{"id":1345,"date":"2023-07-02T11:48:48","date_gmt":"2023-07-02T11:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2023\/07\/02\/james-soriano-at-the-american-thinker\/"},"modified":"2023-07-02T11:48:48","modified_gmt":"2023-07-02T11:48:48","slug":"james-soriano-at-the-american-thinker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2023\/07\/02\/james-soriano-at-the-american-thinker\/","title":{"rendered":"James Soriano at <i>The American Thinker<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 13pt;\">His latest on Ukraine is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanthinker.com\/articles\/2023\/06\/americas_revolutionary_moment.html\">America&#39;s &#39;Revolutionary Moment.&#39;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 13pt;\">What follows is his response to the comments made here on his earlier article <a href=\"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.typepad.com\/maverick_philosopher\/2023\/06\/do-not-underestimate-russias-resolve.html\">Do Not Underestimate Russia&#39;s Resolve<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63p1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 13pt;\">I just read through the comments this weekend.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>There certainly was a spirited debate.&#0160;<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63p1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 13pt;\">The comments divide into two kinds, with Michael Brazier and Dimitri raising points about how I\u2019ve mis-measured Russia\u2019s intent and its imperialistic history.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>Dimitri seemed to be somewhat surprised that a retired Foreign Service Officer wasn\u2019t better informed about Russian history.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>Since when is the State Department required to have a firm grasp of history?<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>That principle has never applied to it in the past and I see no reason why I should conform to it now.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>Ha!<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63p1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 13pt;\">Ben made very good points pushing back against the Russia bogey.&#0160;<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>His comment about Churchill and Roosevelt approving the inflow of Russian power into Eastern Europe is noteworthy.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>That fact is typically ignored when an anti-Russia speaker talks about how the Soviet bloc was really a modern replication of the Russian Empire.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>It is as though Russia was the only actor on the scene and Eastern Europe was merely putty in its hands.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>But events were shaped by other actors as well, especially the Anglo-Americans who agreed to Russia\u2019s westward advance (although they may not have liked it), as well as local Communist parties which looked to Moscow for support.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 13pt;\">The other kind of comments were about the realist\/idealist schools of foreign policy, with Russia playing Aristotle to America\u2019s Plato.&#0160;<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;<\/span>Elliott picked up on it and you seconded.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#0160;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 13pt;\">Oz linked to a NYT article on why the most prominent anti-war voices seem to be on the right.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>That may be so, but I think the real story is the bipartisan consensus for fighting undeclared war against Russia.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>Fair to say that US assistance to the Ukrainian army has killed more Russian soldiers than the Ukrainian army acting alone.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>Many a \u201cconservative\u201d voice can be heard on the U.S. war wagon.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>I\u2019m sure you know the story about Lindsey Graham who approvingly told Zelensky recently that \u201cRussians are dying\u201d and that US support for Ukraine was the \u201cbest money we\u2019ve ever spent\u201d.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>Shame on him.<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63p1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt; font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63s1\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mendocinoarchitect.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" shape=\"rect\" target=\"_blank\">Joe Odegaard<\/a><\/span>&#0160;made a good point about Russia fighting to fend off the imperial reach of the West\u2019s Woke agenda.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>That story\u2019s out there in the blogosphere in various forms.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>It\u2019s a two-part story:<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>there\u2019s the U.S. push for globalizing Woke, which R.R. Reno wrote about recently at First Things, and then there\u2019s the resentment against it in the patriarchal and traditional societies of the so-called \u201cGlobal South.\u201d<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>I think that\u2019s one reason the Global South has not signed up to sanction Russia.<span class=\"yiv6701463822ydp82f3d63Apple-converted-space\">&#0160;&#0160;<\/span>It likes the idea of having a strong Russia and China around to curb American excesses.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>His latest on Ukraine is America&#39;s &#39;Revolutionary Moment.&#39; What follows is his response to the comments made here on his earlier article Do Not Underestimate Russia&#39;s Resolve: I just read through the comments this weekend.&#0160;&#0160;There certainly was a spirited debate.&#0160;&#0160; The comments divide into two kinds, with Michael Brazier and Dimitri raising points about how &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2023\/07\/02\/james-soriano-at-the-american-thinker\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;James Soriano at <i>The American Thinker<\/i>&#8220;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foreign-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}