Glad I’m not the only one being entertained. :P

“OTOH, so was Chechnya, Russia didn’t seem to mind them.”

Which is partially my point - both America and Russia are glad to accept or reject claims of independence as long as it recognizes it as being in their interest. See Serbia/Kosovo for another example.

My point is only that most don’t appear to realize this basic fact, you’ve been the exception.

“Prior to Russian military intervention. Apparently they’ve been handing out Russian passports like candy.”

True, but a substantial majority there are ethnically Russian and Russian sympathetic from what I understand.

“But the charming little friends you have found there, you sure know how to pick ‘em!”

Har har. ;)

You’re not gonna get any argument from me on that front.

Yep, got to hand it to you guys, the propaganda is incredible. And just to think that a few years ago Russia was the comic relief guy of international politics.

against a province that has been de facto independent

OTOH, so was Chechnya, Russia didn’t seem to mind them.

prior to Russian intervention.

Prior to Russian military intervention. Apparently they’ve been handing out Russian passports like candy.

We’re the one’s meddling in Russia’s sphere of influence, going as far as their borders, not the other way around.

But the charming little friends you have found there, you sure know how to pick ‘em!

My sense is that the American media is trying its damnedest to resurrect an old, bygone enemy. I look at the blatant anti-Russian bias through this whole debacle as a data-point in my favor, you’d have to dig hard for even a mention of the fact that Georgia initiated the aggression against a province that has been de facto independent since 1991, prior to Russian intervention.

“Maybe it is so to Americans, but to the rest of us it just sounds like “Oh, cold war? So I guess the big guys are going to take turns fucking the small guys again”

Understandable, but perhaps it’s better to have a polarized axis of power in the world rather than have one, big global superpower (read: the U.S.) free to “fuck with the small guys” to its seemingly unattainable satisfaction.

“PS. Have you read Putin’s Russia? It’s on Google Books.”

No, I haven’t. That’s the one by Politkovskaya, IIRC. I will in the future.

EDIT: One other thing I should mention is the hypocrisy here, as I mentioned in the Ed thread. We’re the one’s meddling in Russia’s sphere of influence, going as far as their borders, not the other way around. There is no fucking way in hell that America would tolerate this kind of behavior on our borders or traditional sphere of influence without military intervention. And it would be seen as entirely justified.

Well, to me the cocksuckery of the US does not mitigate the cocksuckery of the rest of the Big Three ;) Do you object to phrases like “Cold War chills” because to you they sound like code for “let’s blame the Reds for everything”?. Maybe it is so to Americans, but to the rest of us it just sounds like “Oh, cold war? So I guess the big guys are going to take turns fucking the small guys again” If it’s descriptive, not prescriptive, Cold War sounds about right.

PS. Have you read Putin’s Russia? It’s on Google Books.

Eh, that’s just business as usual. Things like this are a lot more fun:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/08/oh_joy.php#comment-1047088

Well, Russia’s been violating Lithuanian airspace for a while now, and we’ve managed to ignore it thus far, with no material consequence to our own national security.

Soviet satellite states were East Germany, Hungary, Poland & co… I think you mean former Soviet Republics. Those include the Baltic states, and in the theoretical case that Russia pulled something similar on them, it wouldn’t be easy to ignore even for the US.

Sorry, it took even longer this time. My spam filter just doesn’t like you for some strange reason.

Agreed…

The zombie corpse of undead America needs to be put down, sooner rather than later.