[lbo-talk] specious generalizations... ...

Peter Lavelle untimely_thoughts at yahoo.com
Mon Jul 18 12:18:33 PDT 2005


I couldn't agree with Chris more. For those not aware, there is the Johnson Russia List - carrying 30-odd articles on Russia per daily posting. After receiving it for 5 years, when ever I see that the likes of Novack, Klein, and Will, etc., write on anything related to Russia I might give it a quick glance - if only to update myself on the West's "commentariat."

It is truly amazing, just about everyone in the "commentariat" claims to be an "expert" on Russia - no experience neccessary, except that one read's the Washington Post (a paper - when it comes to Russia - that makes Soviet propanganda blush.....)....

When it comes to Chechnya, of course Lieven is a gift for the expert and novice (he is a very good writer), as well as Fiona Hill and Robert Bruce Ware.

While I am on topic....

I tend to bump into some of the most interesting people at my new job (the Russian Information Agency "Novosti"). I was introduced to a retired Army General with a lot of experience in the NC. He told me over lunch that the war in Chechnya is over with only mopping up operations. However, the conflict isn't over. Being defeated at "home", terrorists still intend to destabilized the region and attack other parts of Russia.

--- Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:


>
>
> --- Jim Devine <jdevine03 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't know why Naomi Klein's Comment was
> "particularly egregious"
> -- since people like Robert Novack make similarly
> egregious Comments
> more than weekly. Perhaps Klein's Comment was
> egregious, but not
> particularly so.
>
> ---
>
> Oh, they do the same thing from a different
> ideological perspective, and usually in order to
> stake
> out turf on the American political playing field. Do
> Novack or George Will actually know anything about
> three-quarters of the stuff they write about? Does
> George Will really know anything about the
> subtleties
> of Iraqi politics? Did he suddenly taking a crash
> Ph.D. course in Arabic Studies? Really the only
> people
> who can by rights portray themselves as authorities
> what is going on in a place like Iraq are people
> like
> Juan Cole. For somebody like Will to do this would
> be
> like more submitting a wordy op-ed on the
> price-transformation problem (see, I don't even know
> what that is).
>
> If I recollect the Klein piece correctly, it was
> quite
> heavy on getting to the ideologically predetermined
> conclusion (Putin should negotiate) and quite sparse
> on facts (like mentioning what happened the last
> time
> the RF tried negotiations). This is quite common in
> commentary from across the ideological/political
> spectrum, I think mainly because it's an obscure
> part
> of the world nobody but Russia specialists ever
> heard
> of until a few years ago and so there are very few
> people in a position to talk about it intelligently.
> I
> can name maybe only half a dozen people off the top
> of
> my head, none of whom except for Anatol Lieven -- a
> man who has been covering the region for the past
> couple of decades and wrote The Book on Chechnya War
> I
> -- ever get anywhere near an op-ed page.
>
> Thank God for Lieven.
>
> Nu, zayats, pogodi!
>
>
>
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