Michael Pollak summed it up so well I am going to capitalize what he wrote:
CREATING CRISES MAY IN FACT BE GOOD FOR IMPERIALISM.
Ex-fucking-actly.
Putin is smart and egotistical and doesn't care about the ramifications of his actions.
Bush is stupid and egotistical and doesn't care about the ramifications of his actions.
And war - they think - is good for both of them.
And, BTW, there is some very good stuff in this mocked opinion, albeit perhaps de-emphasized. I particularly liked good old Krauthammer's:
"President Bush needs to make up for his mini-Katrina moment when he lingered in Beijing yukking it up with our beach volleyball team while Putin flew to North Ossetia to direct the invasion of a neighboring country."
I think that other than replacing the misleading "his mini-Katrina moment" with the correct "yet another global Katrina".
Finally, Doug makes a good observation but with the wrong spin. Putin probably will not make a move against Capital because he thinks he can simply integrate his newly-bolstered Russian imperialism right into Capital. He sees no problem with that.
But he has tread on the toes of an idiot who happens to have the greatest military force EVER at his disposal. And that was a mistake.
On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 11:31 AM, Eubulides <prince.plumples at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 10:09 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Aug 14, 2008, at 12:16 PM, Eubulides wrote:
>>
>>> Charles Tilly, call your office.......
>>
>> He died a few months ago.
>>
>> I gotta say I don't see the point of these remarks. If you have a critique,
>> please make it in a less cryptic way.
>>
>> Doug
>
> ==============
>
> Well gee, one man's time-poverty induced brevity is another man's
> crypticism; who knew :->
>
> http://www.jesusradicals.com/library/tilly/warmaking.pdf
>
> "War Making and State Making as Organized Crime" [it's short]
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>