Interesting article.
If only there were actually “good guys” to support here though. The implicatation that Azerbaijan are the good guys and Armenia the bad guys (I accept it’s not stated and the author may not believe this) doesn’t stand much scrutiny. Azerbaijan looks very much like another Saudi Arabia. It’s a pseudo-democracy with a corrupt family at the top.
I don’t think the West had got its hands dirty in the Caucasus before and I don’t see any good reason to start now. It’s a region that makes Afghanistan seem simple by comparison.
Interesting also to note that “blowback” risk for Iran here. At some point the Iranian regime will collapse.
No good guys but one extraordinarily bad guy. Iran’s government and the way it uses Shi’ite fundamentalism to spread its influence is the part of this that makes it more than just a normal tangled mess that could lead to a normal tangled war. Some of the people who rule Iran actually want to bring about the end of the world. I can’t quite cope with the idea of a nuclear suicide bomber. They cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons.
“If only there were actually “good guys” to support here though.” And that is exactly where we in the West make a pig’s ear of our foreign policy. Please don’t take it personally, Peter. It’s exactly the prism our media and governments use to view the rest of the world. The diplomats who run the Foreign Office and State Department sigh with despair.
So we incentivise participants in conflicts around the world to look like the ‘good guy’. It degenerates into an exercise of good PR. President Kagame of Rwanda, for example, excels at it.
Instead, we need to ask, where do our interests lie? If we had asked that twenty years ago, we might have left Iraq and Afghanistan alone.
Great point about gameable PR competition. In a UK context, I am reminded of the much applauded Ethical Foreign Policy stance being proposed by the late Labour minister Robin Cook back in the 90s. All that heady third way way moralisation. Get ready for another dose of destructive idealism, with long term profoundly ugly consequences.
Great point about gameable PR competition. In a UK context, I am reminded of the much applauded Ethical Foreign Policy stance being proposed by the late Labour minister Robin Cook back in the 90s. All that heady third way way moralisation. Get ready for another dose of destructive idealism, with long term profoundly ugly consequences.
No good guys but one extraordinarily bad guy. Iran’s government and the way it uses Shi’ite fundamentalism to spread its influence is the part of this that makes it more than just a normal tangled mess that could lead to a normal tangled war. Some of the people who rule Iran actually want to bring about the end of the world. I can’t quite cope with the idea of a nuclear suicide bomber. They cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons.
“If only there were actually “good guys” to support here though.” And that is exactly where we in the West make a pig’s ear of our foreign policy. Please don’t take it personally, Peter. It’s exactly the prism our media and governments use to view the rest of the world. The diplomats who run the Foreign Office and State Department sigh with despair.
So we incentivise participants in conflicts around the world to look like the ‘good guy’. It degenerates into an exercise of good PR. President Kagame of Rwanda, for example, excels at it.
Instead, we need to ask, where do our interests lie? If we had asked that twenty years ago, we might have left Iraq and Afghanistan alone.
Peter B
11 months ago
Interesting article.
If only there were actually “good guys” to support here though. The implicatation that Azerbaijan are the good guys and Armenia the bad guys (I accept it’s not stated and the author may not believe this) doesn’t stand much scrutiny. Azerbaijan looks very much like another Saudi Arabia. It’s a pseudo-democracy with a corrupt family at the top.
I don’t think the West had got its hands dirty in the Caucasus before and I don’t see any good reason to start now. It’s a region that makes Afghanistan seem simple by comparison.
Interesting also to note that “blowback” risk for Iran here. At some point the Iranian regime will collapse.
Chris Whybrow
11 months ago
Does the author expect us to sympathise with Aliyev’s regime? I know that technically speaking Nagorno-Karabakh is theirs, but given their treatment of Armenian POWs I’m perfectly happy to let the Armenians and their proxies keep occupying it. And if they need the Sepah e Pasdaran to help hold on, so be it. It’s a better outcome than genocide.
Indeed – not to mention the blockade of what remains of Nagorno-Karabakh by government backed Azeri “environmentalists” since December, which has deprived 120,000 people of basic food, medical and other supplies and has already caused deaths through premature births, lack of crucial medicines, malnutrition etc. Western governments have condemned this war crime but can’t possible impose sanctions on their supplier of black gold.
Indeed – not to mention the blockade of what remains of Nagorno-Karabakh by government backed Azeri “environmentalists” since December, which has deprived 120,000 people of basic food, medical and other supplies and has already caused deaths through premature births, lack of crucial medicines, malnutrition etc. Western governments have condemned this war crime but can’t possible impose sanctions on their supplier of black gold.
