UN since Khrushchev took off his shoe and pounded the table. Look at the people in the background of that photograph. They are snickering, laughing at the behavior of the United Stated Ambassador to the United Nations. That was disrespectful, oh yeah!
One more thing: Putin is bitter about the U.S. "domination" of world media. In his view, Russia's message has no chance for a fair hearing. Ambassador Fraser really supported indirectly Putin's position on the media. The two speeches "had perhaps not received the attention they deserved," he said. Fraser's article was published in a Canadian newspaper. The speeches received little if any meaningful coverage from American pencils and it was Gorbachev who brought the Valdai speech to the attention of unofficial America. If we are going to talk to Russia, we, all Americans, have to be able to hear. We can't hear what never makes it to our ears.
What do you think? I would like to have your thoughts.
The undersigned is going to pass temporarily. Oh, here we go, just take a crap on my head, that's fine, I love the smell of shit in the morning. WAIT! Just give me a chance. Thank you.
Okay...Now...Anybody have a pith helmet, peut-etre? OK! Well, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO LIKE THIS but I ain't skaed. Actually, I'm a little scared. Ok! Fine! I'll get to the point. I have to re-read Putin's speech. Here! I'll help carry my cross, No! Don't trouble yourself, I'll do it. I'll walk to my struggle session calmly and submit to a yin-yang. I did not read Putin's speech paragraph, pause, think-by-paragraph as I did Lavrov's. There was too much info for me to digest. It overwhelmed me, short-circuited my old, frayed wiring as well as broke my back and ruined my eyes.
Get the ink ready, gather the hammer and nails for INCOMING! This is the worst part:
Friends, if I have any left, enemies, I'm going to have enough of those right quick, I say, my fellow homo sapiens, the undersigned is troubled by American actions toward Russia for the last 25 years. So many of the Russian grievances are spot-on. I at least cannot wave them aside. Yet the invasions of Ukraine were wrong, murderous, despicable. At the same time, America sanctioning Russia is ineffective and blatant hypocrisy. Russia did not sanction the U.S. for its invasions of Iraq, Libya, the Balkans. There is not a moral equivalence there with Russia's brutal, cynical, lying invasions of Ukraine. Not moral equivalence. I agreed and still, perhaps temporarily, support the sanctions but all the American foreign policy cognoscenti pulled the back of the coats of those like me, like McCain, who were already running off storming the barricades and giving full throat to sanctions early, often, and severely.
The undersigned has concluded that Ambassador Derek Fraser was correct on two counts: We should talk to the Russians and keep talking. And he was correct that there are enough common grounds for the two countries to keep talking, enough substance that we can still make progress on. It should be easier to keep our tone moderate and respectful, it is at least necessary and is the right thing to do.
Substance: I am not hopeful. I think there does need to be an undoing of the substantive decisions America made to expand NATO east, to pull out of the ABM treaty. We need to act more in concert with Russia, not present them and our Western allies with a fait accompli.
I will sprout wings and fly, that is the chance we will re-do NATO. We should, imo, go the extra mile, whatever that entails, to incorporate Russia into some re-worked pan-European security treaty that protects Russia "equally," in Lavrov's words. We have divided Europe, made European security divisible, by excluding Russia.
It seems to me, but only that, that giving up the nuclear shield idea and rejoining the ABM treaty should be easier, but I could be wrong. I don't see that happening either.
So, lets us then start with the tone of our interactions with Russia. The Mad Irishwoman needs be removed from the UN. Her confrontation with Churkin was the most embarrassing, insulting thing done at the UN since Khrushchev took off his shoe and pounded the table. Look at the people in the background of that photograph. They are snickering, laughing at the behavior of the United Stated Ambassador to the United Nations. That was disrespectful, oh yeah!
One more thing: Putin is bitter about the U.S. "domination" of world media. In his view, Russia's message has no chance for a fair hearing. Ambassador Fraser really supported indirectly Putin's position on the media. The two speeches "had perhaps not received the attention they deserved," he said. Fraser's article was published in a Canadian newspaper. The speeches received little if any meaningful coverage from American pencils and it was Gorbachev who brought the Valdai speech to the attention of unofficial America. If we are going to talk to Russia, we, all Americans, have to be able to hear. We can't hear what never makes it to our ears.
What do you think? I would like to have your thoughts.
