• unclear

    From Alexander Koryagin@2:221/360 to All on Fri Oct 25 09:25:52 2019

    Hi, all!

    https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/22/middleeast/putin-erdogan-syria-deal-hodge-an alysis-intl/index.html

    -----Beginning of the citation-----
    The rapid exit of US forces that left the Kurds exposed was a gift to
    Putin: Russian journalists roaming newly abandoned US military bases
    played the moment for all it was worth, casting it a hasty helicopters- on-the-roof moment for American power.
    ----- The end of the citation -----

    The last two lines are unclear for me, especially "casting it a hasty helicopters-on-the-roof moment for American power".

    Bye, all!
    Alexander Koryagin

    ---
    * Origin: nntps://fidonews.mine.nu - Lake Ylo - Finland (2:221/360.0)
  • From Alexander Koryagin@2:221/360 to Paul Quinn on Fri Oct 25 10:13:04 2019
    Hi, Paul Quinn!
    I read your message from 25.10.2019 09:55

    The last two lines are unclear for me, especially "casting it a
    hasty helicopters-on-the-roof moment for American power".

    It's wonderful journalistic jingoism at play again. It's a simile.
    A reference to some televised scenes of American personnel &
    equipment making many hasty exits from built-up areas in Vietnam.
    If the writer had worded the by-line "... it as a hasty..." you
    probably wouldn't be asking your question.

    Ah, they were evacuated then right from the building roofs because they were surrounded by the Vietnamese, and it looks like a river flood. Yes?

    Bye, Paul!
    Alexander Koryagin
    english_tutor 2019

    ---
    * Origin: nntps://fidonews.mine.nu - Lake Ylo - Finland (2:221/360.0)
  • From Paul Quinn@3:640/1384 to Alexander Koryagin on Fri Oct 25 16:45:26 2019
    Hi! Alexander,

    On 25 Oct 19 09:28, you wrote to All:

    The last two lines are unclear for me, especially "casting it a hasty helicopters-on-the-roof moment for American power".

    It's wonderful journalistic jingoism at play again. It's a simile. A reference to some televised scenes of American personnel & equipment making many hasty exits from built-up areas in Vietnam. If the writer had worded the by-line "...it as a hasty..." you probably wouldn't be asking your question.

    Cheers,
    Paul.

    ... Never anger a dragon, for you are crunchy and go well with beer.
    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20130515
    * Origin: Quinn's Rock - Live from Paul's Xubuntu desktop! (3:640/1384)
  • From Paul Quinn@3:640/1384 to Alexander Koryagin on Fri Oct 25 17:14:46 2019
    Hi! Alexander,

    On 25 Oct 19 10:16, you wrote to me:

    Ah, they were evacuated then right from the building roofs because
    they were surrounded by the Vietnamese, and it looks like a river
    flood. Yes?

    Yes. In a lot of cases the North Vienamese Army (NVA) and Vietcong (VC) were within 10 kilmeters from evacuation places. My boyhood memories of the time include television video of frantic off-loading of helicopters onto aircraft carriers, and then having the helos dumped over the side of the ship.

    I vividly recall vision of a western journalist covering the NVA/VC infantry & tanks, storming either the US Embassy compound or the South Vietnam government compound. It was a hellish.

    I'm sure that this was something that this later journo was trying to help call on, by way of sympathetic comparison.

    Cheers,
    Paul.

    ... I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.
    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20130515
    * Origin: Quinn's Rock - Live from Paul's Xubuntu desktop! (3:640/1384)
  • From Alexander Koryagin@2:221/360 to Paul Quinn on Fri Oct 25 15:30:42 2019
    Hi, Paul Quinn : Alexander Koryagin!
    I read your message from 25.10.2019 10:24


    I vividly recall vision of a western journalist covering the NVA/VC infantry & tanks, storming either the US Embassy compound or the
    South Vietnam government compound. It was a hellish.

    I'm sure that this was something that this later journo was trying
    to help call on, by way of sympathetic comparison.