Chris Whybrow
11 months ago
Does the author expect us to sympathise with Aliyev’s regime? I know that technically speaking Nagorno-Karabakh is theirs, but given their treatment of Armenian POWs I’m perfectly happy to let the Armenians and their proxies keep occupying it. And if they need the Sepah e Pasdaran to help hold on, so be it. It’s a better outcome than genocide.
James Kirk
11 months ago
Judging by the state of the world’s politics and economies, looking back to 1929 on we’re moving closer to a world war merely from history’s tendency to repeat itself. We haven’t learned anything and the powers that be are desperate to stop spinning plates and write off all the trillions of printed debt.
D Walsh
11 months ago
“Israel, as a responsible actor that often operates…….”
This line really made me LOL
D Walsh
11 months ago
“Israel, as a responsible actor that often operates…….”
This line really made me LOL
UnHerd Reader
11 months ago
What a weird article.
”Doran is particularly scathing of America’s failures to support the Azeris against Tehran: “This administration in Washington is not viewing Azerbaijan as a counter-balance to Iran,” he says. “That’s because it isn’t looking to counter Iran in any significant way, which is unfortunate.” America has not learned any lessons from Syria, where its failure to properly commit to intervention left the door open for Russia to step in and help Bashar al-Assad cling onto power.”
Right… the Hudson Institute……haha…..so Doran says”America has not learned any lessons from Syria”
WTF, we all know that – and for the Opposite reason than Doran says – Talk about ‘Deep Rogue State’ Think Tanks… these guys are up to No Good.
If we had learned a lesson in Syria it would have been to NEVER do stupid shi* like Iraq again – but here is the great Satan Biden and his mini-me Boris destroying Ukraine…..Evil F* cks.
So Iran backs the Christian Orthodox Armenia wile the Muslim Azeris are in with the Jewish Israel, haha…… But then the Azeries are pretty secular Muslims after the Russian occupation (which if we had just let Afghanistan remain under the Russians they would have come out of it 1000X better than what we did to them with 40 years of war and Rad-Fem NGOs teaching them their twisted shi * and running our policy there, haha, madness)
Anyway – this is all Biden’s Fault again – by tieing Russia up in Ukraine they are not able to hold the Azeri in check (Orthodox to Orthodox in support of Armenia) – and kind of for Azerbaijan too…And yes – big pipelines run through Turkey from Baku – as a kind of tripwire – but not one really anyone wants to set off…
Biden is out to Destroy America, and as far as I can tell (Colonel Macgregor tells some tales), destroy the West. He is stirring stuff up in Sudan, The Horn, China, Caucuses, East Europe, Ukraine, Russia, Taiwan, Iran, KSA, Brazil, India, Pakistan, Mexico and Central America and the USA border – and Toronto to New York to Seattle to LA…Then he is running wild with the USA Dollar on like 30 levels………………….
This is just one guy – Biden has almost all the world de-stabalized! haha, he is Satan I think……..
Buy gold and silver. Fill big jars with rice and oxygen removers to store, because coming on all this is the beginning of the loss of 80% of jobs to AI beginning with Chat GPT5 – and by 2030 things look like they may be getting odd…..
So America is at fault for getting involved and giving Ukraine the means to defend itself, and simultaneously at fault for not getting involved between the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia? It’s to blame for Putin deciding to bomb civilian tower blocks in Kyiv, and also to blame for Tehran trying to pick a fight with its neighbour?
Is there any recent world event you don’t blame the Americans for?
So America is at fault for getting involved and giving Ukraine the means to defend itself, and simultaneously at fault for not getting involved between the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia? It’s to blame for Putin deciding to bomb civilian tower blocks in Kyiv, and also to blame for Tehran trying to pick a fight with its neighbour?
Is there any recent world event you don’t blame the Americans for?
UnHerd Reader
11 months ago
What a weird article.
”Doran is particularly scathing of America’s failures to support the Azeris against Tehran: “This administration in Washington is not viewing Azerbaijan as a counter-balance to Iran,” he says. “That’s because it isn’t looking to counter Iran in any significant way, which is unfortunate.” America has not learned any lessons from Syria, where its failure to properly commit to intervention left the door open for Russia to step in and help Bashar al-Assad cling onto power.”
