STORY #1: They’re saying Boooo-tin
If we don’t see a Russian Spring this year, there may be a very simple excuse: Everyone’s been bought off. That’s the impression you’re likely to get from reading up on this year’s Defenders of the Fatherland, a national holiday that falls on the old Red Army Day. Yeah, big coincidence. The “tens of thousands” of people who attended a rally in support of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were easily found to be employees of the state, some of whom said they were promised an extra two days off in exchange for their attendance. Sweet deal, I guess.
Putin used this rally largely to warn the West that any undue influence would be met with Russian “will.” I wonder if, when he has a moment of quiet repose, he has ever come to the realization that stuff like this makes those of us in the West laugh at him as if he’s constantly being kicked in the balls by an old lady. It’s so easy to find out when he’s doing his own Astroturf lobbying that we don’t even have to come up with our own snark about it. It just writes itself.
STORY #2: Bashing Bashar
I’ve tried defending the credibility of the United Nations before, but sometimes that gets really difficult. Take Russia and China’s use of their veto power to cut off two Security Council resolutions condeming Syrian President Bashar Assad for the crackdown on his country’s protesters. Their justification is that they want to avoid using “foreign interference” to settle the crisis.
If I can get obvious for a moment here: The purpose of the UN is to interfere in things, and this is exactly the occasion that demands it. If Syrian rebels were as organized in those in Libya and Egypt, we might not be having this discussion in the first place. And even the Libyans got some help from the air. There is no opportunity for a political solution in Syria. Everyone wishes there was, but with each passing day it becomes increasingly impossible. At some point you have to accept when your principles are non-functional. Everyone else on the Security Council did.
STORY #3: Barrack in the USA
I went to the Holocaust Museum in Washington last summer, and I don’t mind telling you that the experience was pretty harrowing, albeit necessary. The Polish barrack housed in there is due for a return to Poland, who owns it, for inspection. The U.S. is worried about transporting it back due to its fragility. I say, if you can move an artifact across an ocean, why not move your ass across an ocean and inspect it at the museum? The people in charge of these matters in Poland aren’t very bright.
