Straddle the line in discord and rhyme, I'm on the hunt I'm after you...

May 10, 2006 4:01 PM

Hungry like the wolf. In his state-of-the-nation address, Vladamir Putin took a swipe at the Bush administration, saying that Russia should build "a strong, reliable home because we do see what's going on in the world. . . Comrade Wolf knows whom to eat. It's eating without listening to anyone. And by all appearances, it's not going to listen . . . Where is all this pathos about the need to fight for human rights and democracy when it comes to the need to pursue their own interests? Here everything is possible. There are no limits."
posted by insomnia_lj (25 comments total)

In order to fly the Firefox, you must think in Russian.
posted by frogan at 4:08 PM on May 10, 2006

Russia: Land of opportunity. Everything is possible!

Not that he's not, you know, right about the first part. But that doesn't make Pooty-Poot an enviable leader.
posted by borkingchikapa at 4:10 PM on May 10, 2006

Nice to see he's moving to decrease the army's reliance on conscripts. Conscription in Russia is a disaster.
posted by mr_roboto at 4:10 PM on May 10, 2006

Frogan wins.
posted by Optamystic at 4:16 PM on May 10, 2006

Russia just earned themselves a place in the Axis of Idontgiveadamn.
posted by quadog at 4:19 PM on May 10, 2006

This seems inevitable really. See Gwynne Dyer, esp. Future:Tense.
posted by stinkycheese at 4:21 PM on May 10, 2006

Good point, stinkycheese.

This review of Future: Tense says it well...

"The United States needs to lose the war in Iraq as soon as possible. Even more urgently, the whole world needs the United States to lose the war in Iraq."

This is how journalist Gwynne Dyer begins his second book on the Iraq crisis, a follow-up to the gloomy forecasts made in Ignorant Armies. He has many reasons for not wishing the U.S. well, but the basic one is that American unilateralism threatens "international institutions that are our fragile first line of defence against a return to the great-power wars that could destroy us all."
posted by insomnia_lj at 4:28 PM on May 10, 2006

See also this article by Gwynne Dyer on the recent US hypocracy that led to this statement.
posted by insomnia_lj at 4:36 PM on May 10, 2006

This is why for five decades American foreign policy, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, was focused on carefully balanced multilateral action. Unilateralism is as bad for the US as it is for the rest of the world, and 9/11 didn't change that.
posted by mr_roboto at 4:59 PM on May 10, 2006

Darken the city, night is a wire
Steam in the subway, earth is a afire
Do do do do do do do dodo dododo dodo
posted by freebird at 5:03 PM on May 10, 2006

American unilateralism threatens "international institutions that are our fragile first line of defence against a return to the great-power wars that could destroy us all."

The problem is if America loses, I'm not sure that any Western institution -- and it does look to me like most international institutions are Western institutions, even if they include other nations -- is going to be able to act authoritatively.

(And no, I don't say any of this as a Bush admin supporter.)

the whole world needs the United States to lose the war in Iraq.

The non-Western world needs it, maybe.

What would have been really nice was a powerful America that wasn't run by people who chose military means of redrawing the map first for the last six years. That's obviously lost. What we need now is not to lose Iraq, but leadership that can do better with the situation, and recover some of the former multilateralism if it's still possible.

If it's not possible, Russia, Muslims states, and emerging Asian powers are going to get to enjoy growing schisms in the West and a weakening of projected Western values. And despite the portions of the West's history that are imperialist and colonial, I'm not sure that's going to be a good thing.

Then again, being run by leadership that doesn't seem to care for many Western and American values at home, maybe we've already forfeited the ability to bear that standard.
posted by weston at 5:11 PM on May 10, 2006

Useful? Hypocrisy

Meanwhile, back in Mogadishu...remember Mogadishu? There was a movie...

Islamist militants have been gaining the upper hand in fighting in Mogadishu and now control roughly 80 percent of the Somali capital, according to a UN Security Council report.

The council panel which monitors the UN arms embargo on Somalia released its report as fresh fighting raged in lawless Mogadishu between Islamist militants and gunmen loyal to a US-backed alliance of warlords.

Both groups are opposed to the establishment of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) as a central government.

Machine gun, artillery and rocket fire echoed through the city's streets after a ceasefire called by Islamic courts collapsed, bringing the death toll from the violence since Sunday to at least 53, witnesses said.

The UN report said the warlords alliance had been "severely degraded" by a series of bloody fights with the Islamic militants, who managed to strengthen their hold over large areas formerly held by the warlords.