    IMHO CNN has exaggerated the American retreat from Syria. It seems it wanted to pique Trump, as usual. ;-)

    Bye, Paul!
    Alexander Koryagin
    english_tutor 2019

    ---
    * Origin: nntps://fidonews.mine.nu - Lake Ylo - Finland (2:221/360.0)
  • From Paul Quinn@3:640/1384.125 to Alexander Koryagin on Sat Oct 26 07:34:56 2019
    Hi! Alexander,

    On 10/25/2019 10:33 PM, you wrote:

    IMHO CNN has exaggerated the American retreat from Syria. It seems it wanted to pique Trump, as usual. ;-)

    Mnn... they're in the business of selling viable commercial air time to advertisers, too, aren't they. :)

    OTOH, there has been back-pedling by White House underlings (Mike Pence?), essentially modifying the reality 'on the ground' in Stria. There will still be a US presence in the area, apparently. They're afraid ISIS will take advantage of oil assets, for example.

    The world turns...

    Cheers,
    Paul.

    --- Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.4.0
    * Origin: I love the smell of Echomail in the morning. (3:640/1384.125)
  • From Alexander Koryagin@2:221/360 to Paul Quinn on Sat Oct 26 18:48:50 2019
    Hi, Paul Quinn!
    I read your message from 26.10.2019 00:44

    IMHO CNN has exaggerated the American retreat from Syria. It seems
    it wanted to pique Trump, as usual.

    Mnn... they're in the business of selling viable commercial air
    time to advertisers, too, aren't they.

    OTOH, there has been back-pedling by White House underlings (Mike
    Pence?), essentially modifying the reality 'on the ground' in
    Stria. There will still be a US presence in the area, apparently.
    They're afraid ISIS will take advantage of oil assets, for example.
    The world turns...

    ISIS is like Taliban - American forces can defeat it in open battle in an Iraqi or Syrian deserts, but they can do nothing when they do a partizan war. So, the US will talk with both sooner or later.

    Bye, Paul!
    Alexander Koryagin
    english_tutor 2019

    ---
    * Origin: nntps://fidonews.mine.nu - Lake Ylo - Finland (2:221/360.0)
  • From Paul Quinn@3:640/1384 to Alexander Koryagin on Sun Oct 27 08:20:16 2019
    Hi! Alexander,

    On 26 Oct 19 18:51, you wrote to me:

    ISIS is like Taliban - American forces can defeat it in open battle in
    an Iraqi or Syrian deserts, but they can do nothing when they do a partizan war. So, the US will talk with both sooner or later.

    Yes. Standard guerilla force strategic theory. The 'play book' was written last century.

    Cheers,
    Paul.

    ... Buckle up; it makes it harder for the aliens to suck you out of the car. --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20130515
    * Origin: Quinn's Rock - Live from Paul's Xubuntu desktop! (3:640/1384)
  • From Ardith Hinton@1:153/716 to Alexander Koryagin on Sat Oct 26 22:56:08 2019
    Hi, Alexander! Recently you wrote in a message to All:

    -----Beginning of the citation-----
    The rapid exit of US forces that left the Kurds
    exposed was a gift to Putin: Russian journalists
    roaming newly abandoned US military bases played
    the moment for all it was worth, casting it a hasty
    helicopters-on-the-roof moment for American power.
    ----- The end of the citation -----

    The last two lines are unclear for me, especially
    "casting it a hasty helicopters-on-the-roof moment
    for American power".


    I agree with you that various journalists... regardless of who their employers are, BTW... may have "exaggerated the American retreat". And I agree with Paul that where he & I come from the majority of TV journalists seem to be "in the business of selling viable commercial air time to advertisers". If the upcoming news or weather report sounds quite dramatic, folks are more likely to stay glued to their seats during the ads because they don't want to miss out on anything. Yet WRT the latter I often find the "record-breaking" temperature we are experiencing, e.g., takes into account only the same month & day. It's not particularly difficult to break 100-year-old records under these circumstances.

