Vladimir Socor stacking his pile even higher

The Wall Street Journal, apparently worried that its fulltimers might not be barking mad enough, has taken to using hired psychos willing to rant freelance on the pages of the Journal. And none of these crazies is more utterly deranged than our friend Vladimir Socor. His one gimmick is Russophobia. But that's like saying that Andy Roddick's one gimmick is his serve. Socor is the incarnation of Russophobia, its avatar, the supreme expression of it.

An essay by Socor published in the WSJ may be his best and craziest ever. Even the title makes your jaw drop in sheer wonder: "Standing up to Putin's Imperial Ambitions." The thesis is that a too-trusting, too-gentle America is in danger of being overwhelmed by an aggressive, imperialistic Russia.

No, seriously. That's Socor's thesis.

Socor's evidence is that Russia is actually negotiating with several former Soviet states on its borders: "In a vast stretch of the former Soviet Union, from Belarus and Ukraine to Central Asia, Mr. Putin is now setting up a trading and monetary bloc of six countries under leadership from Moscow."

In other words, Russia is holding trade talks with states which until 1989 were united, with Russia, in a single nation.

Socor explains that this Russian-sponsored "Eurasian Economic Union" actually threatens NATO, because it "...restores Moscow's control over this part of Europe, on NATO's and the EU's new frontier."

This has to win as the most absurd, moronic assertion of all. What Socor is saying is that Russia is stirring things up on "NATO's new frontier"-which happens to be thousands of kilometres east of NATO's original frontier. It's like Genghis Khan accusing the Europeans of building castles "on Mongolia's new frontier" 10,000 km west of Mongolia's original frontier.

If the Cold War had gone the other way, would outraged Pravda editorial writers be churning out scare-pieces about how the US dared to set up its own customs shacks at the Tijuana border, and was stirring up trouble at the Warsaw Pact's "new frontier" south of Vancouver?

They might. The difference is that most of them would do it cynically, because it was their job. They wouldn't actually believe the lies they were paid to write.

That's what makes America so truly, scarily insane: these people genuinely believe the lies they write. And the more implausible the lie, the more they believe it.

He is employed by the so-called Jamestown Foundation, which an American commentator said appears to be "a rather creepy private sector think tank populated by ex-spooks."

Socor, but probably not with a straight face (we hope), has also claimed that there could be no moral equivalency between Russia's aims to intervene in Pankisi and U.S. aims in Afghanistan and Iraq and Israeli actions against the Palestinians. I can't imagine if rebels based in Mexico were conducting military operations in south Texas the U.S. would be too concerned about Mexican territorial integrity. He then further dismisses Abkhazia's claim to independence - what happened to self-determination? Evidently, Georgia had every right to demand independence after centuries of Russian rule but Abkhazia (with a different religion, language, and culture) has to remain unwillingly part of Georgia.

What Socor et al prove is a very simple theory: that is, whatever is in America's interests is universally and morally RIGHT, and whatever other countries do that isn't in America's interests in universally and morally WRONG. And America means that without any irony.

Hatred-spewing schmuck Vladimir Socor doesn't stop there. For several years before 9/11 one of Socor's favorite tree to bark up was Russian sinister designs to undermine the good government of Taliban and reestablish its domination of Afghanistan and the rest of the Central Asia. Here are some hilarious droppings from his columns in WSJ Europe and some sheet of toilet paper he edits called "Fortnight in Review" (thanks Google for making exposing morons so easy it is truly fun):

"The charge that Afghanistan under Taliban is an exporter of Islamic extremism is another canard."

"But where is the evidence of Taliban religious-missionary expansion into Central Asia or other neighboring countries?"

"They [Central Asian countries] seem prepared to accept the fact of Taliban domination of Afghanistan in return for guarantees of responsible behavior, which the Taliban authorities seem prepared to both offer and observe. What these countries do fear is precisely what the US-Russian sanctions seem structured to promote: unlimited and unmatched Russian arms supplies to the Afghan opposition that will produce interminable war and Russian demands to use Central Asia as staging areas for intervention in Afghanistan."

Oops. Then came 9/11 and the Party line got changed. Here is what he wrote in one of his December 2001 columns: "Ivanov has credited Russia for being responsible for Northern Alliance military advances, while minimizing the decisive role of US air operation, intelligence gathering and special operations on the ground. Meanwhile Russia is threatening to use its veto power on the UN Security Council to give it disproportional role in decisions on peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan and the country's political future."

Get it? A few months before September 11 - evil Russia was arming Northern Alliance while slandering and plotting against nice peaceful Talibs. After 9/11 - evil Russia has the temerity to claim it had a role in helping Northern Alliance to route evil terrorist thugs of Taliban!

The hacks like Socor are simply obsessed with hatred to ever notice this and infinite number of their other bloopers.

Many of you probably know an old Russian joke about a happily humming mosquito who, asked why he feels so good, proudly replies: "Yesterday they were beating up the elephant near the river, and I also managed to kick him twice."
If this is not pathetic enough, imagine these Socors and other mosquitoes DENIED such opportunity to kick the lying elephant again and again, every second of their miserable life?
To see that this elephant (or bear, or whatever) is down but still alive, not totally ground into dust? That Carthage is not yet plowed and salted?

Imagine him in such a rage, humming so furiously that he actually can be heard almost two meters away ... Now imagine such a mosquito having at his disposal the loudspeaker of venom-spitting Wall Street Journal to broadcast his petty grievances far further than a couple of meters of space he rightfully deserves.

See also:
» Vladimir Socor - Hound for Hire

Compiled from The eXile, a Moscow-based alternative weekly, this article is reprinted here as a follow-up to "Vladimir Socor - Hound for Hire." For more alternative news from the English speaking community in the former Soviet Union, visit www.exile.ru