Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish Articles at DanielGreenfield.org

Russian propaganda has never been fairly sophisticated, just a repetitive recitation of simple if outlandish points, and it has changed very little over the generations. The propaganda offensive is fairly simple, characterize the country you're invading as "aggressive", describe its leadership as warmongering, fascist, adventurist and sometimes psychotic and claim you need to occupy them in order to insure peace. A short language guide to what these Pravda terms actually mean runs as follows A. Warmongering - Its troops are still resisting a Russian occupation B. Fascist - Its government refuses to make way for a Russian puppet regime C. Adventurist - Its government has asked for help from the West or is allied to the West. D. Psychotic - It has a strong leader who is refusing to concede to Russia. The shortest guide is to understand that Pravdaspeak terms are the opposite of truth. An aggressive country is usually one that Russia has invaded or a country that is refusing

Having grown wealthy and comfortable, we're used to being entertained and catered to without having to ask the price. Want a pair of Nikes? Buy a Made in China pair and don't ask or think about how they were made by child labor. Want an iPod, run through the same routine and don't pay any attention to allegations that they were made by workers who were underpaid and abused. You can even get a red one to show how socially conscious you are. The Beijing Olympics are also Made in China to the same set of standards and catering to the same set of people who want to be entertained but don't care about the cost. The set of people who will say, "Yes there are a lot of people in prison, but wouldn't they be there anyway, might as well enjoy the fireworks". Those are people who don't like to look too close at the human cost of what it takes to make their omelets, before or after the Olympics. But at the same time there is something ugly about an inside look

Putin commemorated the 40th anniversary of Russia's invasion of Czechoslovakia with its invasion of Georgia, even as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, using virtually the same justifications used by Molotov in 1939 for the Russian invasion of Poland, i.e. describing it as an aggressive entity, calling it an illegitimate product of Versailles/breakup of the USSR and claiming a need to protect the Ukrainians\Ossettians who are Russian citizens as justification for the invasion. So history once again repeats itself as it usually does. Meanwhile the world watches the spectacle of the Olympic games, a spectacle built on brutality and slave labor. Russia knew quite well that the timing would be perfect while the world was distracted and Russia was hardly the only one to use that moment. But Russian actions have backfired, pushing Eastern Europe closer to NATO with Poland signing a missile treaty, that has led at least one Russian general to threaten nuclear war. And so we're ri

When in doubt Pat Buchanan likes to drag out his time in the Reagan Administration to bolster his credibility. If we're to believe him, if Reagan were alive today, he'd be the same Ex-Republican apologist for tyranny and terrorism that Buchanan is today. But it only takes a quick glimpse at Buchanan's resume as the apologist for the ex-KGB oligarchy of Vladimir Putin to make the idea that Reagan and the Buchanan of today have anything in common, laughable. Pat Buchanan's role as the far right's chief apologist for Putin didn't begin when he supported Russia's invasion of Georgia. He has a long history of apologizing and defending Putin and Russia. From Cold Warrior, Buchanan has made the long journey to becoming the sort of despicable creature who parrots Russian propaganda, champions the right of an ex-KGB thug to carve up Eastern Europe and the Baltic states and blame America for the whole thing. In short Buchanan has become the complete antithesis of

The British press has been widely trumpeting a "settler attacked on a car full of British diplomats" as another example of "brutal settler violence". Reading sentences such as that you might get the impression that settlers had launched some sort of missiles or opened fire or done something. The reality of what actually happened is much uglier, for the British Foreign Office. The British Foreign Office funds left wing and pro-terrorist Israeli groups which work to disrupt checkpoints, aid terrorists and harass Jewish residents living in Israel. The British Foreign Office also uses diplomatic vehicles which are not subject to inspection to smuggle their pet activists past Israeli checkpoints into areas where they can stage protests and disruptions and network with their terrorist allies. The "Settler Attack" involved a number of Jewish Hebron residents who had grown sick of this to try and block an armored car containing British diplomats and their left

