Re: Milan Rai on UN occupation of Iraq

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Chris Doss wrote:
>>You mean on the part of the Chechen population? Hard to say. My
impression is that the majority of the population is very tired of being
caught in a cross-fire bewteen trigger-happy, panicky Russian conscripts
and jihadi nutballs and will accept anything that will get them out of
the situation. The 2003 presidential elections in Chechnya were probably
fixed; the same seems not to be the case with the referendum held
earlier that year, in which the majority voted for remaining a part of
the Russian Federation with broad autonomy (i.e. they would be in
roughly the same situation as Tatarstan).<<

Chris, you really should get a yahoo email account. It is really
burdensome to reformat your text.

On the substantive matter. I am not asking you what the Chechens are
for. I am asking you whether or not you support the right of Russia to
rule Chechnya. Are you opposed to their right to self-determination?
Frankly, I have been leery of such movements when they have been
directed against socialist governments, but against Putin's openly
capitalist regime I have no qualms whatsoever. It is interesting that
Clinton went to war with Milosevic after he refused to allow Kosovo to
break away but told Time Magazine that Yeltsin (!) was the Abraham
Lincoln of Russia when he fought to preserve the union.

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