We didn’t honor our contracts with the Afghani warlords or the Paks. We blew out some of our own networks for political ends. There is no clear policy in place, no steadying influence that can be depended on. It’s a disaster.

Flying we were always worried that some US fighter jock would take out a Soviet recce bird, because we knew there would be retaliation. Staying alive meant everyone played by the same rules and no one cheated [more than was allowed for performance review purposes]. Everyone got something and a minimal number of people got injured.

Volodya is a real piece of work, as crazy as Bush and intelligent. He will continue to rule as prime minister – he likes power too much to give it up. He has created a good-sized cult following, just like Stalin.

No one is looking at the future in a realistic fashion anymore, and McCain will be just as bad.

Most of the people I worked with didn’t believe what our own Gov was saying. 🙂 Sometimes a meeting with a Malaysian, or Russian, or Chinese, would go something like:

Them: “So, what do you think about what your Prime Minister said yesterday?”
Us: “Not much.”
Them: “Ah. May I ask what the real plan is?”
Us: “We are curious about what the Israeli/British/Malaysian/etc Minister said the other day.”
Them: “Yes. It’s a worry.”
Us: “There is no plan, for now.”
Them: “Well, I must be going. A pleasure as always.”
Us: “Same here. And always a pleasure. See you next week perhaps?”

That was how things were done. And we all knew the rules, and we all took care of those who broke them. We kept our own houses clean. We understood the balance had to be maintained. The USA broke the rules under Reagan. They loved their little *accidents*. They made the old Belgians seem positively benign! Aircraft crash here… heart attack there… car accident elsewhere, accidental shooting whilst cleaning a gun, suicides were popular…

Certainly, it wasn’t always gentlemanly and polite though! It got dangerous when the trust slipped for some reason. I wouldn’t work in intel now for any reason. I wouldn’t even trust my own people now, let alone anyone outside. If you ask me, the World is headed for a huge crash. The “True Believers!”(tm)… There is nobody on the Planet more dangerous!

God help us all.

The Party, Security, and the Military were the three horses attached to the sleigh that was the Soviet government. It was amazing that it ever moved.

It sounds like you could use a break and a new deal, Blogmother. Take care of yourself.

As for Letourneau, hey, at least she did something for a student, which is more than one can say about the entire Dept. of Education under MissSpellings…

i’m also going to keep my fingers crossed that this means some kind of gore/edwards entry into the race is in the offing. tiny tiny hope, i know, but still….

sigh… yes, i’d settle for just a BREAK at this point too.

Just a BREAK would be welcome after Clinton-triangulation and the Bush fiasco.

One of the problems with dealing with the Soviets is that the GRU [military intel] and KGB didn’t communicate very often, and when they did talk they assumed that the other side was lying.

That was soooo true! LOL I mentioned that when I worked intel in Russel (essentially the Military conclave in Canberra), I built a rapport with a liaison from the Russian Embassy. On a few occasions trying to drink each other under the floor, he would grumble about that (and other internal stupidities, and I would do the same) and the fact that the complete distrust in the former USSR was worse than anything outsiders could do to them. He ended up living here eventually, for *health* reasons. 😀

Hmmmm… Klaus-Rainer Rupp, a name I have not heard for some time. A GDR spy in NATO headquarters if memory serves…

As for Melita Norwood, yes, she was altruistic.Recruited into the NKVD in ’37. She always maintained that she spied because she felt her information was important to maintain global balance. She stated that the information “might be useful in helping Russia keep abreast of Britain, America and Germany.” She further stated, “In general, I do not agree with spying against one’s country.” Apparently, one of the many pieces of information she provided were such things as the process for extracting Uranium 235 circa 1945.

And I certainly do agree that graduating from a university is no guarantee that a person can think things through! The present US Administration certainly proves that sadly.

@ LadyMin: Yeah… They local papers here are slashing columns I like too. Foolish really, many were quite popular.

I’m back.