An unsolicited advice:
Apply Occam's Razor when someone asserts that Putin's Russia plays the long game to hegemony (or anything else).
Couldn't it be that this someone sees slowness, interprets it as a symptom of systematic and steady progress towards a long-term goal - but in reality that slowness is nothing but the symptom of resources too limited for any grand goals?
S O
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You obviously were talking to someone more intellegent than you.
ReplyDeleteThe best way Ive found of discussing current Trump / Putin strategy is to try and make it understood they are both masters of their art. The same kind of missunderstanding happens when an undereducated audience watch masters playing chess, backgammon or judo. To the lay observer it may seem nothing much is going on. It may seem that irrational and poorly thought out decisions are being made. This is incorrect.
Trump is responding to Putins moves years in advance. He is outmanouvering the manouver of his manouver. This is grand strategy at its finest. Forget prior masters like Mussolini, Kissenger or Napoleon. Trump is the true maestro of the art.
Not to say Putin cant kick around with the best of them. He simply cannot compete with the majesty of Trumps intellect.
And so. His behaviour may seem irrational. It could be argued that it is. This however is not due to any lack of room to manouver as you suggest, it is an emotional response to being so completely outplayed.
Trump isnt playing three dimensional chess as so many assume, he is playing 12 dimensional chess. He is playing multiple games of 12 dimensional chess, all at the same time.
And he will win them all.
It was amusing to see people spout and fall for the "Trump is playing 4D chess" nonsense, but by now it's so obvious he's an incompetent and ignorant blunderer that the amusement about gullible people long since turned into pity and a bit of despair regarding the future of mankind.
Delete"but by now it's so obvious he's an incompetent and ignorant blunderer"
ReplyDeleteMeh. He has his foibles, but he surely has been better than Obama, George W. and Clinton already, at least from the perspective of White Americans. Let's see how he handles the Wall, and immigration in general.