Right… the Hudson Institute……haha…..so Doran says”America has not learned any lessons from Syria”
WTF, we all know that – and for the Opposite reason than Doran says – Talk about ‘Deep Rogue State’ Think Tanks… these guys are up to No Good.
If we had learned a lesson in Syria it would have been to NEVER do stupid shi* like Iraq again – but here is the great Satan Biden and his mini-me Boris destroying Ukraine…..Evil F* cks.
So Iran backs the Christian Orthodox Armenia wile the Muslim Azeris are in with the Jewish Israel, haha…… But then the Azeries are pretty secular Muslims after the Russian occupation (which if we had just let Afghanistan remain under the Russians they would have come out of it 1000X better than what we did to them with 40 years of war and Rad-Fem NGOs teaching them their twisted shi * and running our policy there, haha, madness)
Anyway – this is all Biden’s Fault again – by tieing Russia up in Ukraine they are not able to hold the Azeri in check (Orthodox to Orthodox in support of Armenia) – and kind of for Azerbaijan too…And yes – big pipelines run through Turkey from Baku – as a kind of tripwire – but not one really anyone wants to set off…
Biden is out to Destroy America, and as far as I can tell (Colonel Macgregor tells some tales), destroy the West. He is stirring stuff up in Sudan, The Horn, China, Caucuses, East Europe, Ukraine, Russia, Taiwan, Iran, KSA, Brazil, India, Pakistan, Mexico and Central America and the USA border – and Toronto to New York to Seattle to LA…Then he is running wild with the USA Dollar on like 30 levels………………….
This is just one guy – Biden has almost all the world de-stabalized! haha, he is Satan I think……..
Buy gold and silver. Fill big jars with rice and oxygen removers to store, because coming on all this is the beginning of the loss of 80% of jobs to AI beginning with Chat GPT5 – and by 2030 things look like they may be getting odd…..
Samuel Ross
11 months ago
It sort of annoys me that the author says ‘utilise’. It’s ‘utilizze’ if you please!
You yanks really do need to stop putting Z’s where S’s belong in words. And while you’re at it stop being lazy and cutting out half the letters in doughnut
You yanks really do need to stop putting Z’s where S’s belong in words. And while you’re at it stop being lazy and cutting out half the letters in doughnut
Samuel Ross
11 months ago
It sort of annoys me that the author says ‘utilise’. It’s ‘utilizze’ if you please!
Interesting article.
If only there were actually “good guys” to support here though. The implicatation that Azerbaijan are the good guys and Armenia the bad guys (I accept it’s not stated and the author may not believe this) doesn’t stand much scrutiny. Azerbaijan looks very much like another Saudi Arabia. It’s a pseudo-democracy with a corrupt family at the top.
I don’t think the West had got its hands dirty in the Caucasus before and I don’t see any good reason to start now. It’s a region that makes Afghanistan seem simple by comparison.
Interesting also to note that “blowback” risk for Iran here. At some point the Iranian regime will collapse.
No good guys but one extraordinarily bad guy. Iran’s government and the way it uses Shi’ite fundamentalism to spread its influence is the part of this that makes it more than just a normal tangled mess that could lead to a normal tangled war. Some of the people who rule Iran actually want to bring about the end of the world. I can’t quite cope with the idea of a nuclear suicide bomber. They cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons.
“If only there were actually “good guys” to support here though.” And that is exactly where we in the West make a pig’s ear of our foreign policy. Please don’t take it personally, Peter. It’s exactly the prism our media and governments use to view the rest of the world. The diplomats who run the Foreign Office and State Department sigh with despair.
So we incentivise participants in conflicts around the world to look like the ‘good guy’. It degenerates into an exercise of good PR. President Kagame of Rwanda, for example, excels at it.
Instead, we need to ask, where do our interests lie? If we had asked that twenty years ago, we might have left Iraq and Afghanistan alone.
Great point about gameable PR competition. In a UK context, I am reminded of the much applauded Ethical Foreign Policy stance being proposed by the late Labour minister Robin Cook back in the 90s. All that heady third way way moralisation. Get ready for another dose of destructive idealism, with long term profoundly ugly consequences.
Great point about gameable PR competition. In a UK context, I am reminded of the much applauded Ethical Foreign Policy stance being proposed by the late Labour minister Robin Cook back in the 90s. All that heady third way way moralisation. Get ready for another dose of destructive idealism, with long term profoundly ugly consequences.
