After I published the last post, I spent the next hour ranting about how I’m worried that some Russian idiot is going to take a shot or drop a bomb at Americans and we’ll all be in deep shit, and N still has a Russian passport, and we should all take my father’s Jewish last name because remember Japanese interment camps?
“Don’t worry,” N says. “If the Russians start shooting, Obama will just apologize for a while and it will all be fine.”
I hope we didn’t injure your feelings when you dropped your bomb on us!
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I have my issues with Obama generally and with his foreign policy decisions (particularly lately.) But if a series of apologies are what’s needed to make sure we don’t head in to a global nuclear conflict, he can apologize all he wants as far as I’m concerned.
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Do you really think it’s apologies that Putin is seeking?
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No I don’t. (Although I imagine that Putin would like an American “display of weakness.”) But I was just responding to N’s comment directly: “If the Russians start shooting, Obama will just apologize for a while and it will all be fine.” To me, that seems a preferable scenario to armed conflict with Russia.
But like Fie says below, all scenarios seem bad these days. It makes me very sad. Half my family is Ukrainian and I’m very upset about this situation. 😦
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People can talk all they want. It’s not just Obama who doesn’t have the will to fight. It’s all of America, minus the small percentage of people in the military. And even they don’t want to fight Russia. It feels like a no-win situation, which means Russia can throw its weight around all it wants. America isn’t going to do anything. I’m not sure it should. But unless we’re fired on, we’re not going to go to war with Russia.
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Am I indulging in conspiracy theories by thinking that the reason the by now non-story about the missing airplane continues to monopolize places like CNN 24/7 is because it lets them avoid talking about the full blown 1930s style invasion that happens to be going on?
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I think you are absolutely right, Academic Lurker. As tragic as that is for all of us.
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A country where an idea like ‘microagressions’ can gain traction, is in no way, shape or form capable of confronting Putin’s Russia.
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Thank you, thank you for saying this!!! I wanted to say it but didn’t dare. I need a real American to say it.
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If that’s meant for me, thank you, but I’m not sure if I count as a “real” American any longer. I’ve spent too much time in a culture where face to face macro-agressions are a daily order of business (living Central and Eastern Europe is a wonderful course in assertiveness training for wimpy Americans). It doesn’t reach the levels you describe for the former CCCP but it does keep one on their toes (lest they get stomped on).
If it’s not meant for me, then nevermind….
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Cliff: of course, it was meant for you. I don’t know you in person but from your comments on this blog I have come to associate you with the image of “the perfect American,” i.e. somebody who embodies perfectly all of the best things about this country. And it doesn’t matter where you live, it’s still an enormous part of who you are.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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