The death toll of 172 from the flooding in Krymsk, Russia is sad enough.
But the revelation that the government knew of the coming flood at ten o’clock the night before and did nothing to warn the residents is both heart-breaking and outrageous.
The Russian people have gone from the Czars to the Communists to a Mafia-with-nuclear-weapons regime, and still they suffer, and their leaders don’t give a damn about them.
From “Why Russia Is Backing Syria,” Ruslan Pukhov, NYT:
“Many Russians believe that the collapse of the Assad government would be tantamount to the loss of Russia’s last client and ally in the Middle East and the final elimination of traces of former Soviet prowess there — illusory as those traces may be.
“Such attitudes are further buttressed by widespread pessimism about the eventual outcome of the Arab Spring, and the Syrian revolution in particular. Most Russian observers believe that Arab revolutions have completely destabilized the region and cleared the road to power for the Islamists. In Moscow, secular authoritarian governments are seen as the sole realistic alternative to Islamic dominance.
“The continuing struggles in Arab countries are seen as a battle by those who wear neckties against those who do not wear them. Russians have long suffered from terrorism and extremism at the hands of Islamists in the northern Caucasus, and they are therefore firmly on the side of those who wear neckties.
“To people in Moscow, Mr. Assad appears not so much as ‘a bad dictator’ but as a secular leader struggling with an uprising of Islamist barbarians.”
The Russians are backing Assad for the same reason we backed Mubarak for all those years. We both fear the Arab Street. The Russian have their bastards, and we have ours.
The Russians have never been fond of Islam. Under the Czars, the Russians viewed the Muslims in their empire as a threat to Christianity. Under the Communists, the Russians viewed the Muslims in their empire as a threat to atheism.
It is almost certain that Greece will hold another election to try to form a government and that the leader of the Coalition of the Radical Left known as Syriza, Alxis Tsipras, will get more votes than anyone else.
So, in effect, Greece will have a communist government. I don’t believe the Greek people have suddenly become communists, but they reject the harsh terms of the bailout deal supported by the two major mainstream parties. Those parties got less than 40% of the vote on May 6. The Greeks want to re-negotiate that deal for less onerous terms, and think that they can do so without being forced to leave the euro. They are convinced they can have their baklava and eat it too. They believe they have leverage with the IMF, the European Community, and the European Central Bank, none of which wants to see Greece default.
Angela Merkel is saying they don’t have any leverage and the deal can’t be renegotiated. But she is in a weaker position than just a few weeks ago. She has lost her French ally Nicolas Sarkozy, and has to deal with the Socialist Francois Hollande, who is more sympathetic to Greece. She just lost a German regional election to the Social Democrats, who also are more sympathetic to Greece. Her rigid policies are under attack both at home and abroad.
So we’ll see who blinks first, the Greeks or their lenders. But the harsh terms of the loan agreement approved in February make it look more and more like the Treaty of Versailles, which also seemed like a good idea at the time, but led desperate people to support extreme leaders and ultimately to World War II. The Germans, of all people, should understand what happens politically when you try to get blood from a stone economically.
Having defeated fascism, the U. S. was appalled at the possibility that Greece might go communist, so we gave them tremendous amounts of aid, first under the Truman Doctrine and then under the Marshall Plan, to prevent that from happening. Almost 70 years after that successful effort, the communists are on the verge of victory in Greece. Heck of a job, Angela.
Embattled Farmers 