Weekly Standard Prepping for War With Russia
Russian soldier in Kosovo
Justin Logan observes that The Weekly Standard seems to have spun its Great Wheel of Enemies again and today we’re supposed to be getting ready to fight not Iran or North Korea but Russia.
After three paragraphs of suggesting that we should be doing more to get involved in military confrontations with Russia, John Noonan tosses off “No one wants to be drawn into conflict with the Russians” but then comes the inevitable “but”:
But it’s useful to remember that time after time, we’ve extended our hand to Moscow only to have it slapped away. Putin clearly has grand aspirations for his burgeoning CSTO, with Poland shaping up to be the new Germany in another round of US-Russian geo-political chess. If Moscow only understands the stern language of action and resolve, then the Obama administration must atone for shabby treatment of our key Polish allies and move quickly to strengthen defensive ties between our two nations.
The part about Moscow only understanding the stern language of action and resolve appears to have been generated by a crude computer program of some sort. Stripping away Noonan’s oodles of overheated rhetoric, however, it appears that rather than “grand aspirations,” Putin has just about the most banal aspirations of all—under his rule Russia will seek to influence events in much smaller and weaker countries that are in its immediate geographic vicinity.
Meanwhile Michael Goldfarb appears to be coming out against the civil rights movement in this post, perhaps under the influence of Max Boot’s trenchant critique of Brown v Board of Education.
23 Responses to “Weekly Standard Prepping for War With Russia”
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November 5th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Meanwhile Michael Goldfarb appears to be coming out against the civil rights movement in this post
Matthew’s assertion literally makes no sense.
November 5th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Oy. I’m forced to agree with Al.
Goldfarb makes an idiotic “point” as always, but he’s not coming out against civil rights.
November 5th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
C’mon, Matt, this is a stupid cheap shot. As much as I hate to give Goldfarb the benefit of any doubt, his point here has nothing to do with being against Civil Rights. Eventually (you won’t have to wait long!) Goldfarb will say something stupid and/or offensive. In the meantime, no need to make stuff up.
November 5th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Interesting.
So does Goldfarb have any ideas why the US didn’t speak that particular lingo during the Bush years?
Because I recall, for all our needlessly blustery talk, we didn’t do shit. Moreover, we apparently bullshitted so well that the Ukrainians and the Georgians actually thought we’d go to the mattresses for them, which is an idea so patently ridiculous I’m a little ashamed to be part Ukrainian.
November 5th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
More Peggy and less John would be in order, much as I hate to say it.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
We extended our hand to Moscow only to have it slapped away is a bit vague to be used as an argument for foreign policy. That wouldn’t hold up in a marital spat.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
for a very long time i’ve thought that most of the weekly standard’s “writers” aren’t real flesh and blood human beings but crudely created computer programs that spit out neoconservative cliches (”stern language of action and resolve” “willpower” “toughness” etc. etc.) at random and with little or no relationship to whatever issue is being analyzed.
for john noonan and his ilk of mental dwarfs the answers are always the same regardless of the question. what do we do with iran? “show resolve” how do we handle russia? “show resolve” what is the best posture vis-a-vi china? “show resolve” how do we fix the economy? “show resolve” (really, that’s their prescription for economic renewal, read charles krauthammer’s thoroughly imbecilic “decline is a choice” article published about a month ago)
the people at the weekly standard, people like john noonan, are utterly without shame, honor or remorse, and should be treated as such.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
If Logan was personally confronted with some stern language and action he would probably pee his pants. Logan a colonel Klink to Goldbergs Sgt. Shultz.
It’s so very odd these people hate government but have a hard on for the nation like you can’t believe. They so want to express their manhood through attachment to the motherland or fatherland or whatever the hell land they imagine the nation to be in their fervid dreams. Whereas the biggest threat most have ever faced in their adult lives is a flat tire, because among other things they have no clue how to change one.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Russia has made it clear they won’t coddle the crazy Jews (i.e. Israel. They’ve endorsed the Goldstone Report and won’t sit idly by while the sick, crazy bastards bomb Iran. Bad, bad Russia. The neocons Plan Z to trick the dumb American goyim into starting a War against those evil Russkies, into flushing the USA into the toilet of History, because “It’s good for the Jews.”
November 5th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
PROVES WHY THE EMPIRE MUST END!!
