On Mon, Jun 8, 2009 at 12:07 PM, Michael Smith <mjs at smithbowen.net> wrote:
> On Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:41:43 -0400
> SA <s11131978 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > This is starting to feel a lot like a debate with a creationist.
>
> >From my side, it's starting to feel like a debate with a
> liberal imperialist -- a la Barnett Rubin, say.
>
> > I'll side with Barnett Rubin and you
> > side with "who knows, maybe God hid the dinosaur bones to make us
> > *think* Russia never felt threatened by the Taliban?"
>
> You're certainly welcome to Mr Rubin.
>
> Even by Rubin standards, though, you're rather overstating
> the case. Rubin himself -- at least in the 2008 piece you referenced;
> I haven't read the man's entire oeuvre -- doesn't say that Russia
> felt "threatened" by the Taliban. He does note that Russia provided
> some support to the US in the early phase of its Afghan adventure.
> (We can safely assume there was a quid pro quo, or the expectation
> of one.)
>
> The sage Mr Rubin goes on in the next paragraph to observe that more
> recently
>
> > Since then, however, old alignments have re-emerged thanks in part to
> > missteps in U.S. policy. The Bush Administration responded to Iranian
> > cooperation by placing Iran in the Axis of Evil and naming Pakistan
> > its most important non-NATO U.S. ally. Northern Alliance figures
> > close to Iran and Russia have been eased out of power. In May 2005,
> > Afghanistan and the United States signed a Declaration of Strategic
> > Partnership, and, largely in response, in July 2005, the heads of
> > state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (Russia, China and all
> > the Central Asian countries except Turkmenistan) asked the United
> > States to set a date for closing its bases in Central Asia. They have
> > charged that the United States is exploiting cooperation against
> > terrorism to project power into oil-rich Central Asia.
>
> Don't you love "missteps"? Mr Rubin would not want to say -- or
> perhaps even be able to think -- that the other powers might have
> made an *accurate* assessment of American intentions, and seen through
> American mendacity about those intentions. I only wish that all
> contributors to lbo-talk were equally perspicacious.
>
> I don't doubt that the Russians have little use for the
> Taliban and would love to see it disappear. They'd prefer to have
> friendlies or at least bought clients in the region. But this picture
> of the US and Iran and China all united in horror at the Taliban
> "threat" is just way oversold.
>
> --
>
> Michael Smith
> mjs at smithbowen.net
> http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org
>
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>