The Russian incursion into Georgia with the aim of carving the country into Russian protectorates overseen by Russian troops is part of a multistage plan to recover the former USSR Republics by fomenting political chaos, creating 5th columns and treating country after country, from the Ukraine to Poland, just as Czechoslovakia was treated by Germany. But the ultimate cost of the Russian campaign goes beyond even Eastern Europe. Russia's goal is to create an energy monopoly by controlling Baltic oil on the one hand further bulking up its already sizable energy base and building a coalition of socialist South American nations and Islamist Middle Eastern nations into a Mega-OPEC overseen by Russia with the aim of strangling America and the West. Such talk might seem paranoid, but Russia has already made a great deal of political headway not only in the Middle East and Latin America, where it has brought together Iran's Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's Chavez as part of a larger

For some nations and individuals, appeasement is a station at the end of the line that they reach right away, after some traumatic cultural or national event, for others it is a journey of stages along the line, stop after stop marking a point at which values and morals are surrendered for ephemeral things until they reach the end of this dark journey and the end of their national existence. This is the express train of appeasement we now find ourselves riding, wherever we live, we are but another stop on the line, from dusk to darkest night. The 4 Stages of Appeasement Stage 1 - Washington D.C. - Washington D.C. is a relevant present day example, but London in the 30's is just as good of an example. At this stage the appeasement is being carried out by a nation fairly confident in its own power but believing itself overextended and seeking to safeguard its commercial interests is listening to those domestic diplomatic and business interests eager to avoid a fight. Whil

It's been a week full of shakedowns and hard knocks. Obama now realizes there's no way of avoiding a convention battle with Hillary even as his popularity among Democrats and voters in general continues to drop. Russia appears to have begun the invasion of Georgia, with Putin calling it a declaration of war , see the previous post on this and my CFP article for my take on the situation. The media is reporting that Hevron "settlers" attacked an armored car full of British senior diplomats. It's safe to say that unarmed people protesting by blocking an armored car is not an "attack" and what is being under-reported is that the settlers were protesting the way that British diplomats have used diplomatic cars to smuggle left wing activists and anarchists past Israeli checkpoints to stage protests and incidents. The Times admits not only that the British Diplomats were transporting left wing activists (under the guise of a tour) but that it's Brit

Russia has made its first move to invade a former USSR Republic sending over 50 tanks and fighter jets into Georgia and bombing a Georgian city. After pressuring the pathetic Olmert government into suspending arms sales to Georgia in the faint suggestion that Russia might stop selling nuclear technology to Iran (which it will not) and intimidating the Voice of America into broadcasting a pro-Russian position-- Russia has begun the invasion of Georgia. While most Americans may not know what or where Georgia is, Russia's invasion is significant in the same way that Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia was. Following a national hate campaign orchestrated by Putin against Georgians that involved expulsions and assaults on ethnic Georgians in Russia, and attempts by the FSB/KGB to assassinate Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili-- KGB thug Putin has now declared outright war on Georgia. The Russian regime is duplicating the tactics of Nazi Germany against Czechoslovakia, using

From the rash of Arab attacks in Jerusalem, both reported and unreported, to the growing domestic and international pressure to divide Jerusalem, Israel is stepping back in time to the days of the Mandate, only a step away from Bevingrad and foreign troops in Jerusalem throwing Jews to be torn apart by waiting Arab mobs. Though Israel may have celebrated its 60th, we are swiftly marching back to before independence. We have already all but left 1967 behind us as we march hurriedly to 1947, to surrender, submission and annihilation. And in doing so, we are also passing the point where a political solution has any ability to resolve the crisis. The overt foreign tampering in Israeli politics that began with Clinton doing everything possible to overthrow Netanyahu and replace him with Barak or the European funding for left wing pressure groups such as Peace Now, has metastasized back to the days of the Mandate when figures such as Weizmann and Teddy Kollek openly served foreign intell