Midweek Reading: Ukraine; Legislating the Internet

Being somewhat too busy for writing, here are a couple of excellent reads for you.

Ukraine:  First, a caveat, I have absolutely no idea whether “Consortium News” is a website of good repute (as regards conspiracy theory etc etc – everyone has to rely on their own judgement, and virus protection etc).  Also, the article I’m linking to here - What War With Russia Would Look Like by seemingly ultra-well qualified former US marine Scott Ritter – definitely serves Putin’s purposes, whether or not the author has any leanings that way himself or, as I hope we can assume, not.

That said, it’s a really good analysis of the realpolitik in play just now – or kiddy-politik in the case of Joe Biden.  Sobering stuff.  It contains an observation you might have read here at C@W before: 

Russia has studied an earlier U.S. military campaign – Operation Desert Storm, of Gulf War I – and has taken to heart the lessons of that conflict.

Yes indeed it has – being deeply impressed, nay shaken, by how successful was NATO AirLand Battle doctrine on its first roll-out in earnest.  Russia had a ringside seat, and was watching intently.  Here’s another good soundbite: 

Russia can survive being blocked from SWIFT transactions longer than Europe can survive without Russian energy.

Yes, that’s Angela Merkel’s enduring legacy.   A Russophile all her life, she did nothing to fix Germany’s dependence on Russian gas.

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Internet:  Hey, we’re a blog, and we don’t much like the idea of our freedom of speech being curtailed.  That said, we are still bound by (e.g.) the laws of copyright and libel … so obviously internet freedoms are on a spectrum.  Here’s a great piece by my favourite practising American philosopher (and qualified lawyer), Brian Leiter: The Epistemology of the Internet and the Regulation of Speech in America.  (You can download the full paper from that abstract.)

No need to buy into all his conclusions to agree that (a) there’s something very wrong with some of what gets pumped out on the www; and (b) the concept of “epistemic authority” is very powerful.

I’m guessing Dominic C agrees with the latter.

ND