It said the fundamentalists now control "roughly 80 percent of Mogadishu" and have emerged as a third "ideologically motivated and now independent" force.

The recent Mogadishu fighting pits the fundamentalists against the US-backed Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT).

The newly-formed alliance has vowed to curb the growing influence of the Islamic courts that have gained backing by restoring a semblance of stability to areas in Mogadishu by enforcing Sharia (Islamic) law.

The alliance accuses the Islamic courts of harboring terrorists and training foreign fighters on Somali soil, charges that Islamic leaders deny but which have been echoed by the United States and other Western nations.

Washington has declined to explicitly confirm its support for the alliance although US officials have said the group is one of several it is working with to contain the threat of radical Islam in Somalia.

The UN report made it clear that all warring factions -- the TFG, the fundamentalists and the warlord alliance -- are supported by other unnamed states.

"The clandestine support of individual states is narrowly defined and motivated by self-interest," it said. "As a result, the (UN) Monitoring Group sees no end to the trend of continued clandestine state support and, therefore, no end to the ongoing militarization in the near future."
...

As a dog that returns to his vomit, so is a fool who repeats his folly.
posted by taosbat at 5:15 PM on May 10, 2006 [1 favorite]

Putin also stated that a serious threat to the motherland is the population decline. He wants to pay women subsidies to have second children.
posted by haikuku at 6:31 PM on May 10, 2006

I don't know which is funnier-- "Comrade Wolf" or Mister Danger.
...although not so much funny "ha-ha" as funny "Will to Power Armageddon"
posted by obloquy at 6:40 PM on May 10, 2006

Everybody is calling out the emperor's lack of clothing these days.
posted by caddis at 6:49 PM on May 10, 2006

He wants to pay women subsidies to have second children.

I'm not sure exactly what your point is... most developed countries face this issue (though Russia is quite bad now) and most pay families to have kids. We do it in Canada, so why not in Russia? I'm pretty sure most European countries do this as well.

(Heck, familes now get $100 per month for each kid under six for childcare! Unfortunately, no one checked to see that childcare costs a lot more than $100 per month)

Also, how has this thread gone on for so long without a Duran Duran reference? Putin is on the hunt - he's after you! He smells like a sound! He's lost and he's found!
posted by GuyZero at 6:53 PM on May 10, 2006

The impossible is possible, at Zombocom.
posted by ninjew at 7:17 PM on May 10, 2006

"Hungry like the wolf."
posted by ioerror at 8:08 PM on May 10, 2006

GuyZero - Check the title of the post.
posted by MrMustard at 11:30 PM on May 10, 2006

I think he was joking, man.



All I have to add at this point is: juices like wine. Thank you.
posted by mr_roboto at 1:47 AM on May 11, 2006

Damn you mr_roboto, you took my line! Anyway - Do do doo do, do do doo, do do doo, do doo!
posted by davem at 7:47 AM on May 11, 2006

*orgasmic female wailing*
posted by BobFrapples at 9:07 AM on May 11, 2006

Check the title of the post

Yeah, I wasn't so clear... I meant in the comments. Another Duran Duran reference. Yeah.
posted by GuyZero at 11:55 AM on May 11, 2006

“Where is all this pathos about the need to fight for human rights and democracy when it comes to the need to pursue their own interests?”

The 1/2 assed answer is that human rights and democracy ARE our interests.
I know that to be true.

But it’s completely inaccurate as a picture of what’s actually going on.

If we were acting according to the principles of human rights and actually interested in fostering democracy, I suspect our situation in Iraq would be radically different.
Of course, were we acting in such a way to begin with as opposed to spouting the purile lip service that passes as alignment with principle, we’d never have gotten in the mess in the first place because we wouldn’t have sacrificed the truth to expediancy.

So those are some hard hitting words from Poot. I mean that’s our entire self-image.
The arsenal of Democracy. The torch of liberty. The bastion of freedom.

Sucks when Capt. America looks in the mirror and sees a gut heavy ruthless old gnome.

Whether it’s who we are or not at the core, it’s certainly not what we want to be. And we can work for change and towards that ideal. Hell, even the Russians want us to live up to it.

Criticism can be good.
posted by Smedleyman at 10:06 AM on May 12, 2006

Sucks when Capt. America looks in the mirror and sees a gut heavy ruthless old gnome.

Maybe the shock of that is what drove him to fight the Patriot Act.
posted by homunculus at 12:07 PM on May 12, 2006