Rendering Unto Caesar: An Absolut Russia
The recent efforts to boycott Russian vodka must come as good news to the Swedish competition. I can imagine an ad campaign where an Absolut Russia is judicially homophobic. The boycott also brings to mind an earlier event in US/Russian relations when people in the US responded to Soviet military action against a Korean airliner by spontaneously destroying bottles of Russian vodka in the streets. I remember being concerned about the way that people got their knickers in a twist over the Soviet action without thinking about it rationally or waiting for unbiased reporting. It also seemed rather self-defeating to destroy a personal stash of Russian vodka in response to Soviet military action.
The incident of the Soviet downing of Korean Air Flight 007 turned out to be a dual edged sword. In an effort to convict the Soviets of a crime against humanity the US government released information obtained from an unauthorized listening post in Japan. The Japanese people were not happy to find out that their territorial sovereignty had been violated by a secret agreement with US military intelligence. The way that the US government selectively released a transcript of the Soviet military interception also impugned its credibility in the case. It turns out that the full transcript showed that the intercepting pilot had no idea that the airliner was a civilian craft that had wandered off course. Pundits used the pared down transcript to claim that the communication was proof positive. I recall a number of people being completely convinced by the observation of a flashing strobe as proof that the pilot and his superior knew that the plane was not on a military intelligence mission.
R. W. Johnson published an analysis of the events surrounding Flight 007 that put the US government in a negative light. He made a case that the plane was flown off course deliberately over a Soviet military installation in an effort to tickle Soviet military radar. Radar intelligence is essential for crafting anti-radar weaponry. There was also a controversy over whether the Soviet radar installation at Krasnoyarsk violated the ABM treaty. Years later I encountered a claim that there had also been some provocative action on the part of American navy craft near Soviet waters in the days before the downing of the airliner.
I will not participate in the vodka boycott because I prefer rye. I suppose I could start my own rye boycott over the whole metadata espionage scandal. On the other hand, I think not. Russians may want to boycott American whiskey as long as Snowden is on the lamb and the NSA is snooping on LJ subscribers.
What will you do to support the plight of homosexuals in the Former Soviet Republic of Russia? Have you considered a caviar boycott?
Links: Wayne Self promoting the vodka boycott. R. W. Johnson on the KAL Flight 007 incident.
The incident of the Soviet downing of Korean Air Flight 007 turned out to be a dual edged sword. In an effort to convict the Soviets of a crime against humanity the US government released information obtained from an unauthorized listening post in Japan. The Japanese people were not happy to find out that their territorial sovereignty had been violated by a secret agreement with US military intelligence. The way that the US government selectively released a transcript of the Soviet military interception also impugned its credibility in the case. It turns out that the full transcript showed that the intercepting pilot had no idea that the airliner was a civilian craft that had wandered off course. Pundits used the pared down transcript to claim that the communication was proof positive. I recall a number of people being completely convinced by the observation of a flashing strobe as proof that the pilot and his superior knew that the plane was not on a military intelligence mission.
R. W. Johnson published an analysis of the events surrounding Flight 007 that put the US government in a negative light. He made a case that the plane was flown off course deliberately over a Soviet military installation in an effort to tickle Soviet military radar. Radar intelligence is essential for crafting anti-radar weaponry. There was also a controversy over whether the Soviet radar installation at Krasnoyarsk violated the ABM treaty. Years later I encountered a claim that there had also been some provocative action on the part of American navy craft near Soviet waters in the days before the downing of the airliner.
I will not participate in the vodka boycott because I prefer rye. I suppose I could start my own rye boycott over the whole metadata espionage scandal. On the other hand, I think not. Russians may want to boycott American whiskey as long as Snowden is on the lamb and the NSA is snooping on LJ subscribers.
What will you do to support the plight of homosexuals in the Former Soviet Republic of Russia? Have you considered a caviar boycott?
Links: Wayne Self promoting the vodka boycott. R. W. Johnson on the KAL Flight 007 incident.