Perhaps Putin's a prat!

It is, of course, a habit of  us in the West to denigrate our politicians as fools and asses when they are not downright villains, but at the same time to ascribe enormous cleverness and foresight on the part of their hostile, foreign counterparts.  Particularly this is so in the case of Russia, perhaps hazily based on that nation's well known ability at the chess board.  But is such admiration warranted?  Based on Putin's use of a queen to take a pawn in Georgia, I think not.

What, exactly and precisely, has Mr. Putin achieved?  He has retaken two microscopic bits of the earth's surface which contain not a single thing of worth or interest to anyone apart from its unfortunate inhabitants.  He might dish out medals to all his soldiers but the reputation of the Russian army has only increased to the extent that they actually managed to find South Ossetia.  Their military prowess was roughly the equivalent of us invading the Isle of Man!  The results of their clumsy, heavy-fisted action can hardly be to their long-term advantage.  Even the dimmest of the dim in the West are now aware that the Russian bear is anything but cuddly.  (I excuse the likes of Gabriel over at 'Unrepentant Communist', of course, but after a lifetime of lickspittling to the Soviet Union, old habits die hard!) That Hungarian dwarf who runs France has just had trousers taken down quicker than his ex-model wife could do it and as the Russians dawdle their way back home leaving hefty ground forces inside Georgia, he looks like the self-important little prat that he is.  We can now see clearly that Germany is hog-tied to Russian energy and their mutual trade with Russia is of such proportions that they wouldn't say boo to a goose, let alone a bear.   However, the Eastern Europeans who never had much doubt concerning Russian ambitions are now hyper-alert and the speed with which the Poles signed up to American missiles indicates that they have been driven further into our sphere of influence.  The Ukraine is equally on guard and even that part of its population that is pro-Russian will think twice having seen the wreckage perpetrated by the Russian 'liberators' in South Ossetia.

So Mr. Putin's little exercise might allow him to swank it around Moscow but all that he has achieved is to warn his opponents to be prepared.  Is it co-incidence that 'Oprah' Obama's lead in the polls has dropped since the Russian invasion as many Americans saw that McCain, in the spirit of the 'old west', was prepared "to do what a man has to do", where-as Obama hemmed and hawed?  According to columnist, Jeffrey Lord at The American Spectator, the Right-wing, talk-radio host, Rush Limbaugh, "has even assembled a tape of Obama's hemmings and hawings from a solitary press conference, stringing them together to hilarious effect." Jeffrey Lord has put his money where his mouth is and prophesied a McCain win in November.  He reckons that the 'Great American Public' prefer a 'doer' to a 'thinker' as their leader and when smartie-pants Europeans accuse American presidents of being 'cowboys', they fail to realise that most Americans admire cowboys. If his prophesy is correct and McCain wins, one has to ask if that is who Mr. Putin really wanted in the White House for the next four years?

It seems to me that Mr. Putin has strained mightily and produced a couple of rabbit droppings!

Comments

[SIster Wolf]

Please, no, not McCain! Haven't we suffered enough?!

[JK]

Mr. Duff,

I have been wrong in the past (and well recall those moments) but given Mr. P's bio I "think" that he, Mr. P would prefer an old Cold Warrior as his prospective chess opponent than he would an Unknown Warrior.

In the American media it has been widely disseminated that Mr. McCain "forgives" his NVA captors, while reserving that same for the Power that supplied that Proxy.

As you note, " He has retaken two microscopic bits of the earth's surface which contain not a single thing of worth or interest to anyone apart from its unfortunate inhabitants."

And of course pawns do not garner much ado. That is unless this game of chess can be looked at through the lens of a spectator sport rather than one which takes place out of the public view.

[JK]

Uh oh, Mr. Duff,

I have extended a pawn (this time just a pawn) into harm's way. And left an obvious opening.

In June (I think on the 17th) there was gun camera footage from what was reported to be a Russian Su-25 shooting down a UAV operating off the coast of that other province, not Ossetia-truth be told, I can't spell it-but the configuration of that UAV was such that it could only have been manufactured or obtained from one of two places.

So I think perhaps the opening gambit was not a Queen but maybe a Rook. One of the players apparently misinterpreted that this was a significant event on the board, then went on to present, without due regard, "opportunities?"

Occasionally a message ignored from one player to the other presages that, ignoring the Rook might result in the use of the Queen. Perhaps a Knight would have sufficed but a Knight can find itself stranded.

(I say purportedly from an Su-25 because from some differences in aircraft cockpit layouts, the shot might've been taken from another version.)

[JK]

Mr. Duff,

Sometimes it occurs that my memory plays tricks on me. I think things happened more recently than the actual event actually occurred. Sometimes I disagree with what some "authorities" suggest which, in this case my previous aircraft "ID" question remains. You of course, determine my veracity.

I previously stated that this shootdown occurred in June. Well, it was April, at least in this case. But I know I've seen footage somewhere as I described it, it may simply be that for whatever reason I am "unable" to post it.

I've not dealt with posting links on your site Mr. Duff, I hope it works.

http://informationdissemination.blogspot.com/search?q=UAV+Shootdown%2C+Russia

If this doesn't, Reuters posted it April 21, 8:02 EDT am. Too, Reuters reports the aircraft as a MIG-29, but they agree with my assessment that it was Russian.