Quote of the day
posted at 10:40 pm on August 20, 2008 by Allahpundit
“My husband said he was going to see his family,” she said. “And the Russians said again, ‘Are you going to the American side?’”
“So the Russians view you as the American side, even though there are no Americans here.”
“Yes,” she said. “Because our way is for democracy.”
Blowback
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No, sandberg,
Propaganda frequently sounds trite and treacly sweet to anyone not inclined to lap it up.
If Totten were touring the Russian side with a government-supplied translator…would you question his “reporting?”
alphie on August 21, 2008 at 2:37 AM
So does sincerity, to those who imagine themselves to be worldly.
Jim Treacher on August 21, 2008 at 2:46 AM
In freevillage’s world everything is Russian Pravda propaganda. Nothing is what it is because everything is what it isn’t. And contrary-wise; what it is, it isn’t, and what it isn’t, it is. You see comrades?
MB4 on August 21, 2008 at 3:41 AM
The peace movement in Russia is the same as it always has been. Back in the Seventies, you’d see agitprop “spontaneous demonstrations” going on in America and in Russia demanding unilateral disarmament – of America.
Today, they’re doing the exact same thing. Just add in the words Georgia, Poland, Ukrane, etc….
logis on August 21, 2008 at 4:50 AM
freevillage is a moron. He’s willing to ignore every single report of Russia’s violent, immoral, murderous tactics because he can’t see photographic proof of it.
Newsflash: Russia is NOT the US. If someone was taking pictures of the innocents killed, they would most likely join the dead or at the very least they’d be taken prisoner and their camera destroyed. There are no pictures of the “thousands of people” because they weren’t all killed in the same place at the same time and piled up. Russia has a little bit more tact than that. We’ve seen that through over and over throughout this conflict.
And as for Totten always finding people who happen to be very quotable…he was in a refugee center housing people who were driven out of their homes by an aggressive Russian Army. Do you expect these people to be on the fence as to where they stand on the conflict? Do you think there were people in that refugee center who sympathized with the Russians, and that Totten was misrepresenting the mindset of people who had their homes destroyed? Yeah, I’m sure out of all of the people in there, he picked out the only 4 women who were supporters of Georgia.
jimmy the notable on August 21, 2008 at 4:59 AM
Village-idiot-troll is a moron, of course, but in this case i too am convinced that this particular part of the monologue (about the Democracy) the was artificially scripted to fit the American ear. It’s too transparent.
We should be mature enough to accept the fact that even the good side of the conflict sometimes uses propaganda. That shouldn’t change our support for Georgia and our disgust with Russia’s actions.
Aristotle on August 21, 2008 at 6:23 AM
I’m not sure why people insist on wordsmithing this lady. Ossetia has been a Russian-occupied police state for over a decade now. That’s about as anti-democratic as it’s possible to be.
What she said happens to be a perfectly accurate depiction of this situation. If you don’t approve of the way she happened to express that, no problem: just go and be born in Georgia, grow up there and then be rendered a refugee by this Russian invasion. Then you can restate it for her in a way that sounds less “American” to you.
logis on August 21, 2008 at 7:24 AM
TexasDan:
And Russia:
Don’t see much of an advantage for Georgia.
dave742 on August 21, 2008 at 7:33 AM
I don’t think the people in this story would think their lives were pointless.
dominigan on August 21, 2008 at 7:57 AM
Absolutely! When evaluating reporting, it’s always important to consider the sources! That’s why Totten goes to the refuges who are currently experiencing Russia’s ruthlessness. Are you actually advocating to trust a government-supplied translator… from Russia???? Comrade, your ideals are showing!
dominigan on August 21, 2008 at 8:04 AM
Isn’t it funny how liberals will support any wealth transfer from America to Socialist countries – whether that’s to cure viruses Africans get from dirty needles or to underwrite China’s the carbon emissions from China’s 19th-Century economy: “No price can ever be too great when it comes to protecting our brethren Citizens Of Planet Earth. We have everything, and they have nothing. Ten trillion dollars? Heck, make it eleventy – who’s counting?”
But when a Socialist dictator seeks to expand his empire, all of a it’s: “Whoa there, big spender. America is teetering on the virge of bankruptcy. Screw those Godless foreign bastards!”
logis on August 21, 2008 at 8:12 AM
Are we on the verge of bankruptcy? Did we or did we not have to borrow the money from China in order to pay out the economic incentive checks? Wasn’t the last budget over a trillion dollars? Aren’t we already spending over $10 billion / month on the current war?
I am just curious – what sacrifices have you personally made for this current war? Served? Fought? Son or daughter, father or mother, brother or sister served or fought? I am not a liberal and I certainly do not support the spending of money by our government that is not authorized by the U.S. Consitution (making about 75% of its current spending unauthorized), but I also do not support getting into another war with money and troops we do not have.
King of the Britons on August 21, 2008 at 8:23 AM
Then clearly he wasn’t referring to you.
fossten on August 21, 2008 at 9:45 AM
:)) What would happen if you didn’t qualify your agreement with me and disagreement with the local sheep with ” he’s a moron, of course”? They would ban you from the site? I don’t think so.
