Kasparov's Op Ed article in the latest Time Magazine

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  • Kasparov's Op Ed article in the latest Time Magazine

    Garry Kasparov: The Price of Inaction in Ukraine
    Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63 9:50 PM ET
    Obama and Europe chose not to stand up to Vladimir Putin — now we're seeing the terrible toll.


    "There are many questions still to be answered about what happened to Malaysian Air flight MH17 over Eastern Ukraine. I will limit myself to what is known to a reasonable doubt based on the evidence and statements that have been provided by numerous officials in the 36 hours since the tragedy. Nearly 300 innocent lives were lost when flight MH17 was shot out of the sky with a surface-to-air missile. The missile was launched from an area in Eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia-supplied and Russia-supported para-military separatists that include at least some Russian officers and special forces. Three other planes have been shot down in the region in the last month.


    So who is to blame? This is not a simple question even if you know the answer. That is, of course, the person who pushed the button that launched the missile is to blame; that is the easy part. Shall we just arrest him and try him for murder? Responsibility is a greater concept than that. You have the leader who gave the order to push the button. Then the person who provided the missiles to the separatists. Then there are the officials who opened the border to allow military weaponry to cross into Ukraine and the ministers and generals in Moscow who gave those orders. Then we come to the desk where all power resides in Russia today, the desk of the man those ministers and generals obey very carefully, the desk of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    Blaming Putin for these deaths is as correct and as pointless as blaming the man who pressed the button that launched the missile. Everyone has known for months that Russia arms and supports the separatists in Ukraine. Everyone has known for years that a mouse does not squeak in the Kremlin without first getting Putin’s permission. We also know very well what Putin is, a revanchist KGB thug trying to build a poor man’s USSR to replace the loss of the original he mourns so much.

    But blaming Putin for invading Ukraine — for annexing Crimea, for giving advanced surface-to-air missiles to separatists — is like blaming the proverbial scorpion for stinging the frog. It is expected. It is his nature. Instead of worrying about how to change the scorpion’s nature or, even worse, how best to appease it, we must focus on how the civilized world can contain the dangerous creature before more innocents die.

    Therefore let us cast our net of responsibility where it may do some good. We turn to the leaders of the free world who did nothing to bolster the Ukrainian border even after Russia annexed Crimea and made its ambitions to destabilize Eastern Ukraine very clear. It will be interesting to see if the Western leaders and business groups who have been working so hard to block stronger sanctions against Russia will now see any reason to change their policy. I expect they will at least be quieter about it until the wreckage is cleared away.

    Is the West to blame? Did they push the button? No. They pretended that Ukraine was far away and would not affect them. They hoped that they could safely ignore Ukraine instead of defending the territorial integrity of a European nation under attack. They were paralyzed by fear and internal squabbles. They resisted strong sanctions on Russia because they were worried about the impact on their own economies. They protected jobs but lost lives.

    Would this tragedy have happened had tough sanctions against Russia been put into effect the moment Putin moved on Crimea? Would it have happened had NATO made it clear from the start they would defend the sovereignty of Ukraine with weapons and advisers on the ground? We will never know. Taking action requires courage and there can be high costs in achieving the goal. But as we now see in horror there are also high costs for inaction, and the goal has not been achieved.

    The argument that the only alternative to capitulation to Putin is World War III is for the simple-minded. There were, and are, a range of responses. A horrible price has been paid but it will not be the last if even this fails to provoke a strong reaction. Financial and travel restrictions against Putin’s cronies and their families and harsh sanctions against key Russian economic sectors may also do some damage to European economies. Until yesterday, Europe could argue about how much money their principles were worth. Today they have to argue about how much money those lives are worth."

    Garry Kasparov is the chairman of the NY-based Human Rights Foundation.

  • #2
    copyright thievery

    Try not to quote an entire article, Sid. It's called copyright thievery. Instead, quote what you consider to be the important bits, use .... where you need to, and so on.

    Content Theft
    Dogs will bark, but the caravan of chess moves on.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: copyright thievery

      Originally posted by Nigel Hanrahan View Post
      Try not to quote an entire article, Sid. It's called copyright thievery. Instead, quote what you consider to be the important bits, use .... where you need to, and so on.

