Though I realize that this lecture is currently in vogue among people on the extreme Right of American politics, I highly recommend it anyway. I’ve previously cited Mearsheimer and Walt’s work on Israel, and Mearsheimer’s now-famous lecture on Ukraine has the same clear-eyed quality about it. It is not a defense of Putin, and not to be construed as apologetics for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But it puts things in context far, far better than anyone is doing in the mainstream media. The title is a little misleading, and probably best interpreted as asking, “What is the explanation for the part of the Ukraine crisis that is not Russia’s fault?” The lecture was given in 2015, hence doesn’t directly address the 2022 invasion. But if you listen carefully, you’ll hear Mearsheimer predict and explain the invasion in the same breath. (Here is the print version of Mearsheimer’s lecture in PDF.)
Author Archives: Irfan Khawaja
The Psychopath Disarmed: Trump, 2021-2022
Now that Ukraine is under Russian attack, it’s worth mulling over the immortal reaction of our former President to an act of naked military aggression:
BUCK: Mr. President, in the last 24 hours we know Russia has said that they are recognizing two breakaway regions of Ukraine, and now this White House is stating that this is an “invasion.” That’s a strong word. What went wrong here? What has the current occupant of the Oval Office done that he could have done differently?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, what went wrong was a rigged election and what went wrong is a candidate that shouldn’t be there and a man that has no concept of what he’s doing. I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, “This is genius.” Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful.
So, Putin is now saying, “It’s independent,” a large section of Ukraine. I said, “How smart is that?” And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force… We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re gonna keep peace all right. No, but think of it. Here’s a guy who’s very savvy… I know him very well. Very, very well.
By the way, this never would have happened with us. Had I been in office, not even thinkable. This would never have happened. But here’s a guy that says, you know, “I’m gonna declare a big portion of Ukraine independent,” he used the word “independent,” “and we’re gonna go out and we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna help keep peace.” You gotta say that’s pretty savvy. And you know what the response was from Biden? There was no response. They didn’t have one for that. No, it’s very sad. Very sad.
BUCK: Do you think the southern border is just gonna continue to deteriorate?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah.
Policy of Truth on Facebook
In a belated attempt to join the twenty-first century, I’ve created a Policy of Truth Facebook page. This will allow me to promote PoT on Facebook, presumably winning it a wider audience, and potentially sparing my Facebook friends my constant harping on philosophical and political topics that alienate and bore them, when what they’re really interested in is gossip, chit-chat, and the latest photos of me being attacked by my housemate’s rooster. The resulting division of labor will doubtless intensify the alienation and boredom of PoT readers, while carving out a dedicated, private space for consumers of rooster-attack porn.
Here’s the link:
https://www.facebook.com/Policy-of-Truth-100848625870706
User name: @PolTrue.
Cancelling China (1)
In his post critiquing my original post on cancellation, David Potts has a long passage about the politics of our dealings with the People’s Republic of China (the PRC). Instead of quoting it at length right now, I mention it as preface to what I want to say about China in this post; I’ll respond directly to DP’s comments in part 2 of this post. For now, suffice it say that one of the things I find puzzling is how DP’s discussion of China relates to, or rebuts, anything I’ve said in defense of cancellation. Either his remarks are meant to rebut my claims or not. If they are, I don’t see how they do; if they’re not, I don’t see why they’re there. But let me save the development of that thought for part 2. For now, I want to say something more directly about the idea of cancelling the PRC. The tl;dr here is: I’m all in. The PRC is on my list of countries that badly need to be cancelled. Continue reading
Cancellation and the Great Resignation
I realize that I’m very late on responding to comments, but my plan is to press forward with all the cancellations on my initial list (still a handful left), then double back to respond to comments. I wish I had the time to do both things at once–post and comment–but I don’t. Cancel me.
In a pair of earlier posts on cancellation, I described “cancellation” (as currently used in specifically ideological disputes) as an “anti concept” designed to cast unwarranted aspersions on the concept and practice of moral accountability outside of legal contexts, and defined “cancellation” (in a broader, and to my mind more legitimate sense) as “the nullification of a prior arrangement or expectation on grounds of justice.” The existing understanding of “cancellation,” as conceived by its critics is, in my view, tendentious and question-begging: it identifies ill-conceived or badly executed cancellations with cancellations as such, then insists, by repeated iterations of the “No True Scotsman” fallacy, that no cancellation qualifies as a “true” cancellation unless it’s ill-conceived or misapplied by the critic’s standards. Continue reading
Lata Mangeshkar, RIP
Lata Mangeshkar, the Queen of Bollywood Playback, died yesterday in India of complications from COVID-19. She was 92.
Ukraine: A Reprise
I realize that my last post, on Ukraine, might have struck some readers as wordy and tedious. So here’s the short version, which simply summarizes the long version. If you find it too terse, read the long version. Continue reading
Workflow for Doomsday: Russia, the US, and Ukraine
I do workflow for health care organizations. Here is my proposed workflow for US policy on Ukraine.
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Either we are willing and able (militarily) to defend Ukraine against a Russian invasion, or not.
It may be cheating for me to treat “willing and able” as a conjunction rather than as a disjunction, but sometimes, it’s OK to cheat. Treating them as a conjunction ensures that willingness to defend is tailored to ability to defend, which seems to make sense: you should only be willing to do what you actually can do. Right? Aristotle thought so. Continue reading
To Cancel or Not to Cancel
To cancel, or not to cancel, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them.
–Hamlet* in Shakespeare*’s Hamlet*
That’s the question, all right. For some reason, critics of cancellation seem to be under the impression that advocacy of cancellation in some cases requires advocacy in all, or at least advocacy that leads to a slippery slope involving all. The one claim is an obvious misinference, the other a much bigger assertion than its proponents have proven, or even tried to prove. To argue as they do is like claiming that litigation either entails or necessarily leads to frivolous lawsuits, or that law enforcement either entails or necessarily leads to abuse. No one (or almost no one) thinks that when it comes to litigation, arrest, or prosecution. And yet, when it comes cancellation, they do. Continue reading
Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy
“Dude, holy shit! Those guys are gay! They’re holding hands…they’re actually gay!”
–Me to my cousin Waseem, on our first visit to Greenwich Village, summer 1981
“Dude, was Hendrix gay? How is that even possible? What if a lot of people are gay?”
–My cousin Waseem to me, on mishearing “Purple Haze” later that summer
I’m going to assume from the outset that homosexuality is morally on par with heterosexuality. If so, gay relationships and families are morally on par with straight ones, and those who denigrate either are guilty of a bigotry of sexual orientation. Bigotries of sexual orientation, like those of race or gender, are an injustice whose advocates and supporters deserve, among other things, cancellation.
Continue reading
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