ruth wisse: the conservative noam chomsky.

you heard me.

ruth "the hebrew hammer" wisse wrote a stupid column for the WSJ today. luckily, no one cares. but i have a couple things to say, anyway.

i'm not going to debate middle east policy, because i'm not smart enough to beat out every foreign policy expert ever, who all still debate what hapened at oslo.

all i can say are two things:

(1) the title ("Bush Installed a Dictator. Clinton Installed One. Which of Our Last Two Presidents Made the World Safer?") and the arguments it represents are a tad ridiculous.

"Mr. Bush removed the most ruthless dictator of his day, Saddam Hussein, thereby offering Iraqi citizens the possibility of self-rule. Bill Clinton's analogous achievement in the Middle East was to help install Yasser Arafat, the greatest terrorist of his day, as head of a proto-Palestinian state."

yeah okay, if you only look at the middle east, you can make that argument. but uh... did we just forget about the balkans and milosevic?

whatever; i'm more concerned with my second point...

(2) ruth wisse is the conservative noam chomsky.

ooh, i'm being provocative! look, here's what i'm saying: both ruth and noam became famous for their academic work. noam is the greatest linguist of his generation. ruth is one of the greatest literature scholars of hers.

but then they completely abused the fame they received for that legitimate work.

both of them said "hey, now that everyone is paying attention to me, i might as well spout off my fucking crackpot ideas about foreign policy! and since i'm a famous academic, then everyone will have to take me seriously! because they'll think i'm an academic in foreign policy! brilliant!"

seriously ruth. you may talk all the time about israel, but let's leave this to the professionals, okay? shut up.

and i should shut up, too. rant over.

actually, even better context

thanks to this post from user "k8t" over at metafilter.

Georgia and Russia fight over South Ossetia. The Caucasus never seem to settle down. Georgia, a "beacon of democracy" since its Rose Revolution in 2002 (which has seemed to turn into a benevolent dictatorship since), and its northern neighbor, Russia are fighting over South Ossetia. South Ossetia declared itself independent in 1991 although in Soviet times it had been part of Georgia. After an 18-month war that killed 1,000 (of a population of 60,000) between 1990 and 1992, South Ossetia is now propped up by Russia. Its citizens have Russian citizenship as well. In the past week, violence has escalated. Reports vary as to what exactly is going on, but it is certain that people have died and bombing is happening on both sides. Many argue that the timing is intentional, with August being prime holiday time in the Former Soviet Union and the Olympics beginning.

This is a very difficult situation for Georgia as S.O. isn't the only breakaway republic is is dealing with. There is also Abkhazia along the Black Sea coast. Russia has been meddling in these republics for years, and it's not likely Georgia would be inclined to grant them independence, as that would only allow Russia to move its sphere of influence even closer. Georgia's aspirations toward EC and especially NATO membership were also items with which Moscow has not been happy. Finally, the completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline has meant that oil can now move from the Caspian oil fields of Azerbaijan without going through Russia. So, it is not entirely surprising that Russia has bombed the Georgian oil port of Poti and also near the pipeline. Any disruptions in this supply chain will only increase the price of oil and enrich Russia even more - another example of how increasing worldwide demand for oil subverts democracy.

I was in Georgia last weekend and everything seemed perfectly fine. It is amazing how quickly things can change.

Background reading:
An excellent Slate piece on South Ossetia from earlier in 2008
Eurasianet coverage
Radio Free Europe coverage
Civil.ge (English language Georgian website - on and offline)
Global Voices Online

things are really, really bad

like, really bad.

don't underestimate the significance of what's going on in the caucasus right now. read the NYT coverage of it after you read that link, to get the context, but basically, here's what you need to know: the kremlin just ordered an invasion of a foreign country. the last time they did that, they invaded afghanistan. and we all know how well that turned out for everyone. not a perfect analogue, of course, but still.

and bernie mac's dead. and john edwards announced his affair. at least no one blew up the olympics yet.

a funny thing and a terrifying thing

first, the funny thing: the guys at spill.com come up with the dark knight, as done by michael bay. spoiler — boobs.

then, the terrifying thing: peter maass argues that equatorial guinea's teodoro obiang might be worse than mugabe.