No good guys but one extraordinarily bad guy. Iran’s government and the way it uses Shi’ite fundamentalism to spread its influence is the part of this that makes it more than just a normal tangled mess that could lead to a normal tangled war. Some of the people who rule Iran actually want to bring about the end of the world. I can’t quite cope with the idea of a nuclear suicide bomber. They cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons.
“If only there were actually “good guys” to support here though.” And that is exactly where we in the West make a pig’s ear of our foreign policy. Please don’t take it personally, Peter. It’s exactly the prism our media and governments use to view the rest of the world. The diplomats who run the Foreign Office and State Department sigh with despair.
So we incentivise participants in conflicts around the world to look like the ‘good guy’. It degenerates into an exercise of good PR. President Kagame of Rwanda, for example, excels at it.
Instead, we need to ask, where do our interests lie? If we had asked that twenty years ago, we might have left Iraq and Afghanistan alone.
Interesting article.
If only there were actually “good guys” to support here though. The implicatation that Azerbaijan are the good guys and Armenia the bad guys (I accept it’s not stated and the author may not believe this) doesn’t stand much scrutiny. Azerbaijan looks very much like another Saudi Arabia. It’s a pseudo-democracy with a corrupt family at the top.
I don’t think the West had got its hands dirty in the Caucasus before and I don’t see any good reason to start now. It’s a region that makes Afghanistan seem simple by comparison.
Interesting also to note that “blowback” risk for Iran here. At some point the Iranian regime will collapse.
Does the author expect us to sympathise with Aliyev’s regime? I know that technically speaking Nagorno-Karabakh is theirs, but given their treatment of Armenian POWs I’m perfectly happy to let the Armenians and their proxies keep occupying it. And if they need the Sepah e Pasdaran to help hold on, so be it. It’s a better outcome than genocide.
Indeed – not to mention the blockade of what remains of Nagorno-Karabakh by government backed Azeri “environmentalists” since December, which has deprived 120,000 people of basic food, medical and other supplies and has already caused deaths through premature births, lack of crucial medicines, malnutrition etc. Western governments have condemned this war crime but can’t possible impose sanctions on their supplier of black gold.
Indeed – not to mention the blockade of what remains of Nagorno-Karabakh by government backed Azeri “environmentalists” since December, which has deprived 120,000 people of basic food, medical and other supplies and has already caused deaths through premature births, lack of crucial medicines, malnutrition etc. Western governments have condemned this war crime but can’t possible impose sanctions on their supplier of black gold.
Does the author expect us to sympathise with Aliyev’s regime? I know that technically speaking Nagorno-Karabakh is theirs, but given their treatment of Armenian POWs I’m perfectly happy to let the Armenians and their proxies keep occupying it. And if they need the Sepah e Pasdaran to help hold on, so be it. It’s a better outcome than genocide.
Judging by the state of the world’s politics and economies, looking back to 1929 on we’re moving closer to a world war merely from history’s tendency to repeat itself. We haven’t learned anything and the powers that be are desperate to stop spinning plates and write off all the trillions of printed debt.
“Israel, as a responsible actor that often operates…….”
This line really made me LOL
“Israel, as a responsible actor that often operates…….”
This line really made me LOL
What a weird article.
”Doran is particularly scathing of America’s failures to support the Azeris against Tehran: “This administration in Washington is not viewing Azerbaijan as a counter-balance to Iran,” he says. “That’s because it isn’t looking to counter Iran in any significant way, which is unfortunate.” America has not learned any lessons from Syria, where its failure to properly commit to intervention left the door open for Russia to step in and help Bashar al-Assad cling onto power.”
Right… the Hudson Institute……haha…..so Doran says”America has not learned any lessons from Syria”
WTF, we all know that – and for the Opposite reason than Doran says – Talk about ‘Deep Rogue State’ Think Tanks… these guys are up to No Good.
If we had learned a lesson in Syria it would have been to NEVER do stupid shi* like Iraq again – but here is the great Satan Biden and his mini-me Boris destroying Ukraine…..Evil F* cks.
