Journalist-cum-spinmeister Edward Lucas whirled through Moldova and Transdniestria for a few days (a while back, actually) and wrote about it in a diary format for his rag, “The Economist”, as if it was happening live over the course of five days this week, from Monday till Friday. That was far from the only misrepresentation, of course.

Lucas specializes in warmed-over Cold War rhetoric, repackaged for today and very heavy on the innuendo. His stock in trade when it comes to Transdniestria is just vile McCarthyism. What is lacking in objective statistics and solid facts is amply compensated in insinuations. Every whiff of allegation, tabloid fantasy, or rant of a depressed hack with a Cold War Cold Turkey withdrawal symptom, becomes unquestionable truth in the writings of Mr Lucas. In the Transdniestria that Edward Lucas created for himself and his readers, the bad guys even have a weapons factory and the good guys love Marmite. But of course.

Hawkish Cold Warriors like Edward Lucas and his best of buddy Vladimir Socor, a propagandist working for a Dick Cheney related neocon outfit, are worried that Transdniestria is cleaning up its act and on its way to internationally recognized independence.
Can’t someone tell them that even if they miss it terribly, the Cold War is actually over. And we won. The Commies lost. So give it a rest already.

But no, they still produce the same-old, same-old, just so they won’t find themselves out of a job. Anything they don’t like is mysterious or sinister, and somehow tied either to a conspiracy or to the KGB, or (their favorite) both: A conspiracy orchestrated by the KGB!

How this is helping relations between Moldova and Transdniestria is anyone’s guess. The truth is that REAL conflict resolution means that all hawks (on both sides) have to be ignored, and the parties that want to solve this thing must rethink their kneejerk antagonism.

If there is give and take, and a willingness to meet each other half way, Moldova will understand that Transdniestria has a right to be independent and Transdniestria will understand that Moldova (and the world at large) has some legitimate worries and concerns that need to be addressed, too.

Meanwhile, haters like Edward Lucas will keep doing the only thing they know how to do. But it won’t help matters any…

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 19th, 2007 at 3:07 am and is filed under Transdniestria musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.