      Content Theft
      Thank you for your advice, I have the author's permission to reprint.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: copyright thievery

        So, apart from the fact that the article was written by a retired chess player, what has it got to do with this board?

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: copyright thievery

          Originally posted by John Coleman View Post
          So, apart from the fact that the article was written by a retired chess player, what has it got to do with this board?
          As a regular user of ChessTalk, I say "We, the people want to read this information."

          "In whose interest are you and Nigel acting ?"

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: copyright thievery

            Originally posted by John Coleman View Post
            So, apart from the fact that the article was written by a retired chess player, what has it got to do with this board?
            I am sure that even you can figure that out. Meanwhile instead of continually desperately grasping for straws trying to attack me, in your intelligent and well thought out words "give it a rest" "STFU".

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: copyright thievery

              Originally posted by Sid Belzberg View Post
              I am sure that even you can figure that out. Meanwhile instead of continually desperately grasping for straws trying to attack me, in your intelligent and well thought out words "give it a rest" "STFU".
              You just used up Sasha's free "STFU". Have a nice day.
              Dogs will bark, but the caravan of chess moves on.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: copyright thievery

                Originally posted by Nigel Hanrahan View Post
                You just used up Sasha's free "STFU". Have a nice day.
                You can take out your accusations of "thievery" and in fact edit the titles on all of the above posts with that and i would urge you to delete your post accusing me of thievery also. Your possibly the most abusive and erratic moderator i have ever seen.
                Have a nice day

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: copyright thievery

                  Nigel, in Russia people who are doing the job similar to yours get paid. And here you are doing it for free. Doesn't make a lot of sense: contact Russian Embassy, and get yourself a real job!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: copyright thievery

                    Originally posted by Sid Belzberg View Post
                    Thank you for your advice, I have the author's permission to reprint.
                    Actually, you would almost certainly have to have Time magazine's permission to reprint, not GK's.

                    And Nigel is correct that it is usually preferable to quote portions of the article and provide a link to the whole article. That said, I doubt that Time is likely to demand that ChessTalk take your post down due to copyright infringement.

                    Steve

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: copyright thievery

                      I'm more concerned about the middle east conflict.
                      Gary Ruben
                      CC - IA and SIM

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: copyright thievery

                        Originally posted by Steve Douglas View Post
                        Actually, you would almost certainly have to have Time magazine's permission to reprint, not GK's.

                        And Nigel is correct that it is usually preferable to quote portions of the article and provide a link to the whole article. That said, I doubt that Time is likely to demand that ChessTalk take your post down due to copyright infringement.

                        Steve
                        Rest assured I thought of that as did Garry. Time Warner values Gary's commentary and seeing his message spread far and wide. Nigel is not correct in attacking the very integrity of a poster with abusive language under the smoke screen of being a moderator. It comes as no surprise to me that you would in any way agree with Nigel's sick style of posts.
                        Last edited by Sid Belzberg; Saturday, 19th July, 2014, 12:08 PM.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: copyright thievery

                          I would have to think this is a valid thread for ChessTalk, especially right now considering the Ukraine situation and the FIDE elections.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Kasparov's article in Time Magazine

                            Originally posted by Sid Belzberg View Post
                            Rest assured I thought of that as did Garry. Time Warner values Gary's commentary and seeing his message spread far and wide. Nigel is not correct in attacking the very integrity of a poster with abusive language under the smoke screen of being a moderator. It comes as no surprise to me that you would in any way agree with Nigel's sick style of posts.
                            Sigh. I do not agree with Nigel's style of posts. I was pointing out that from a copyright standpoint that he is technically correct about the proper way to excerpt pieces, and also that permission of the original author is not usually good enough (it depends upon what rights they retained in their license agreement for first and serial, etc.). I agree that changing the thread title in his post was unnecessary.

                            Time Warner may want GK's commentary to be spread far and wide, but I'm pretty sure they want that spreading to be done via click-throughs on their website or reading their magazine. That said, I doubt they will either notice or care about your posting here.

                            Steve

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