bobal:
I think that’s right and I wish the Russians would see it that way too. Instead of enabling Iran, invading Georgia and sundry other matters, they ought to be making nice with us.

After the fall of the Soviet Union Russia was fervently pro-West and pro-USA. I have been many times in Russia and Ukraine and they couldn’t get enough of the West. Movies, television, music, books, etc. practically from one day to the other all the shops threw out all home made products and replaced them with Western ones – even when they were of a worse quality. I saw people throwing out old hand crafted furniture and replace them with cheap IKEA furniture, just because it came from the West. Right or wrong, many Russians (and increasingly Ukrainian/Ukrainian Russians too) now feel they were let down and nationally humiliated and are bitterly disappointed. I think that was an historic mistake that the West didn’t do enough to make Russian democratisation and capitalisation experience more successful. But that’s all too late now. But given a choice to do so without appearing traitorous, I think most would still want to side with the West. “Western” is still used as quality mark and trips to Paris or London as nearly magical experiences. If we in any little way would want to help these pro Western sentiments, we’re doing all the wrong things. Kosovo was a big mistake. And for what? The Kosovo Albanians love you now. They’ll forget soon enough. Refusing to acknowledge the similarities between South Ossetia and Kosovo was another mistake. It’s there. You have to jump through hoops and bend over backwards not to see it. It appears for all to see that we are using two sets of rules. One of us and one for them. And Georgia is less of a democracy than Russia is. Yet Russia is all the time criticised for its rule and Georgia is fawned over.

fedya:
And you do seem to be overly-impressed by some, what?, metaphysical? status for Russia, which might, it seems at first blush, to have more to do with panic and fear at this present unraveling of the peace than with any heartfelt agreement that their position is really moral OR justified, right?

- not really. The Russians are playing the power game just like the Americans are. I do however genuinely feel that the Ossetians have a just cause. It’s a very small people. They have very little in common with the Georgians. The two languages are as different as English and Mongolian. Their survival as a people is endangered by being split up into two nations. The Georgians have persecuted them. “Georgian is only for Georgians”, “Ossetians are not humans, they are trash that must be removed by Georgian broom” are more slogans like that are what the first Georgian president was elected on. Whereafter he immediately removed SO status as an autonomous region and tried to make the use of the ossetian language illegal. A very large percentage were forced to flee (to Russia). After two wars, the two people hate each other. There’s no way they can ever live together in one nation. The region was created by Stalin (himself Georgian) in a classic divide and rule policy, but it has practically never been under Georgian rule.

exhelodrvr:
Not being familiar with your views from previous posts, it was hard to tell if you were making a complaint about Denmark being involved in Iraq/Afghanistan, or making a complaint that Denmark’s involvement and sacrifices (especially when compared to the rest of Europe) were not being appropriately recognized.

- No I’m a big supporter of our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. And would want it larger. And we don’t need appreciation or being recognized, since it’s clear that nothing less than could be expected for Americas struggle for Denmark during The Cold War. And in any case Denmark doesn’t trust Germany or France to uphold its defence requirements and would rather throw in its apples in Americas basket. The official story is that we’re in Iraq and Afghanistan to further democracy and all that. Everybody knows that the only reason we’re there is because the USA asked. I do however object when accused of contributing nothing, “neither money nor bullets nor boots”, because it is a disgrace to all the Danish soldiers which have been hurt or killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places.

buddy larsen:
EU ought to have from the get-go been in this 1:1 with USA, troops as well as costs.

- No. The EU ought to have done its utmost to make Russia a member state. As well as Ukraine. Russia is a European nation and a Russians a European people. For sure they have more cultural and historical ties with the rest of Europe than Turkey has. Denmark has ties going back to Russian nations at least a thousand years back.

fedya:
“the baltic” ?
Oh, that’s where Denmark is.

- ok. I don’t know if you are being ironic? But the Baltic nations are Lithuania, Estonia and Estonia. Denmark, Sweden and Finland have traditional close cultural ties to them. The Danish flag, which is the oldest in the world, comes from a Danish crusade to Estonia.

OldSalt:
But anyhow, let’s both dial it back. Russia is Denmarks enemy.

- only if we make it so. I think there still is time to make another history.