Quote:
Originally Posted by Oberon
Well, that's the point I'm trying to make, and by denying the OCSE inspectors access to the wreckage the pro-Russian forces are destroying what tiny sympathy they may have been able to drum up in the west. It's really as if they are just handing the Ukrainian forces a cassus belli on a plate to pull out all the stops against them with western assistance.
Sure, in the short term it makes sense for them to cover up any evidence that they shot the aircraft down, but in the long term it will probably wind up have being easier for them to have just said "Yes, we did it, it was a mistake and the people involved have been punished, and if you like we can comply with a western investigation into the circumstances around it once a cease-fire has been reached with the Ukrainian government" which would then shift the attention back to the Ukrainian government who would be forced to halt military operations or be accused of trying to impede the investigation into the destruction of MH17.
It's all about spin, the manipulation of the situation to ones advantage, something that Russia is very good at, and western europe is no slouch at either.
I really must get around to reading 'The Prince', I do admire what I've heard of Machiavellis works and the reputation around it.  |
Better read the "Discorsi" first, its more general in scope. The Prince is best read second, imo. I welcome people reaidng Macchiavelli,m because the opinion on him is very misled. He did not favour underhanded or corrupted politics, he just tried to give precise, uncorrupted answers based on his observations what governing people techcially have to do in order to achieve this or that wanted effect. The moral dimension he generally does not judge. But it is the moral aspect he gets most criticism over. That is absurd. Machievelli was an empiric observer who tried to observe as objectively as he could. His conclusions do not say much about his moral judgements of things - but about how corrupt the mechanisms of powerpolitics by their very essence are. His writing should not scare us of the man - they should scare us about our celebrated ideas on what we call politics, and about ourselves: how easily we allow ourselves getting manipulated if.
On the rebels, and Russian/separatist media, people in the West should understand one thing: for the most, what the Russian say and print, is not meant for the Western audience or politicians, but the people in Russia. And the overwhelming majority of Russians is happy with the way Putin handles things in the Ukraine. Whether Westerners understand that, is not relevant. The confused acting by the rebels is in parts owing to this need to feed the wanted public opinion in Russia, in parts is result of the propaganda feeding back on the rebels themselves. That way you get reports about rebels showing reporters around and claiming that the shot-down was caused by the British.
Want to control the public opinion and media, like you want to control the elevated terrain.
And Putin - he knows he is Pariah by now in the West. He does not care, his political target audiences are not the Europeans or Americans, but his own people or the governments of the BRISC state, namely China. If the rubel runs slow, he can do like the Americans do like decades: print paper money. Buys him time beyond the end of his active career. That is the reason why he is increasing efforts to get the dollar dominance tumbling and falling. Sooner or later, he and China and Brazil will be successful with that.