[chickadee]

Our lemming-like media rushes to get a storyline for major events and once fixed, it is difficult to dislodge or correct. We saw it in Kosovo. We saw it leading up to Iraq. We need to learn to not buy into the myth being hyped by media mavens and those who perceive a political gain from choosing a "side" early on.

I liked this article because it addressed some of the basics of human nature. It also advocates the banning of the Hitler analogy, which I am all for.

[bboop]

“I cannot know, I am not Ossetian.” It is so stupid the way libs refuse to have opinions on anything that does not impact them personally. Talk about giving up adulthood, individuality, personhood, reasoning, logic, thoughtfulness. And they couch it in such magnanimous terms. Folks like that are easily led.

[mouse1]

Sounds like Hitler to me... afterall, this is how world wars are started. And yet, when America goes in to free a country from an evil dictator its wrong.

[WellyP]

I have to agree that Putin is not Hitler. Putin is just as ambitious as Hitler but he is much brighter and their fore MUCH more dangerous!

[pgkdan]

. It also advocates the banning of the Hitler analogy, which I am all for.

The Hitler analogy is apt. Putin has carried out this war crime in exactly the same way that Hitler did in the Sudetenland. Exactly.

[Antoninus]

None of this gives Russia the right to do what it did. They are indeed acting in a fascist-like way comparable to Hitler's excuses when he invaded his neighbors.

As for the Hitler analogy, I'm all for it when it's apt as it is in this case.

[wideawake]

This is a load of crap.

There are roughly 500,000 Ossetians living in the historical region of Ossetia.

90% of them live in North Ossetia, which is in Russia.

We have not heard a peep of any movement for independence or self-determination from the vast majority of Ossetians living inside the borders of Russia.

Apparently only Ossetians living in Georgia feel the need for nationhood - Ossetians who live in Russia have magically lost all national sentiments.

And the Ossetians who live in Georgia all have Russian passports - apparently their national pride which makes them disdain having a Georgian passport doesn't extend to having a Russian passport.

Spout your propaganda for National Socialist Russia elsewhere.

[wideawake]

And Putin has acted precisely as Hitler acted in the Sudetenland with reference to Georgia.

Rarely has history repeated itself in such explicit detail.

[mylife]

The chechens ans cossacks systematically killing Georgians in the caucacus mountain villages isnt genocide?

[B Knotts]

So, this guy's argument seems to be that Putin is not Hitler, because Hitler was right about Sudetenland...therefore we should go along with whatever Putin wants to do.

Not really sure I follow his logic. He seemed to actually make the point that Putin is Hitler, but that we shouldn't really concern ourselves anyhow.

[dirtboy]

We need to learn to not buy into the myth being hyped by media mavens and those who perceive a political gain from choosing a "side" early on.

The claim of Russia that 2,000 Ossentians killed has been debunked, so don't even bother pretending there is moral equivalence between Russia and Georgia. And I hate to bother you with this concept, but we better damn well be taking sides here. Unless you LIKE what Putin has done to free speech and basic rights in Russia.

[Calpernia]

Nope, don’t see any similarities to Hitler here....

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1865700/posts
Putin’s children (see whole thread)

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

It also advocates the banning of the Hitler analogy, which I am all for.

You know what would be really awesome? If you banned making Hitler analogies, then opened up concentration camps and gas chambers for people who violate your ban.

That would be killer.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

BTW, everybody should check out the author's previous column:
"Now I Have a More Wickeder Crush on Nancy Pelosi Than Ever!"

Very insightful.

[throwback]

I tried to be objective when I first read about this war too, but the more you read the more the Russian line doesn't pass the smell test. I watched the Brookings Institute presentation on C-Span last night. I always thought they were fairly left wing, so I expected it to be a blame Bush fest. Surprised to find it wasn't and they weren't very sympathetic to the Russians. Also in the American Enterprise Institute’s presentation (despite their extreme dislike of the Russians), they convinced me that the Russians had to have been primed and ready to invade and not just to defend in the event of an attack. Also look at how the Russians have constructed their argument to defend Ossetia as the mirror image of Kosovo. They intended this for some time. Actually I think NATO, us, and the EU went too far in pummeling Serbia back then, so maybe this is the payback. I still remember seeing the image out of that missiles nose camera right before it hit a civilian Serb train. We had no business doing that. Still Putin is no sweetheart:

October 2006 - campaigning Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya shot dead in Moscow
Sept 2006 - first deputy chairman of Russia's central bank Andrei Kozlov shot dead in Moscow
Oct 2005 - former bank head Alexander Slesarev gunned down near Moscow
July 2004 - US editor of Forbes’ Russian edition Paul Klebnikov shot dead in Moscow
Oct 2002 - Magadan governor Valentin Tsvetkov killed in Moscow
Nov 1998 - liberal MP Galina Starovoitova killed in St Petersburg
March 1995 - leading journalist Vladislav Listyev shot dead in Moscow

I don't know how much responsibility Putin bears for these types of things, but again it doesn't pass the smell test.