A message from J.H. in New Zealand.
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I look for logic in world affairs, and seldom find it. Example, we are told
that Russia is a bankrupt nation, on the bones of its arse -- and yet we see
this basket-case using considerable quantities of extremely expensive
state-of-the-art military equipment to reduce cities to rubble in an
"internal police action".
The latest is that (according to NZ news media) Russia is about to
obliterate Grozny, having pounded the snot out of it for some weeks now. I
ask myself, who keeps paying for the Russian munitions? Who buys the toys
for their boys?
Then, poking through my news cuttings, I came across this gem:
Washington: The International Monetary Fund � reopened the lending taps for
big borrower Russia on Wednesday, approving a $US4.5 billion ($NZ8.67
billion) loan to help pay its debts and avoid a confidence-cracking default
... The IMF has paid Russia billions of dollars in the past seven years,
including an emergency injection of $US4.8 billion in July last year. But
the economy shows few signs of recovery and the IMF predicted a 2% decline
in gross domestic product in 1999.
--- Otago Daily Times, 30 July 1999
Now I know who is paying for that pounding; we are.
So I ask myself: why?
And conclude that the only logical explanation is that for whatever rerason,
we are actually afraid of the Russians -- they say "Jump!" and we ask "how
high?" on the way up. Again, why?
If they are so destitute, and if their armed forces are ragged and starving
(not outside Grozny, they're not!) and if their fleets are rusting away at
anchor, as our media keep telling us -- what is there to fear? Why is it
better to pay for their bombs and bullets than to tell them to suck eggs?
What do they hold over us, that we mere peasants don't know about? What
haven't we been told?
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