Gaza War 2023: Enjoy Your Two Minute Hate
Taking sides in vicious tribal conflicts is dumb as fuck and is going to boomerang back on you.
Geopolitics
Terrorism
Geopolitics
Was MH17 Terrorism?
Reprinted from Facebook (2018/02/15): Let’s say that the SBU recordings are genuine and the NAF was directly responsible for shooting down MH77 on the mistaken impression that it was a (valid) military target. Should this then be classed as terrorism? Would it invoke NATO’s Article 5, as some of the most heated rhetoric is suggesting? (See http://www.spitsnieuws.nl/…/nederland-en-vs-bereiden-invasi…) Well,
Politics
Translation: The Caucasus Situation
In this article by Alexey Stepanov from Komsomolskaya Pravda, recent events and continued concern over the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi demonstrate that terrorism still afflicts Russian territory Putin: Several Countries Are Deliberately Destabilizing the Situation in the Northern Caucasus The President of the Russian Federation urged to “more roughly stop such attempts and to
Society
Angsty Chechens Come To Boston
Is discussed at the other blog. To add a couple of things that are Russia specific: (1) We now learn that the FBI had interviewed the older brother at the bequest of an unspecific foreign government – almost certainly Russia. Tamerlan had visited it for 6 months in 2011. I wonder if he established links with some of
Society
The Tsarnaev Brothers
Make of this what you will. (1) The older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, never adjusted to life in the US. “I don’t have a single American friend,” he said. His younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, had an understanding of US teen hood / SWPL culture. He was a 9/11 “truther.” That’s from the Twitter account. That said, he wasn’t
Geopolitics
Chechnya, A Once And Future War?
Truly, if Willian Burns were to issue an anthology of his Moscow cables during his 2005-2008 ambassadorship, I’d seriously consider buying it. Just consider this cable from May 2006, on Chechnya’s “Once and Future War”, a nuanced US view of that conflict and the cynicism and corruption it engendered amongst all its parties. What struck