From CNN:
This brings to mind a very scared old woman holding a shotgun on a perceived intruder and saying “Don’t come any closer! I’ll shoot! Honest I will!”
My concern is that the old woman might accidently shoot out of panic or ignorance.
Elmer J. Fudd,
Millionaire.
I own a mansion and a yacht.
Yeah, I’ve seen it too.
I don’t think we should take it TOO seriously. It’s more like a very pathetic last attempt to look like the superpower they once were. Just like the Brits who will still go on and on and on about winning the World Cup in 1966.
ducks
Coldfire
“You know how complex women are”
I also don’t think the Russian military would obey an order from the drunk to fire nukes. Or, at least, I sure hope they wouldn’t.
Hey now, Boris is a perfectly sane, sober, and benevolent person. I won’t have any of you criticizing Boris.
No, he hasn’t lost it. Simply put he is doing what any other nation leader (including the US) would do if faced with what it perceived as a threat to its actions/interests.
Imagine that the US is doing something that it believes in.
Other nations believe is it wrong and say “United States, you will suffer a heavy price for your actions if they continue”.
What do you think the US’s response would be? Probably something along the line of “We believe in what we are doing. Any action taken against the United States of America will result in instant retaliation by the United States of America.”
Well, that and they would start a congressional committee set up to investigate the effects of the statement on the swamps mice in Florida.
Anyway, would the US president be so blunt? Probably not (although images of Reagan and his “evil empire” come to mind), but the fact is that there would be no real difference in what is being said and what countries like the US would say.
“Glitch … Anything.” - Bob the Guardian
I would add though I do not think that Boris Yeltsin is terribly stable, but not because of this statement.
ARGHHHH!!! I can’t type today … cry sob
Okay how about “Boris Yeltsin is not very stable”.
What bothers me is that he seems to think a nuclear threat is an appropriate response to criticism and potential economic sanctions.
Did anybody else notice that Finland is leading the push for EU sanctions? Concidering their proximity to the bear, they must not think too much of it’s ability to wage conventional warfare.
Elmer J. Fudd,
Millionaire.
I own a mansion and a yacht.
Hey, Zhirinovsky was always my pick–that’s a man with some ambition.
Not only did he say that he would reconstitute the Soviet Union–and Eastern Europe–but also Finland and Alaska.
Well, I see Mr. Yeltsin is now in China for a long awaited summit with Chinese President Jiang Zemin. Yet another remarkable medical recovery for Boris. Didn’t he have pnuemonia just a short while ago?
Additionally, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Dec. 9 that a Russian diplomat was caught using an electric bug at the U.S. State Department. The diplomat, Second Secretary of the Russian Embassy in Washington Stanislav Borisovich Gusev, has been declared “persona non grata” and has been asked to leave the country within the next ten days.
Is this just a coincidence or movement of another pawn?
“Some people are worried about the difference between right and wrong. I’m worried about the difference between wrong and fun.”
~P.J. O’Rourke~
Hey, Glitch I thought your first version was pretty cool. I just like the idea of someone being terribly stable.
I do think it is pretty obnoxious to talk about nuclear weapons when the issue is supposed to be human rights vs. national sovereignty. I mean, forget the nuclear weapons, does Yeltsin really think the U.S. could invade and hold Russia in a conventional war? What would be the precedent for this? The last people who invaded and held Russia proper through conquest were the Varangians, if I remember correctly. Anybody have a copy of the Varangian Army standard operating procedures?
In fact, I hate nuclear saber-rattling. It creates decades of mistrust. The Chinese say crap like this all the time, and despite the Administration’s apparent attitude, we are moving away from treating the PRC as an ally (or a part of civilization for that matter). The whole world just about had a stroke when Chirac did his nuclear tests. Krushchev said the mistranslated thing, and it’s still getting thrown about by hawkish American politicians and sellout British musicians all the time.
Really, I used to be something of a Yeltsin fan. Now I’m starting to wish the cirosis (I know I spelt that wrong) would take him off our hands. And I really don’t know what he’s trying to accomplish in Chechnya. Warn everybody to get out of Grozny or you’ll consider them terrorists? Uhh, guys, don’t you think the terrorists might have heard that too? What exactly is the point of emptying a bunch of civilians out of a regional capital? I thought creating floods of innocent refugees sprinkled with vicious terrorists was considered a bad thing.
I wouldn’t worry to much about nuclear missiles from Russia. The U.S. will have plenty of warning, Russia will have to buy a bunch of WD-40 to cut the rust on the launching clamps, take out a loan to pay their former Republics for the electricity to operate the computers.
Then it’d be fun to watch everyone in Chicago scream and run around like a bunch of headless chickens as the warhead came out of the sky and… simple bounce of the pavement.
Then all the Russian missile crews will really be sweating trying to explain why they sold the nuclear warheads they were supposed to be protecting.
Re: Nuclear sabre-rattling. I agree wholeheartedly. It is very obnoxious, and not a nice thing to do. But it is practically the only big stick Russia has left. It simply isn’t suprising that Yeltsin would wave his big stick around (boy, does that conjure SCARY images) when he perceives his nation’s interests are threatened by foreign powers. This isn’t to say that I agree with their invasion and bombings, but I do try to see it from their perspective and relate it to how we would see a foreign power sticking their nose in our business.
Also, I don’t think it was very good for the president to say “suffer a heavy price”. This has very bad connotations and leaves the punishment up to the imagination … which one could easily conclude would be a military one whether that was intended or not.
I say GO BORIS! He’s finally showing some of the chutzpah he had that got him into the job in the first place. He’s spent most of the last seven years being a Clinton Suck-Up, GOd knows why…It’s really good to see somebody stand up to “King Klinton”.
I’ve had enough of Slick Willie’s sanctimonious attitude, and his feeling as if he has the right to tell world leaders what to do and when to do it. I can’t wait until January 2001 when the U-Haul shows up at the Big House and takes Klinton’s crap back to the trailer park in Arkansas.
Jim Staudt
Actually, he’s moving to Chappaqua, NY. But I’m not sure if they’ll stay there if Hillary is not elected Senator of New York.
“Has Boris Yeltsin lost it?” What makes you think he ever HAD it? The man definitely has some mental problems and I’m not sure if he was ever completely healthy.
>< DARWIN >
__L___L
“Has Boris Yelsin[sic] finally lost it?”
Begs the question, doesn’t it… <lol>