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I do not like Putin's regime at all, absolutely do not condone what he has done in Ukraine, am aware of the war crimes of the Syrian government which Putin supports, but I see no sense in the UK or USA getting involved in Syria. I want the war in Syria to end as quickly as possible. And I note that the people who are most worried about Russia, like Anne Applebaum, Edward Lucas, The Economist, the European Commission etc are often the people least worried about migrants, Islam and Islamists, mass immigration into Europe - and wonder if this is a coincidence.
Russia has a GDP smaller than South Korea's. We accord them far too much importance. They are not the threat people think. I start to think the EU, which is a force for good in Eastern Europe, is more of a danger to Western Europe
Russia has a GDP smaller than South Korea's. We accord them far too much importance. They are not the threat people think. I start to think the EU, which is a force for good in Eastern Europe, is more of a danger to Western Europe
I' ve been reading Anne Applebaum for years. I don't see any point of view on mass Muslim immigration one way or the other in her writing, although in a Washington Post column she did once say something nice about a cab driver from Mali.
ReplyDeleteMs Applebaum's book about the Russian gulag system is valuable history and a good read.
She has written articles on the subject. I was her Facebook friend and know her strongly pro-migrant views. Her book on the Cold War was much better than I expected. I reviewed it here.
Deletehttp://pvewood.blogspot.ro/2014/02/iron-curtain-crushing-of-eastern-europe.html
Somebody said my review was 'wonderfully condescending' which delighted me. As a historian she is limited by her liberalism which makes her understanding of history necessarily lacking a dimension.
For Anne Applebaum, who is a neo-con, it is always 1938. Putin is Hitler. The migrants are Jews fleeing Kristallnacht. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-crisis-on-europes-shores/2015/09/04/2fb38864-5319-11e5-933e-7d06c647a395_story.html?utm_term=.86914b2b106c
DeleteISIS has a GDP much smaller than Russia's and is still a global threat. In today's era of asymmetrical and psychological warfare, a country's economic strength is not as important as it once was. What we can hope is that the Russians are rational actors (which they seem to be) and are also wary of a full scale confrontation, outside of proxy wars like during the Cold War.
ReplyDeleteRussia is rational and cannot be compared with ISIS. Remember what AJP Taylor said: 'Hitler though no doubt a wicked statesman was a rational one'. Nor can Russia be compared with Hitler. ISIS is a criminal organisation not a state, despite its name, and GDP is irrelevant with criminal organisations. ISIS is a global threat. It is much less of one than Islamism in general and defeating ISIS will not defeat Islamism. And defeating Islamism (which cannot be done, as far as I can see, because ideas cannot be defeated by military means) will not prevent a greater threat, Islamification.
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