Seeing as how I’m the only one who’s correct on this topic, the qualification isn’t particularly convincing. Don’t you think?
freevillage on August 21, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Convenient. :)
freevillage on August 21, 2008 at 10:01 AM
Wow, it’s the next day and still not a single leftist quote from my blog. And not a single picture of a large number of dead civilians in Georgia.
Is it in the teachings in Jeebus that you can lie when arguing with an infidel? I thought the concept was limited to fundamentalist Islam.
freevillage on August 21, 2008 at 10:06 AM
None of us sheep here are buying your agitprop, freevillage.
And yet you continue to troll. Why?
pseudonominus on August 21, 2008 at 10:08 AM
update:
Russian forces blocked the only land entrance to Georgia’s main port city on Thursday, a day before Russia promised to complete a troop pullout from its ex-Soviet neighbor.
Armored personnel carriers and troop trucks blocked the bridge to the Black Sea port city of Poti, and Russian forces excavated trenches and set up mortars facing the city. Another group of APCs and trucks were positioned in a nearby wooded area.
Although Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has promised that his forces would pull back by Friday, Russian troops appear to be digging in, raising concern about whether Moscow is aiming for a lengthy occupation of its small, pro-Western neighbor.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told The Associated Press that Russia was thinning out its presence in some occupied towns but was seizing other strategic spots. He called the Russian moves “some kind of deception game.”
“(The Russians) are making fun of the world,” he declared.
pseudonominus on August 21, 2008 at 10:14 AM
Shota Abramidze, a 73-year-old retired engineer, said Gori residents wanted the Russians out.
“They’ve stolen everything. They’ve bombed everything. This is fascism, that’s what this is.”
pseudonominus on August 21, 2008 at 10:15 AM
you’re quite prolific at russian propaganda.
jdkchem on August 21, 2008 at 10:22 AM
Because the intellectually dishonest little neo-bolshevik gets responses. Stop giving them to him.
MadisonConservative on August 21, 2008 at 10:42 AM
Ever heard of taxes?
It’s incredible how history repeats itself to the letter and people are too stupid to do it differently this time:
We have the daring aggressor taking over other countries, we have the economic hardships(only the depression was worse, what’s our excuse?), we have an europe so allergic to war that there’s no amount of ass they’re not willing to kiss to prevent it. We have it all down to the americans who don’t want to interfere because it’s none of their business.
Don’t blame me when the sickle and hammer are flying over the white house.
Darth Executor on August 21, 2008 at 10:48 AM
I love his “Because I’m the only one correct” shpeal. Yes, because ignoring perfectly reasonable explanations as to why the Russians never loaded all the bodies in one place and allowed pictures to be taken…ignoring all legitimate reports of casualties, all for the sake of one stupid picture, yeah, if that makes you correct.
jimmy the notable on August 21, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Oh, so you are one of the Americans who didn’t get a tax cut when the Bush Tax Cuts were enacted? You have volunteered to pay higher taxes to support the war? I suppose you are growing a victory garden and are rationing sugar too.
King of the Britons on August 21, 2008 at 1:10 PM
No pictures, no quotes? Moving on.
freevillage on August 21, 2008 at 1:20 PM
Half of them are from you. Talk about intellectual honestly. And no pictures and no quotes, right? It’s amazing how your mother doesn’t kill herself having raised a kid who lies and feels no shame.
freevillage on August 21, 2008 at 1:22 PM
Quote something that I said that was borrowed from the Russian propaganda.
freevillage on August 21, 2008 at 1:23 PM
Name me another war where there were massive civilian casualties with no pictures available.
freevillage on August 21, 2008 at 1:24 PM
According to the left, that would be Iraq.
MarkTheGreat on August 21, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Perfect example. In Iraq, there were, of course, many thousands of civilian casualties. But the Village Person didn’t have them shoved in front of his face every day on TV.
‘Cause if he did, then one of us “evil” conservatives would look up the setting and point out to him that the terrorists were the ones who slaughtered those individuals. And that would imply that there might be a REASON we’re fighting there.
So, instead, all he sees are pictures of American soldiers killed in Iraq for (as far as he is capable of imagining) absolutely no reason whatsoever. And, by an amazing coincidence, this happens to be precisely what the liberals and terrorists want him to see.
The moral of the story: If it’s not on TV at least ten times a week, it didn’t happen. Go ahead and laugh at the idiot all you want but remember, propaganda is like any other kind of advertising: if it didn’t work on a certain segment of the population, they wouldn’t spend millions of dollars on it.
logis on August 21, 2008 at 3:17 PM
Isn’t it amazing? oppressedcommune might as well have said “I don’t see a link on Digg about the civilian casualties!”
Again, in every conflict we’ve been involved in, journalists were right there, snapping pictures every second. However, between the Georgians and the Russians, the journalists are either being killed, or being threatened or shot ON VIDEO.
Amazing that the video doesn’t make a difference to his paradigm.
MadisonConservative on August 21, 2008 at 4:03 PM
Totten isn’t learned about Eastern Europe or anywhere else. He’s a travel writer/reporter who simply shows up in a given place and reports his impressions or what hes been told. I’m not disputing anything in his article but c’mon learned? He’s just an observer reporting whatever he happens upon.
aengus on August 21, 2008 at 7:53 PM
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