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Them weren't jokes. Serious points, lightly made.



War is always wrong. I confess that I approach the subject from the vantage point of a proper old-fashioned turn-the-other-cheek pacifist. (Of...

Why is 'polemic' a dirty word? And it goes without saying that I mean no offence. Except to DDT. To him I mean offence. Anyway (to misquote Mencken), aren't all successful people querulous and...

Well, exactly. And so what else do we have to cling to (to stop our brains exploding) in a world where one man's invasion is another man's liberation, if not the belief that, as a previous poster had...

I agree entirely. But doesn't the greatest depravity of all arise when ostensibly decent people, often out of an entirely understandable retributive instinct, sink to the level of the Basayevs and...

I'm quite aware that that's what I'm saying.

Oh for crying out loud.

Я не защищаю Басаева. Просто предостерегал от обычного одностороннего подхода к чеченскому вопросу на здешнем форуме. Видимо, напрасно.

С праздником.

Have you ever met a child? Belligerent little sods, especially the boy 'uns. If they jump on your face while you're reading the paper, you'll know it.



Of course they are. They're partial to...

I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying you use these Western newspapers as sources of information, but still don't trust them? Are they the best of a bad lot?



I didn't understand this bit...

I've heard this from Russians before and I applaud the sentiment. But how exactly do you build up an opinion? Could anybody (Ramil?) furnish me with a list of sources which people are generally...

Well, quite.

I'm not a member of the Shamil Basayev Appreciation Society.

And do you know what's strange? In the days when I favoured this forum with my presence far more often than I do now,...

Really, all of it? Even where the separatists pursue their ends in a (relatively) civilised manner? Even if, say, Scotcher wanted to dissolve the Act of Union?

I still think you're a good fellow,...

What a great jaded bundle of emptiness you must be, in that case

Really now, fellow: these things are much more fun if you actually enter into the debate rather than throwing pebbles from the...

Yeah, that's the truism. But, actually, why?

I think someone here used to say 'Hee'.



It's simpler than that; I just don't like triumphalism. Especially the ignorant kind. And didn't Vincent Tailors' response to my 'dummy-spitting' rather...

Did Aquinas get this kind of stick? Frankly, if the opinions I hold tie me to the coat tails of Russian adolescents, I've more hope for their generation than for mine. You call it impressionability,...

Ramil, I think the semantic points you make about the difference between 'war' and, say, 'armed conflict' are very valid. This is a massive improvement on 'What do YOU know about it?'

Whether or...

I have nieces. Will that do?



I don't hold with the truism that murdering children is necessarily worse than murdering anybody else. Has a tabloid ring, all this 'slaughter of the innocents'...

I think I've dealt with this. Do you want me to parse the sentence? 'Wars' - because there've been two of them and the second never really ended now, did it? 'Neo-imperialistic' because Russia's aims...

I've visited this site several times. Why is it alone authoritative?



Are the historians I mention 'mass media sources'? I'm well aware that to be well informed on any subject, one must sort...

Yes, like British rule in Somaliland was enacted in agreement with local tribal leaders. Sophisticated geopolitical discussions, a plebiscite, perhaps. Give me a break. And I repeat: there has been...

Strange. I did comment on your words. Indeed. That's exactly what I did. Attempting to refute my remark about imperialism by writing about 'the Russian Empire' = hilarious.



A lot depends on...

I think you're confusing experience with knowledge. I've never been blown up at a checkpoint or kidnapped at gunpoint, but I've lived in Russia, twice met veterans of the Chechen wars (whose courage...

Russian Empire Russian Empire Russian Empire. You said it yourself. Russian (and Soviet) policy in such areas has always been motivated by the desire to maintain the territorial constituency of a...

I'm not even going to start with you, popfan.

Well, your two cents have certainly illuminated the issue for everyone. Ta.

Pointless neo-imperialistic wars which have taken the lives of more young Russians than Basayev could ever have hoped...