JUST HAD TO COPY THIS ONE AND SEND IT TO THE RUSSIANS THEY MAY BE SHAKING IN MORAL FEAR FROM A COUNTRY THAT NEEDS A [20::01] RATIO OVER ISLAMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS WITH ALL THE ADVANCE MILITARY EQUIPMENT OF THE [21ST] CENTURY DRAGON SKIN VENTS, DRONES, AND THEIR STILL GETTING THEIR BACK SIDES HANDED TO THEM.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHY THE EMPIRE IS SO DANGEROUS TO THE ENTIRE GLOBAL COMMUNITY, WAR MONGERS.
HERCULE TRIATHLON SAVINIEN
November 5th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
I think it’s not a computer program, but it is a pretty good example of the “duckspeak” of George Orwell’s 1984. Duckspeak was, you may recall, the ability of a proper Party member to parrot the phrases appropriate to a given situation without thought – the “without thought” part being the most desirable aspect.
Come to think of it, Matt’s reference to the “Great Wheel of Enemies” reminds me of the scene where Oceania changes enemies from Eastasia to Eurasia, right in mid-rally. Fortunately the person addressing the rally was a doubleplusgood duckspeaker, and was able to switch in mid-sentence, without even disrupting the syntax.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
I had hoped one of the ‘benefits’ of the Iraq disaster was that the Neocon movement would become, officially extinct.
How do these losers still have jobs? What the hell does a nitwit like Max Boot have to do to not get published? The Neocons continued employment is an indictment of American journalism.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Can someone come up with an Onion-like publication solely devoted to parodying the Weekly Standard? Honestly, why isn’t everything they write just laughed at for the insane stupidity it is?
November 5th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
for john noonan and his ilk of mental dwarfs the answers are always the same regardless of the question. what do we do with iran? “show resolve” how do we handle russia? “show resolve” what is the best posture vis-a-vi china? “show resolve”
Neocons themselves only understand the language of force and resolve, so they assume other actors internationally share the same mindset.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
C’mon, Matt, this is a stupid cheap shot.
Goldfarb is a malicious dumbfuck who deserves nothing but cheap shots, preferably square in the nuts.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Matthew’s assertion literally makes no sense.
To be fair, does anyone really doubt that Goldfarb is against the Civil Rights Movement?
November 5th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Further to #11, notice how it’s always “shabby treatment” of whatever people we’re being insufficiently belligerent in defense of. There must be some kind of Neocon Elements of Style.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Can someone come up with an Onion-like publication solely devoted to parodying the Weekly Standard?
You mean the Weekly Standard is not an Onion-like parody publication?
November 5th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Ah, bit of a typo there- that should be “Noonan’s noodles of overheated rhetoric”.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:17 am
I must confess I had to google CSTO:
Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikstan.
Oh, Western devils, tremble and bow down!
(The only one worth more than a buck and a quarter is Kazakhstan, and if you think they’re going to risk their markets in oil and gas for the sake of Russia…)
November 6th, 2009 at 3:23 am
Matt,
Read Goldfarb again. It seems clear he isn’t making a normative claim but a descriptive one.
November 6th, 2009 at 3:25 am
John Noonan: “Recently I was chatting up an Army Lt Col — a West Point grad who started off as an Armor Officer in Cold War Germany and later moved on to Russian linguistics and intelligence. I asked what would have happened if the U.S. was drawn into the Georgian war of ‘08. “Ten years ago we would have kicked the Russians’ ass,” he said. “Last year they would have bloodied our nose, but we still would’ve won. Ten years from now… who knows?”
I suspect John Noonan and his dreamy, fabricated Lt. Colonel are hoping for opportunity to finally employ the AirLand Battle Doctrine. True warriors such as these know that Gulf War I was not a true application of the Doctrine’s potentially deep and complex beauty.
In the concluding phase of the war, General Genius “Stormin Norman” Swartzkopf launched his massive, mobile 100 hour AirLand Battle inspired attack only to capture empty desert. The Iraqi army, unfortunately, was already dead on the field, having been buried earlier in the campaign by the Air Force and its B-52’s.
Gulf War I left only unfulfilled dreams and heartache for Noonan’s of the world. Oh, but there is still unbound glory to be found on the plains of Western Europe. Every devotee of Tom Clancy knows this. And I’m quite sure tough guy Johnny Noonan and his pals are hardcore Clancy devotees. Now if only the Noonans can be allowed an epic showdown battle with the despicable Russkies, everything will be set right in the hollow spaces of their brain cavities.
