Diary of the Mad Pigeon

We have some serious explaining to do.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the most compelling argument yet for NATO expansion combined with high PT standards.

Happy Monday.

Russia Teaser, Pt III

It's been many moons since I've bothered to take Time Magazine seriously, and then I saw this:

Person of the Year 2007

A Tsar Is Born

By ADI IGNATIUS

Platon for TIME

No one is born with a stare like Vladimir Putin's. The Russian President's pale blue eyes are so cool, so devoid of emotion that the stare must have begun as an affect, the gesture of someone who understood that power might be achieved by the suppression of ordinary needs, like blinking. The affect is now seamless, which makes talking to the Russian President not just exhausting but often chilling. It's a gaze that says, I'm in charge...

I would say something snide here, like "Time sure has 'teh ghey' crush for Putin, but someone beat me to it:

"The 2007 honor went to the Russian leader because of Putin's 'extraordinary feat of leadership in taking a country that was in chaos and bringing it stability,' said Richard Stengel, Time's managing editor."

Well jeez Dick, by your own criteria...wouldn't this guy have made a better pick?  Not surprised, this probably never crossed your tiny, tiny mind...

Journalism ceases to impress me anymore, esp when it produces tripe like this, that has to be countered by people who actually know better (just between you, me and the electron, I happen to think this guy is way too easy on Hanoi Jane herself...damn I done gone and spoiled it....) 

Edit: I forgot to give some serious props to both Blackfive and the Weekly Standard for some contrast and counter-point to the Time tomfoolery.

Europe's cities take the lead on cutting emissions

Christian Science Monitor:   With solar-powered streetlights and energy-efficient power generators, this town 25 miles southwest of London is at the vanguard of a promising movement accelerating emissions-cutting programs.

From the metropolises of London and Stockholm to hamlets like Güssing in Austria, communities are showing that you don't necessarily need international treaties or global rules to force climate change action.  "Our aim is for the cities to push the governments to act on climate change," says Pedro Ballesteros Torres, manager of the European Commission's Sustainable Energy Europe campaign. "If we want to tackle climate change we have to be local."

Woking, England officials indeed see the town of 100,000 as a shining example of the power of alternative energy.  "We have cut emissions by 21 percent since 1990," says Lara Curran, who heads the climate change program for the local council. If the national grid were to go down, locals here boast, the town would remain lit up. "Woking is a small town but this shows we can make a difference," says Curran.

Governments struggling to meet even the 5 percent set by the 1997 Kyoto agreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, may well need some pushing from local initiatives. As more than 180 nations meet to draft a post-Kyoto treaty in Bali this week, the signs are not encouraging.  CONTINUED

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In our case, it'd be more than the government struggling:  we American's would have to overcome some serious cultural mores:

1.  Everyone must own a car, carpools suck, and public transportation (outside of DC and New York) carries the stigma  of "only poor people ride the bus." 

2.  We also loooove our personal space, and are willing to drive in search of more (I knew a guy at one base who's daily commute was 4 hours).

3.  Zoning laws and town layouts make cleaner transportation alternatives impractical.  I could walk to work at my last two assignments, but I have a 10 mile commute here; and I'll painfully admit I'm not about to bike 20 miles round trip up a mountain to work every day.

4.  Even if we all up and decided to change things, who's going to foot the bill?  Then again, we can barely foot the bill maintaining the roads we have now.

5.  Suburbia McMansions are typically built to suit the developer's vision and profits and the clientele's lifestyle and ego, without consideration for cross-breezes, passive solar alignment, and so on.

6.  ...and sorry, that solar panel violates the Home Owners Association by-laws.

Feel free to continue the list in the comments!

Russia Teaser: Pt II

Amateurs Unravel Russia’s Last Royal Mystery

Agence France Presse

Czar Nicholas II of Russia, his wife, Alexandra, wearing crown, and their children in 1914, four years before they were killed.

Published: November 25, 2007

YEKATERINBURG, Russia — On the outskirts of this burly industrial center, off a road like any other, on a nowhere scrap of land — here unfolded the final act of one of the last century’s most momentous events.

Excavations were done near Yekaterinburg in September. An archaeologist oversaw the search.

A short way through a clearing, toward a cluster of birch trees, the killers deposited their victims’ bodies, which had been mutilated, burned and doused with acid to mask their origins. It would be 73 more years, in 1991, before the remains would be reclaimed and the announcement would ring out: the grave of the last Russian czar, Nicholas II, and his family had been found.

But the story does not end there....(more)

Before we get back to Russia (I mean it), has anyone else noticed...

....Just what the hell is going on in Belgium, home of Brussels, the supposed "capital of Europe" and future home of (the false) "GI Joe"?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm..................................this may turn out to have deeper repercussions than it would seem on the surface, me thinks...

Сою́за Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик

Pidge has called me out in this post, for which I am more than happy to oblige him.  It will have to wait a bit, but in the meantime, here's something to help set the mood.

Now first, I have some homework assignments for you to read.  As you can imagine, I have a lot to say on this topic, on Russia in general, Vladimir Putin, etc, and I will come at it from a historical, rather than say an analyst's perspective.

