Noisy folks in other people's neighborhoods

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Oct 8, 2015 at 01:37

Hi, Moh Waz. You said,

the new PM's affluent electorate (Woolahra) has the biggest Jewish population in town.

This does not necessarily portend good things for Israel, seeing that in the US, the Jewish districts voted overwhelmingly for Obama :-(

I laughed a bit at the video. Sydneysiders certainly are tolerant folks, to put up with all that noise. In this country, my wife and I were fortunate in being able to move away from that sort of thing. I live among a lot of retired professors and such like, besides deer, turkeys and woodpeckers. In my younger days, we had to put up with drug dealers, drive-by shootings, gang fights, boom boxes, foul language and unpleasant things. Those were good and interesting times; but in our old age, I'm glad we're here.

Daniel hasn't spoken much about the recent Russian adventure in Syria. The media has played it up as some sort of Russian propaganda coup against Obama. After sifting through the various stories, though, I've concluded that it was probably not a smart move, on Putin's part. Here are some negative points:

1. Putin is backing an unpopular dictator in Syria, the member of a minority religion. That looks shockingly similar to our backing a dictator in South Vietnam who had the support of only the Roman Catholic minority there. It also is similar to Afghanistan,
2. Putin is backing the "Old Guard" against a popular revolutionary tide. That looks shockingly similar to Vietnam. It is also similar to Afghanistan.
3. Putin lives in a glass house. While venturing into Syria, into an alien region, he is very vulnerable in the Caucasus and Central Asia, besides fighting Ukrainian nationalists at his own front door. The equivalent for the US, in its Vietnam experience, would have been to have the Canadians at war with us over a US land-grab in Newfoundland, coupled with a full-blown Hispanic insurgency, while being economically boycotted by the Japanese and Europeans.

Putin is certainly helped, by the fact that the current American President can't tell a terrorist from a Mennonite. Unfortunately for the short Russian leader, thought, it's not wise to rely on what you think a madman's going to do next, in making foreign policy moves. They may go your way for a while; but in the long run, they are likely to turn against you.

In musing on history, beta-male countries like Russia now and 36 years ago; and Germany 40 years before that, tried to take advantage of alpha-male countries the US and British Empire, respectively, during times of weakness in order to steal their harems of nations. It happens among lions, and it happens among world leaders.Oh, the noise of it all!

Shalom shalom :-)

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