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August 21, 2008

Женя Отрадная: Уходи

No clue but she has this Jessica Alba thing going on. Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.

A reasonable spot to post Russia updates as time permits:

* Gabriel Schoenfeld thinks Russian nuclear threats are no bluff. With approximately 5000 short range nuclear weapons, Russia's arsenal is now ten times the size of America's in equivalent weaponry.

As in the Cold War, nuclear weapons are central to the Russian geopolitical calculus. "The weak are not loved and not heard, they are insulted, and when we have [nuclear] parity they will talk to us in a different way." These words are not from the dark days of communist yore. Rather, they were uttered last year by Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, and they perfectly capture the mentality we and Russia's neighbors are up against.

Given the risible response of most Western powers to the attack on civilization launched from Afghanistan, the contemptible display put on by the Royal Navy in the Gulf and the fate of America's allies in Georgia, Canadians should take little comfort in the NATO alliance or in the nuclear shield provided by our southern neighbours (for which so many in our Establishment show nothing but scorn). Given Russia's threats, its claims on our territorial sovereignty, its actions in violation of treaty commitments and international law and its casual brutality toward an all but defenseless democracy, we should take Russia's nuclear threats in deadly earnest. Canada used to host American nuclear weapons. Canada has the technology and infrastructure to arm ourselves if we but choose to. It is a shame Canada does not have a conservative government; we might conceivably address the problem like men.

* “So the Russians view you as the American side, even though there are no Americans here.”
“Yes,” she said. “Because our way is for democracy.”

* Russia enjoys the French peace occupation plan so much they are taking it to their friends at the United Nations to rubber stamp. I suspect the Canadian anti-war puppet head shortage will be resolved as soon as the Americans can be blamed for standing in the way of "peace".

* The United States and Poland have signed a deal to deter an "Iranian" missile threat. Because of all those missiles Iran has pointed at Poland. Russia ridicules NATO (and who can blame them). Ethnic cleansing in Georgia. But not the bad kind like in Darfur. The other kind that Toronto Star readers agree with.

The men who came to Gulnara Militaura's house seemed to know what they were looking for. They entered her kitchen and shot her husband and his brother in the head. For the next five days, as attacks and looting raged outside, she cowered at home, sprinkling vinegar on the bodies to try to keep them from rotting.

* The United States Navy is en route to Georgia to render humanitarian assistance.

Two U.S. Navy ships, including a guided missile destroyer USS McFaul, and a U.S. Coast Guard cutter are getting underway to transport humanitarian assistance supplies to Georgia, U.S. European Command (EUCOM) said on August 21.

It said USS McFaul (DDG 74) departed from Souda Bay, Crete, on Wednesday and the cutter Dallas (WHEC 716) will depart later this week. McFaul and Dallas are scheduled to transit into the Black Sea and arrive in Georgia within a week, according to the U.S. European Command.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at August 21, 2008 06:24 AM