How The Russian Empire Crumbled

The 90th anniversary of the October Revolution provides another occasion to wonder whether socialism was capable of removing national antagonisms and paving the way to a supranational world community.

by Gennady Bordyugov
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Nov 06, 2007
Anyone who has been following the stormy debate brought on by the 90th anniversary of the Great October Revolution may well wonder why its national aspects have been forgotten. Were they not intertwined with the social aspects? The events that shook the world took place in the Russian Empire, which had a very complex social-ethnic structure. And it is hard to say whether the social or the ethnic factors played a bigger role in those sinister events.

Take land, one of the Revolution's key issues: Russia being a country of peasants, the poorest social stratum of one ethnic group often sought to seize the landed estates owned by representatives of another ethnic group. And in the cities, too, the youth that had migrated from the countryside seeking to climb the social ladder often met with resistance from other ethnic groups.

Contrary to what some politicians thought, the abdication of the Tsar in February 1917 could not automatically solve the ethnic problem in Russia. There was an incredible upsurge of the national movements in Russia's borderlands, and they could not accept the Provisional Government's call for a "single and indivisible Russia". Even so, discrimination of non-Russians was abolished, and the autonomy of Finland and the Polish Kingdom was restored. The remaining ethnic groups were not granted any territorial rights.

The democratic government would, of course, pay a dear price for its failure to appreciate the magnitude of the ethnic problem. True, in June 1917, faced with a mass movement of peasants and soldiers in the Ukraine, the Provisional Government would delegate some of its powers to the Central Rada and recognize the national principle as the basis for the country's administrative division....

Read the rest

The Bolshevik Revolution Shows Its Age

RadioFreeEurope:  Ninety years after Vladimir Lenin led Bolsheviks to the Winter Palace in Petrograd, Russians this year were once again able to tune their televisions to a Red Square parade. This time, however, the underlying ideology was entirely different.

Vladimir Buldakov, a leading historian of the Bolshevik Revolution, says the new parade fits into the government's efforts to associate itself with the iron-fisted rule and strong statehood of the Stalin years. "Stalin embodies superpower, imperial might. Lenin, on the contrary, symbolizes destruction," he says.

Stalin's popularity has soared in recent years, largely under Putin's influence. Putin has consistently tapped into Stalin-era symbols, restoring, among other things, the Soviet national anthem adopted under Stalin and abandoned after the collapse of the Soviet Union. By contrast, public esteem for early revolutionary leaders like Lenin and Leon Trotsky is declining sharply.  CONTINUED

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I had a guest speaker in my class, retired OSCE Ambassador Stephan Minikes, who concurred with the above observations in his remarks.  That is, Putin's pulling out all the stops to bring Russia back into the geopolitical limelight.  Just the $200 billion military upgrade program and renewed bomber flights was enough to raise eyebrows.

Not to mention Putin's looking to hold on to power in April by trying to segue from President to Prime Minister.  So much for true democracy.

Then again, in class we discussed the difference between US and Russian strategic development, the end result being Russia's history of insecurity made authoritarian government the most efficient means of coordinating Russian security policies.  Thus the transition to democracy has been painful--except for those who've learned to cash in on the process.

But since MOGS actually has more experience with Russian affairs--I think he has a Trotsky t-shirt--I'm going to pass him the mic (with Antitool at the turntable).

A History of Modern Russia: From Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin

A close look at the EU Reform Treaty

Check this [PIGEONED] out!

BBC:  The first draft of a new EU treaty can now be read in French and English, but what the text means for the EU's half a billion people is still not easy to determine. CONTINUED

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So, Lemme Get This Straight...

Al Freakin' Gore wins the Nobel Peace Price over people like this

Not Nobel Winners
October 13, 2007; Page A10

In Olso yesterday, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was not awarded to the Burmese monks whose defiance against, and brutalization at the hands of, the country's military junta in recent weeks captured the attention of the Free World.

The prize was also not awarded to Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and other Zimbabwe opposition leaders who were arrested and in some cases beaten by police earlier this year while protesting peacefully against dictator Robert Mugabe.

Or to Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest in Vietnam arrested this year and sentenced to eight years in prison for helping the pro-democracy group Block 8406.

Or to Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Uyyouni, co-founders of the League of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars in Saudi Arabia, who are waging a modest struggle with grand ambitions to secure basic rights for women in that Muslim country.

Or to Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, who has fought tirelessly to end the violence wrought by left-wing terrorists and drug lords in his country.

Or to Garry Kasparov and the several hundred Russians who were arrested in April, and are continually harassed, for resisting President Vladimir Putin's slide toward authoritarian rule.

Or to the people of Iraq, who bravely work to rebuild and reunite their country amid constant threats to themselves and their families from terrorists who deliberately target civilians.

Or to Presidents Viktor Yushchenko and Mikheil Saakashvili who, despite the efforts of the Kremlin to undermine their young states, stayed true to the spirit of the peaceful "color" revolutions they led in Ukraine and Georgia and showed that democracy can put down deep roots in Russia's backyard.

