Hug a Fascist

#146437Sat 05/02/11 11:30

Less than two weeks after Mikheil Saakashvili rained a few tons of muscular liberalism on the folk of South Ossetia, David Cameron went to shake him by the hand.
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David Cameron - August 17, 2008

We must make Moscow pay for this blow against democracy

Tbilisi ... has the trappings of a vibrant western economy. Billboards advertised designer products. The one-time Marxism-Leninism Institute is now a five-star hotel.

Russia must pay a price... Russia's elite value their ties to Europe - their shopping and their luxury weekends. We should look at the visa regime for Russian citizens. Russian armies can't march into other countries while Russian shoppers carry on marching into Selfridges.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4547747.ece
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We need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism.

-- David Cameron

A euphemism is born

markonseaSat 05/02/11 15:03

"... much more active, muscular liberalism"

This is REALLY going to frighten the Tea Party.

Now BOTH the UK parties are communist socialists!

#146437Sat 05/02/11 18:12

quoting > "Now BOTH the UK parties are communist socialists!"

I don't think either of those terms capture the sort of third-way, miltaristic authoritarianism that's dominated western politics over the last decade or so. There's "liberal fascism", which is probably quite accurate, but it has it's problems.

I hadn't heard of muscular liberalism before, but doing a quick search turned up the following from November 2006:

The Atrophy of Muscular Liberalism
November 7, 2006 - Posted by smiffy in Iraq, The Left, The War On Terror, US Politics.
http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2006/11/07/the-atrophy-of-muscular-liberalism/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Fascism

#146437Thu 17/03/11 22:31

Georgia fired first shot, say UK monitors

Jon Swain - The Sunday Times - November 9, 2008
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5114401.ece

Two former British military officers are expected to give crucial evidence against Georgia when an international inquiry is convened to establish who started the country's bloody five-day war with Russia in August...

During the war both [Ryan] Grist and [Stephen] Young were senior figures in the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The organisation had deployed teams of unarmed monitors to try to reduce tension over South Ossetia, which had split from Georgia in a separatist struggle in the early 1990s with Russia's support.

Grist, who resigned from the OSCE shortly afterwards, has told The New York Times it was Georgia that launched the first military strikes against Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital.

"It was clear to me that the [Georgian] attack was completely indiscriminate and disproportionate to any, if indeed there had been any, provocation," he said. "The attack was clearly, in my mind, an indiscriminate attack on the town, as a town."

Last month Young gave a similar briefing to visiting military attachés, in which he reportedly supported the monitors' assessment that there had been little or no shelling of Georgian villages on the night Saakashvili's troops mounted an onslaught on Tskhinvali in which scores of civilians and Russian peacekeepers died.

"If there had been heavy shelling in areas that Georgia claimed were shelled, then our people would have heard it, and they didn't," Young reportedly said. "They heard only occasional small-arms fire."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_South_Ossetia_war

furryfeaturesThu 17/03/11 22:46

I don't get the point of this thread. South Ossetia is legally a part of Georgia. Russia invaded, so even if Georgia fired the first shot in a pre-emptive manner, surely Georgia can claim that it was defending its territory? Russia has behaved in a very imperialist manner towards the Caucasus. It is up to Russia to justify its actions.

#146437Thu 17/03/11 23:17

quoting > "even if Georgia fired the first shot in a pre-emptive manner, surely Georgia can claim that it was defending its territory?"

Georgia launched a missile attack against peacekeepers and civilians. What do believe Georgia was "pre-empting"?

#146437Thu 17/03/11 23:19

What do you believe Georgia was "pre-empting"?

typo

furryfeaturesThu 17/03/11 23:26

quoting > "What do you believe Georgia was "pre-empting"?"

A Russian invasion as evidenced by Russia's overt support for separatists in Abkhazia.

#146437Fri 18/03/11 08:03

quoting > "A Russian invasion as evidenced by Russia's overt support for separatists in Abkhazia."

In your view is the bombing of civilians an appropriate, pre-emptive measure against such a perceived threat?