So Iran backs the Christian Orthodox Armenia wile the Muslim Azeris are in with the Jewish Israel, haha…… But then the Azeries are pretty secular Muslims after the Russian occupation (which if we had just let Afghanistan remain under the Russians they would have come out of it 1000X better than what we did to them with 40 years of war and Rad-Fem NGOs teaching them their twisted shi * and running our policy there, haha, madness)
Anyway – this is all Biden’s Fault again – by tieing Russia up in Ukraine they are not able to hold the Azeri in check (Orthodox to Orthodox in support of Armenia) – and kind of for Azerbaijan too…And yes – big pipelines run through Turkey from Baku – as a kind of tripwire – but not one really anyone wants to set off…
Biden is out to Destroy America, and as far as I can tell (Colonel Macgregor tells some tales), destroy the West. He is stirring stuff up in Sudan, The Horn, China, Caucuses, East Europe, Ukraine, Russia, Taiwan, Iran, KSA, Brazil, India, Pakistan, Mexico and Central America and the USA border – and Toronto to New York to Seattle to LA…Then he is running wild with the USA Dollar on like 30 levels………………….
This is just one guy – Biden has almost all the world de-stabalized! haha, he is Satan I think……..
Buy gold and silver. Fill big jars with rice and oxygen removers to store, because coming on all this is the beginning of the loss of 80% of jobs to AI beginning with Chat GPT5 – and by 2030 things look like they may be getting odd…..
Barking. Positively barking.
So America is at fault for getting involved and giving Ukraine the means to defend itself, and simultaneously at fault for not getting involved between the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia? It’s to blame for Putin deciding to bomb civilian tower blocks in Kyiv, and also to blame for Tehran trying to pick a fight with its neighbour?
Is there any recent world event you don’t blame the Americans for?
Barking. Positively barking.
So America is at fault for getting involved and giving Ukraine the means to defend itself, and simultaneously at fault for not getting involved between the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia? It’s to blame for Putin deciding to bomb civilian tower blocks in Kyiv, and also to blame for Tehran trying to pick a fight with its neighbour?
Is there any recent world event you don’t blame the Americans for?
What a weird article.
”Doran is particularly scathing of America’s failures to support the Azeris against Tehran: “This administration in Washington is not viewing Azerbaijan as a counter-balance to Iran,” he says. “That’s because it isn’t looking to counter Iran in any significant way, which is unfortunate.” America has not learned any lessons from Syria, where its failure to properly commit to intervention left the door open for Russia to step in and help Bashar al-Assad cling onto power.”
Right… the Hudson Institute……haha…..so Doran says”America has not learned any lessons from Syria”
WTF, we all know that – and for the Opposite reason than Doran says – Talk about ‘Deep Rogue State’ Think Tanks… these guys are up to No Good.
If we had learned a lesson in Syria it would have been to NEVER do stupid shi* like Iraq again – but here is the great Satan Biden and his mini-me Boris destroying Ukraine…..Evil F* cks.
So Iran backs the Christian Orthodox Armenia wile the Muslim Azeris are in with the Jewish Israel, haha…… But then the Azeries are pretty secular Muslims after the Russian occupation (which if we had just let Afghanistan remain under the Russians they would have come out of it 1000X better than what we did to them with 40 years of war and Rad-Fem NGOs teaching them their twisted shi * and running our policy there, haha, madness)
Anyway – this is all Biden’s Fault again – by tieing Russia up in Ukraine they are not able to hold the Azeri in check (Orthodox to Orthodox in support of Armenia) – and kind of for Azerbaijan too…And yes – big pipelines run through Turkey from Baku – as a kind of tripwire – but not one really anyone wants to set off…
Biden is out to Destroy America, and as far as I can tell (Colonel Macgregor tells some tales), destroy the West. He is stirring stuff up in Sudan, The Horn, China, Caucuses, East Europe, Ukraine, Russia, Taiwan, Iran, KSA, Brazil, India, Pakistan, Mexico and Central America and the USA border – and Toronto to New York to Seattle to LA…Then he is running wild with the USA Dollar on like 30 levels………………….
This is just one guy – Biden has almost all the world de-stabalized! haha, he is Satan I think……..
Buy gold and silver. Fill big jars with rice and oxygen removers to store, because coming on all this is the beginning of the loss of 80% of jobs to AI beginning with Chat GPT5 – and by 2030 things look like they may be getting odd…..
It sort of annoys me that the author says ‘utilise’. It’s ‘utilizze’ if you please!
You yanks really do need to stop putting Z’s where S’s belong in words. And while you’re at it stop being lazy and cutting out half the letters in doughnut
And when they add Zs they are zees not zeds. Illiterate.
And when they add Zs they are zees not zeds. Illiterate.
You yanks really do need to stop putting Z’s where S’s belong in words. And while you’re at it stop being lazy and cutting out half the letters in doughnut
It sort of annoys me that the author says ‘utilise’. It’s ‘utilizze’ if you please!