Or to Britain's Tony Blair, Ireland's Bertie Ahern and the voters of Northern Ireland, who in March were able to set aside decades of hatred to establish joint Catholic-Protestant rule in Northern Ireland.

Or to thousands of Chinese bloggers who run the risk of arrest by trying to bring uncensored information to their countrymen.

Or to scholar and activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim, jailed presidential candidate Ayman Nour and other democracy campaigners in Egypt.

Or, posthumously, to lawmakers Walid Eido, Pierre Gemayel, Antoine Ghanem, Rafik Hariri, George Hawi and Gibran Tueni; journalist Samir Kassir; and other Lebanese citizens who've been assassinated since 2005 for their efforts to free their country from Syrian control.

Or to the Reverend Phillip Buck; Pastor Chun Ki Won and his organization, Durihana; Tim Peters and his Helping Hands Korea; and Liberty in North Korea, who help North Korean refugees escape to safety in free nations.

These men and women put their own lives and livelihoods at risk by working to rid the world of violence and oppression. Let us hope they survive the coming year so that the Nobel Prize Committee might consider them for the 2008 award.

- (list brought to you by the Wall Street Journal and Carly)

And while we're at it, let's discuss someone who'd done greater things for the cause of peace in this world during his all-too-short life than Al "I was a photographer back in 'Nam man" Gore or his pals will ever do.

First Navy MoH since Vietnam to go to SEAL

By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Oct 13, 2007 6:51:59 EDT

SAN DIEGO — Two years after his death in a harrowing firefight on a mountaintop in Afghanistan, Lt. Michael P. Murphy, a SEAL from Patchogue, N.Y., will receive the nation’s highest combat honor, Navy officials said.

A Navy spokeswoman confirmed Oct. 11 the decision by President Bush approving the posthumous award of the Medal of Honor, the first for the Navy for the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Murphy, 29, was leading a four-man reconnaissance and surveillance team during Operation Red Wing in Afghanistan’s rugged Hindu Kush mountains June 28, 2005, when the team was spotted by Taliban fighters. During the intense battle that followed, Murphy and two of his men — Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class (SEAL) Danny Dietz and Sonar Technician (Surface) 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew Axelson — were killed. A fourth man, then-Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class (SEAL) Marcus Luttrell, was seriously wounded and knocked unconscious, but managed to escape. Luttrell was rescued days later.

Murphy was killed while phoning in for reinforcements. The tragedy continued when enemy fighters shot down one of the transport helicopters carrying the rescue force, killing eight more SEALs and eight Special Forces operators. The 11 SEALs killed marked the largest single-day loss of life for the tight-knit community.

Bush will present the Medal of Honor to Murphy’s parents, Daniel and Maureen, and his brother, John, on Oct. 22 at a 2:30 p.m. ceremony in the White House....

Or, how about this?  From what I think is Mike Yon's single Greatest Work to Date?

Over the next couple of days in Landstuhl, dozens of wounded soldiers told their stories, and although soldiers can complain about most anything, no one had a single serious complaint about the treatment they’d received from the medical teams.

Everyone, it seemed, felt cared for, including the families who swarmed in from America and other places. The airplanes kept coming from Afghanistan and Iraq, seven days per week, and many families were there to greet wounded soldiers. While these journeys are most often a source of comfort for patient and family alike, they also can be cauldrons for stress. One mother cried hysterically despite her family’s efforts to quiet her. Another mother and daughter-in-law got into an emotional dispute about where to bury the dead soldier who was once both the mother’s son and the wife’s husband.

The soldier who had been ambushed by the IED in Iraq was expected to die very soon. I was a few feet away when a call came in from a close family member. The family member did not inquire about his condition or what happened. This family member only wanted to know when the soldier would die, and who would receive his death benefit. In less civilized times, people like that roamed the battlefield with tools to pry gold teeth from the jaws of fallen soldiers, but it was distressing to imagine that a family member would do the same.

For the wounded, the medical staff and liaisons kept the focus on the needs of the patients. For the family members, there were civilian groups like Soldiers’ Angels and Fisher House providing comfort and succor....

Hey NPP Committee, please go choke yourselves now.

Crazy Ivan!

Sign number 2,345,697 that the Cold War is back on.  That, along with the recent dismissal of the Russian PM in favor of a political nobody, seems to imply that Vlad will be around for quite a while. (The new guy is seen as a "placeholder" so Putin can sidestep the term limits in effect, and return to office after a short hiatus.) Russia does have its fair share of problems, like the incredibly low birth rate.

However, what always gets me is the persistent anti-American, anti-NATO paranoia. Why don't they realize that we--for the most part--don't care too much about Russia/the CIS? (Conversely, should we care more?) There's a bunch of other stuff going on, the likes of which makes Russia look like a rather well-functioning nation-state. No-one's going to invade, so what's with all the saber-rattling?

It could have something to do with the idea of a multipolar world to counter US influence, and the idea of being a "regional power". Heck, I'll call it right now: Cold War Part Deux will be something like RIMPAC vs. the SCO--in contrast to NATO vs. the Warsaw Pact. Any thoughts?