Comments on: Unforced

By: yetanotherjohn

yetanotherjohn — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:22:10 +0000

You all are just a bunch of knuckle dragging racist who can't recognize Smart Diplomacy when you see it.

By: PD Shaw

PD Shaw — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:46:52 +0000

I wasn't familiar with this issue, but googling around discovered that:

Many (most?) Russians appear to believe the sale was really a temporary lease.

The transaction is attributed to a corrupt czar and corrupt Americans. There are stories that the money never got to Russia or that some of the money was used to bribe American politicians.

Eastward expansion across continents is an important part of the Russian sense of self.

There are continuing controversies over control over the Bering Sea that stem from competing narratives of the sale -- particularly the notion that the Sea was inland Russian waters at the time of the transfer of merely "the land."

By: DL

DL — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:37:08 +0000

What was interesting about this, was that the Russians sold it only because they had raped it of its prize sea otter furs which they actually exported to China. Thinking it had no real value left, they sold it to us, and we thought it was worthless also, many calling it "Seward's Folly."

Trivia on Seward was that he was a victim of an assasination attempt as part of the Lincoln assasination by John Wilkes Boothe and his nefarious friends. Seward survived a throat cutting because he was wearing a neck brace for a previous neck injury, at the time of the attempt.

By: Michael Reynolds

Michael Reynolds — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:36:16 +0000

Alaska has oil so I think we need to keep it. But we clearly have more Dakotas than necessary. So maybe we could make the Russians a counter-offer: one of the Dakotas and the city of Detroit.

By: odograph

odograph — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:54:08 +0000

Wanting Alaska "back" is just stupid, have them talk to some Innuits about what was essentially slave trade.

By: sam

sam — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:22:34 +0000

Alaska, she said to my astonishment, should be Russia’s again. “We are hoping,” she said earnestly, explaining that this could be a way to deepen trust and respect between Cold War rivals.

Sar...ah, hell no.