Vladimir Putin Is Losing The Battle For Ukraine -- Alex Massie, Spectator
It is always tempting, in the field of foreign affairs, to suppose we are led by dupes and fools while our opponents enjoy – or endure – leaders of boundless cunning. We are over-matched; they are playing three-dimensional chess. We are weak, they are strong. We are easily distracted, they are single-minded. We compromise, they are implacable. It is easy to over-estimate the opposition while under-estimating our own capabilities.
Sometimes this has unfortunate consequences. Saddam Hussein, for instance, had to be hiding something. The Iraqi dictator – notoriously full of dark cunning – would not be so stupid as to pretend to have WMD programmes he did not in fact possess. The less evidence there was for them the more that proved he must be hiding something. That we did not know what he was up to demonstrated he was up to something. He was not, after all, a stupid man. As it turned out, we mis-overestimated Saddam.
Perhaps – only perhaps for one cannot be wholly certain about such matters – we are mis-overestimating Vladimir Putin too.
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Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials
Ukraine Crisis: EU Concerned about Cost of Sanctions on Russia -- Gregor Peter Schmitz, Speigel Online
Russia Is Doomed -- Zachary Keck, The Diplomat
Did Angela Merkel really say Putin was unhinged? -- Mark Seibel, McClatchy Washington Bureau
Why Putin Doesn’t Respect Us -- Thomas Friedman, New York Times
How the EU misjudged Ukraine and Russia – and how it's adjusting -- Sara Miller Llana, Christian Science Monitor
Ukraine Will Prevail: Putin’s overreach will backfire. -- Conrad Black, NRO
Is Central Asia the Next Global Flash Point? -- Michael Romanowski, Real Clear World
Fearing and fleeing in Pakistan -- Asad Hashim, Al Jazeera
Is Xi Jinping a Reformer? -- Wen-Ti Sung, The Diplomat
China ups military spend by 12 percent. Are the gloves coming off? -- Peter Ford, Christian Science Monitor
Full Steam Ahead: China’s Ever-Increasing Military Budget -- Andrew Erickson and Adam Liff, WSJ
Why the US and its allies must rethink their China war plans -- Peter Layton, The Interpreter
Bank Oversight: Europe Stressed by Approaching Stress Tests -- Martin Hesse, Christoph Pauly and Anne Seith, Speigel Online
If Quebec Separates, Canada Keeps Montreal -- Jonathan Kay, National Post
Probe: Did the CIA spy on the U.S. Senate? -- Jonathan S. Landay, Ali Watkins and Marisa Taylor, McClatchy Washington Bureau
2 comments:
If this losing, winning must be something spectacular!
LOL .... same thoughts here.
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