November 6th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
EMPIRE PRE-EMPTIVE RUSSIAN FEDERATION ATTACK
[No Grand Aspirations]
Now, The Russian Federation is a member of The [BRIC] Sphere of Influences, Brazil, The Russian Federation, India, and The Peoples Republic of China: Sphere [1] One: Brazil, Cuba, Argentina, Mexico, and Venezuela, the [21st] Century Global Community Geo-Affairs System. The Russian Federation under the tandem leadership of President Dmitry Medvedev, and Chairman Vladimir Putin have [NO Grand Aspirations], beyond continuing providing a between standard of living for the Russian People and ensuring their future is a bright one, as the Matthew Yglesias Blog. [www.ThinkProgress.Org.], wrote, and we quote, [it appears that rather than “grand aspirations,” Putin has just about the most banal aspirations of all—under his rule Russia will seek to influence events in much smaller and weaker countries that are in its immediate geographic vicinity.] end quote. The Russian Federation is working with and as the senior member of its [Sphere of Influence], a tent or umbrella of protection, without domination, a voting block among other voting blocks.
[Wind of Change]
The question then arises why the voicing of a pre-emptive nuclear strike against The Russian Federation by the American-Israeli Empire in conjunction with a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the Shi-ite Persia Republic of Iran and the answer is a simple one the rapid decline of the Empire. The fall of the Empire will occur no later than [2020] one decade, [10] ten years, from now. At present the government of Israel has total and complete control of the Empire thru the [SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP] between (ADL & AIPAC/AZC), Anti-Defamation League & American Israel Public Affairs Committee/American Zionist Council, Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, and the (544/DC), which mean nothing after the collapse of the Empire. Israel is in a time frame bind, as much as the Non-Israeli Jew’s living on the North American Continent, Israeli loses the Senior member of its [Sphere of Influence], and the Non-Israeli Jews on the North American Continent will be put into a state of Limbo, within the shifting vortex winds of change upon the North American Continent. And a pre-emptive attack would place the American-Israeli Empire at the pentacle of power with control of markets and resources [Oil, Gas, & Minerals] running from the Arctic, to Africa and the seas off the southern coast of the Islamic Crescent.
[Setting the Stage]
Therefore the stage is being set with statements such as, with Poland shaping up to be the New Germany in another round of Empire-Russian geo-political chess, it’s useful to remember that time after time, The Empire has extended its hand to Moscow only to have it slapped away. Putin clearly has grand aspirations for his burgeoning [CSTO] Collective Security Treaty Organization, but Moscow had better understand the stern language of the Media Messiah Imperial President will be matched by resolve and the backing of the [MIC] Military Industrial Complex of the Empire, which is moving quickly to strengthen offensive military ties between Poland and the Empire against The Russian Federation. As the Russia Federation and its allies in the [CSTO] are to merge their joint troops in Central Asia forming the third regional [CSTO] military force after the European force formed by Russia and Belarus and the Caucasian force formed by Russia and Armenia and this is exactly what makes the continuation of the Empire, a danger to the entire Global Community of Nations.
[CSTO & CRRF]
A vastly huge regional security alliance force capable of waging a large-scale war, the European collective force alone, includes all Belarusian military with the entire Western Russian Federation Forces; and was expanded in [1992] to include; [Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan], as a purely military structure to ensure security in the Central Asia Region against an invasion from an Empire War of Resources and Markets Surge, under a new security strategy uniting the [CRRF] Collective Rapid Response Forces, a military organization on par with [NATO] The North American Treaty Organization in all respects, with the [CSTO] greatly enlarging its military capabilities in Central Asia by forming a strong, joint armed force, the member countries have contributed units in the magnitudes of higher-than-brigade scale to its organizational force structure, including armored, artillery and navy units creating a powerful military block to balance [NATO] in the Central Asia and the Caspian Sea region. This in response to the expected pre-emptive nuclear attack upon both The Russian Federation and the Shi-ite Persian Republic of Iran by the Empire, brought on by an anticipated, Empire Surge in its Wars or Resources and Markets into the energy-rich region. [Central Asian nations prepare for “big war” http://WWW.RussiaToday.Com, and as reported by as Kommersant newspaper CSTO spokesman Vitaly Strugovets told Kommersant.].
HERCULE TRIATHLON SAVINIEN