Category: Uncategorised

Even the Guardian has devoted several articles to the spat between Russia and Georgia. Georgia arrests four ‘Russian spies’, Russia cuts off all links with Georgia. Georgian businesses in Moscow start getting raided (there’s nothing Russian police enjoy more than going after anybody from the Caucasus). No word on what is happening to ethnic Russians in Georgia, who make up some 6% of the population.

All this sabre-rattling seems very good for helping Saakashvili and Putin get their parties re-elected, but not much use for anybody else. Grr!

It is hard to resist the temptation to scream at the Iraqi government to get on with doing something. But Condeleezza Rice is going a bit far telling them:

“They don’t have time for endless debate of these issues, They have really got to move forward.”

. In other words, stop worrying about all this democracy business.

Just as al-Qaeda (*) love prolonging the war in Iraq, so they must be overjoyed every time Blair or (usually) Bush go on some belligerent, over the top rant about Iraq. Then, it becomes so much easier for them to paint as evil megalomaniacs.

So, whenever Bush ramps up the rhetoric about Iraq, what he’s doing is putting domestic party politics above the fight against al-Qaeda(*). In other words, helping his country’s enemies to score a few political points.

Yes, this point has doubtless been made better elsewhere. But obviously it still hasn’t got through.

* no, I’m not happy boiling ‘The Enemy’ down to one sinister cartoon organization. Nor do I much like world politics being a ‘fight’ against anybody – but it’ll do.

Quick news from Hungary: the Prime Minister is keeping his job. There are protests going on outside Parliament at the moment: I’ll waddle over in an hour or two, but judging by Sunday it’s unlikely to amount to much.

The next date for things to happen is Revolution Day in a fortnight’s time.

From the comments of an Abu Aardvark post: “_Subjectively speaking, I think we (the US) had a lot more respect for the Soviet Union than we do for Islamists and their allies_”

This rings true. I can’t work out what it proves, but I’d love to be able to. I would have expected al-Qaeda to get a lot of respect, through being caricatured as an comic-book evil genius. Instead, it seems the stereotype has stuck to evil, without any of the genius.

Why? Do the powers that be have less respect for non-state actors? Is it because nobody reads Arabic, so we can’t understand their cunning plans? Have we got so hung up on the ‘they hate us because we’re free’ angle that we’re blind to the Cunning Plans they do have? Is it objectively true that the leaders of al-Qaeda are less cunning than the old men in the Kremlin?

And what are the consequences of this different stereotype on how the USA (and Britain, by extension) behave?

Also: yes, I know I’m posting a ridiculous amount today. I had one of those moments where I did a word count on my ‘notes too shoddy to put anywhere’, and decided that 400,000 words of notes kept to myself is utterly useless. I apologise to my lone reader for inflicting all this on you – I still have a vague hope that one day I’ll find the right balance between hoarding information and inflicting all my crap on people.

Russian livejournal-users are talking non-stop about the spat with Georgia mentioned below. [Plushev](http://plushev.livejournal.com) has a heartwarming [roundup](http://plushev.livejournal.com/1209051.html#cutid1) of what people are saying.

[Cook](http://cook.livejournal.com) wants to make badges with the slogan “I am Georgian”, and [Antoshkin](http://antoshkin.livejournal.com/) has a template for a banner saying “I love you, Georgia!”.

A protest is being planned this Sunday in Pushkin square in central Moscow, “_against the kindling of hostility againstGeorgia, and against discrimination against Georgian citizens and citizens of Georgian origin_”

I’ll try to translate more of this, because it is inspiring stuff. Unfortunately it’ll have to wait until tomorrow :(.

Until then, thanks to Livejournal, and to the Russian LJ-users!

flat good.

lack of shower curtain or curtain over the bathroom window, not so good. especially when there’s a supermarket opposite.

I’m not usually all that shy about my body. But this is ridiculous.

[crossposted to IAG]

A while back the New York Times and the [BBC](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5357340.stm) cheerfully reported that 25 Sunni tribes in Anbar had decided to support the Iraqi government in attacking insurgents.

Am I too cynical in thinking that the crucial sentence is this one:

In addition to the government’s blessing, Mr. Rishawi said, the tribes also wanted weapons and equipment to confront the Qaeda-backed insurgents.

Asking for weapons from the government isn’t a sign of loyalty – it’s about getting yourself the equipment to defend yourself against anybody – government, American, jihadi, whatever – who attacks you.

Every Iraqi grouping with an ounce of sense wants to keep itself heavily armed at the moment – and if the kit comes with a vague government permission to use it, so much the better.This isn’t any different from the militias that were incorporated into the various security forces, or the employment of tribes to guard oil pipelines.

Or am I being too cynical?

This post deserves propagation. Abu Aardvark points out the key sentence in the letter to Zarqawi from al-Qaeda’s central command: “

prolonging the war is in our interest

“. As he explains, this makes perfect sense: the jihadis are unpopular in Iraq, and they would have no chance at all were the country not under foreign occupation. But while we are in the country, they can use their fight against us to build international support. Yes, that’s been obvious for a long time, but it’s something else to have it confirmed from the horse’s mouth. Full letter [http://www.ctc.usma.edu/harmony/CTC-AtiyahLetter.pdf](here), others captured in the same batch [here](http://www.ctc.usma.edu/harmony.asp)

• I really, really need to get my head down and do some work. I had figured that getting out of Cambridge would clear my head, and in most ways it has, but not to the point where I can sit down and do what I’m supposed to do.
• I find myself almost wishing that Hungarian was spoken by more people. There are some truly beautiful nuances to the language, but there’s no way I’m going to learn it just for 2 months and 13 million speakers. There are some very nice things you can do with affixes to slightly alter the meaning of words. But I’ve consciously decided not to aim higher than the ‘point and gesture’ level.
• That riot thing. Since I’m living stupidly close to the parliament, I’ve beenoccasionally dropping in on the ongoing anti-government protest that’s been happening there since the Prime Minister. It’s impressive how old and calm everybody there is. I mean, an anti-government protest without an angry young man in sight? that’s quite something.