Sullivan Goes off on Russia and Snowden

Ethan Gach

I write about comics, video games and American politics. I fear death above all things. Just below that is waking up in the morning to go to work. You can follow me on Twitter at @ethangach or at my blog, gamingvulture.tumblr.com. And though my opinions aren’t for hire, my virtue is.

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14 Responses

  1. greginak says:

    Russia is using Snowden for their own PR. Our humiliation at Russia having him is weak sauce. Its embarrassing at most but not really significant. So Russia says bad stuff about us or uses Snowden to make us look bad. How is that different from a million other things we have done or were accused of doing during the Cold War. What Snowden does do is discredit democracy, a West that is quite a bit more free than Russia and the Russian opposition who want a less oppressive Russian gov. How is that good?

    While i’m glad S put most of this info out holding out in a far more repressive country does hurt his message. He has given ammo to the people who want to shut him up.Report

  2. BlaiseP says:

    Is Excitable Andy getting excited again? Quelle surprise!. The Hausa have a proverb: that which is a perfect secret will become perfectly obvious in ten lunar months, or nine months by our calendar. They speak of human pregnancy but it’s applicable to any secret.

    Does anyone around here think our enemies are so naive as to have been shocked by the revelation that the NSA was monitoring the Internet and phone traffik pipes? Osama bin Laden used to have a satphone back in the day. It was widely reported that he had one and he used to do interviews with it.

    The Bush43 administration started in with a gigantic set of lies and exaggerations, squirting squid ink about this satphone, claiming some jamoke in the press had leaked that little titbit of information and OBL stopped using it. This squid ink was just a diversion. Bush43 had been listening to American phone traffik without warrants — he just wanted people to stop talking about that and Get All Excited about those Fifth Column nosy free press types (saboteurs and haters of our freedoms, all of ’em) revealing important secrets.

    Excitable Andy, if you’re reading this, I’m laffing at you.

    When we did raid OBL’s compound, we found a big pile of USB thumb drives. He adapted. All our enemies have adapted.Report

  3. NewDealer says:

    Considering Russia’s recent crack down on homosexuals, I find it kind of rich that they are offering Snowden asylum. This largely does seem to be aimed at jeering at the United States and scoring easy anti-American points.

    Though my ideal solution would be for the United States to offer asylum to Russian homosexuals and their allies. That would be a proper and appropriate response.Report

    • Michael Drew in reply to NewDealer says:

      Right. Russia isn’t the sideshow issue for Sullivan in that particular post (see the subsequent entries in the title sequence: “Cancel That Moscow Summit, Mr President, Ctd”); Snowden and the p.r. hit the U.S. takes vis-a-vis Russia is. The main issue is what ND points to: the persecution of gays, in the context of multiple upcoming prestigious international exhibitions in which Russia gets to revel, despite that behavior. Granting Snowden asylum just pushed Sullivan over the top on the issue (perhaps).

      Sullivan’s really wasn’t a treatment of the merits of Snowden’s case at all (though, to avoid the embarrassment of having Russia give him asylum, one thinks the U.S. would practically have to take pursuing any consequences for the disclosure at all off the table; is that reasonable?); it was a reaction to Russia’s multiple ongoing p.r. coups in the context of Russian behavior that has Sullivan up in arms. Think what you will of that, Russia isn’t a sideshow to that topic. It is the topic.Report

    • Notme in reply to NewDealer says:

      ND:

      Make that offer and Putin will do to Obama what Castro did to that buffoon Carter, empty out the jails and asylums. We already got Cuba’s trash, why do we need Russia’s? Does Obama need to look anymore foolish in this episode than he already does?Report

  4. J@m3z Aitch says:

    I agree we need a proportionate response. Let’s all boycott Smirnov vodka until the weekend.Report