Friday 8 August 2008

The Day War Broke Out...

And now it seems a war has broken out. Or is this just a Russian spoiler to divert the world's attention from the hypertrophied spectacle going on in Beijing? I wonder what Captain B makes of it...
(The above title, by the way, is a homage to the great Robb Wilton.)

3 comments:

  1. If one is going to engage in a nice, short war, doing so while most of the world is busy distracting itself with some over-hyped international sports competition might be a good idea.

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  2. Great reminder, Nige. I love Wilton. Such a forgotten figure of British comedy.

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  3. Christmas seems to have come earlier this year.....clue 1979. I heard the great historian of Russia, Richard Pipes of Harvard, give a talk in DC in April. As a former advisor to Ronald Reagan one couldn't accuse Pipes of being soft on Russia. I was vaguely surprised to hear him say that after the collapse of Communism there had been a deal whereby the West would not meddle in Russia's near abroad, but that was what it was doing through NATO enlargement and the stationing of missile defences, notionally pointing towards Iran. He seemed to be saying the West was guilty of bad faith. I found this surprising coming from him of all people.

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