    Since I know very little about military strategy I'm glad Paul could fill you in there. What I tend to notice, as an English teacher, is the use of terms like "played it for all it was worth" and "casting it as [whatever]". To me such language evokes images of the dramatic & performing arts. Or as people in the restaurant business advised me, "Sell the sizzle... not the steak". :-Q




    --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)
  • From Alexander Koryagin@2:221/360 to Ardith Hinton on Sun Oct 27 10:48:12 2019
    Hi, Ardith Hinton!
    I read your message from 27.10.2019 00:56

    -----Beginning of the citation-----
    The rapid exit of US forces that left the Kurds exposed
    was a gift to Putin: Russian journalists roaming newly
    abandoned US military bases played the moment for all it
    was worth, casting it a hasty helicopters-on-the-roof
    moment for American power.
    ----- The end of the citation -----

    The last two lines are unclear for me, especially "casting it a
    hasty helicopters-on-the-roof moment for American power".

    I agree with you that various journalists... regardless of who
    their employers are, BTW... may have "exaggerated the American
    retreat". And I agree with Paul that where he & I come from the
    majority of TV journalists seem to be "in the business of selling
    viable commercial air time to advertisers". If the upcoming news or weather report sounds quite dramatic, folks are more likely to stay
    glued to their seats during the ads because they don't want to miss
    <skipped>
    of the dramatic & performing arts. Or as people in the restaurant
    business advised me, "Sell the sizzle... not the steak".: - Q

    Or, IMHO better, "Sell the smell... not the steak". They say, modern chemists can forge the smell of any food. Now in Russia we even have a new law according to which the shops must tell if such technology had been used for a particular product. Now I can see in the shops "cake with chocolate taste", "cake with strawberry taste" etc. ;-)

    Bye, Ardith!
    Alexander Koryagin
    english_tutor 2019

    ---
    * Origin: nntps://fidonews.mine.nu - Lake Ylo - Finland (2:221/360.0)
  • From Ardith Hinton@1:153/716 to Alexander Koryagin on Mon Oct 28 22:52:24 2019
    Hi, Alexander! Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

    Or as people in the restaurant business advised me,
    "Sell the sizzle... not the steak". :-Q

    Or, IMHO better, "Sell the smell... not the steak".


    I've heard advice to that effect too, although it didn't come in such a neat package. Suppose you're selling hamburgers on the street or at a county fair... in which case there may be other food vendors nearby. I'm told you can draw attention to your wares by frying up a batch of onions... [grin].



    They say, modern chemists can forge the smell of any
    food. Now in Russia we even have a new law according
    to which the shops must tell if such technology had
    been used for a particular product. Now I can see in
    the shops "cake with chocolate taste", "cake with
    strawberry taste" etc. ;-)


    I often see "natural & artificial flavours" here, in situations which require the manufacturers of comestibles to disclose the ingredients used. :-)




    --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)
  • From Anton Shepelev@2:221/360 to Paul Quinn on Tue Oct 29 19:07:40 2019
    Paul Quinn:

    OTOH, there has been back-pedling by White House
    underlings (Mike Pence?), essentially modifying the
    reality 'on the ground' in Stria. There will still be a
    US presence in the area, apparently. They're afraid
    ISIS will take advantage of oil assets, for example.

    They do not even consider handling them back to Siria, their
    rightful owner.

    ---
    * Origin: nntps://fidonews.mine.nu - Lake Ylo - Finland (2:221/360.0)
  • From Anton Shepelev@2:221/360 to Anton Shepelev on Sun Nov 3 15:41:22 2019
    I wrote:

    They do not even consider handling them back to Siria,
    their rightful owner.

    Should be: "handing them over back to."

    ---
    * Origin: nntps://fidonews.mine.nu - Lake Ylo - Finland (2:221/360.0)
  • From Alexander Koryagin@2:221/360 to Anton Shepelev on Sun Nov 3 17:51:44 2019
    Hi, Anton Shepelev!
    I read your message from 03.11.2019 16:43

    They do not even consider handling them back to Siria, their
    rightful owner.

    Should be: "handing them over back to."

    Also it should be Syria.

    Bye, Anton!
    Alexander Koryagin
    english_tutor 2019

    ---
    * Origin: nntps://fidonews.mine.nu - Lake Ylo - Finland (2:221/360.0)