Vlad the Assailer
By Bill O'Reilly for BillOReilly.com
Thursday, August 14, 2008
The violent history of Eastern Europe resulted in the classic horror character Dracula being created by the Irish author Bram Stoker in 1897. Stoker based his vampire character on a Romanian ruler named Vlad Tepes who, in the 15th century, committed incredible atrocities like impaling thousands of captured people on felled trees. Nice guy.
For this, Tepes was called "Vlad the Impaler."
Now we have Vladimir Putin, the Russian martinet, who is orchestrating the violence in Georgia in order to show the world that the Russian military is back in fighting form. Using the old Third Reich ruse of "protecting" ethnic "Russians" who are living in Georgian territory, Putin has launched a violent action that has angered most decent people.
For this, Putin should be known as "Vlad the Assailer."
But why is Putin doing this? Well, like Dracula, it is in his blood. As a former Soviet Secret Police director, Putin has no problem using harsh methods to achieve his goals. Under his former presidency, Russia turned into a crime-ridden state where dissenters (and Putin's business competitors) were routinely beaten, imprisoned and, on occasion, murdered.
No question in my mind that Putin is a thug and is still calling the shots in Russia despite the election of his protégé, Dimitry Medvedev, as President.
Putin's vision is a Russia that dominates the countries on its borders and competes with the United States and China for global influence. He has done everything he can to weaken America, even selling Iran sophisticated weaponry including the Tor-MI air defence system as well as 500 surface-to-air missiles. Obviously, Putin is no friend of ours.
The United States has tweaked Putin back by supporting Georgia's entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and that is the crux of the current conflict. Realizing that the Bush administration cannot handle another armed conflict right now, Putin decided to show the world that he could punish America's friend, Georgia, without a meaningful response. He has succeeded in doing that.
Down the road, either John McCain or Barack Obama will have to deal with Vlad the Assailer. This dour, brutal man senses weakness in both America and Europe, weakness that will drive him to become bolder. The only thing a guy like Vlad understands is the stick.
But how to wield it—that is the question. As with Iran, diplomacy is not likely to deter Putin, because Europe needs Russian natural gas and oil and is not likely to challenge Russia by supporting sanctions. So it will come down to the USA vs. Russia, mano-a-mano.
Putin is one tough customer. It will be interesting to see if the United States will elect a leader who can effectively neutralize him. Because if that does not happen, old Vlad, like Dracula, will commit scourge on the countryside.
Now my response to his article.
My Response to Bill O’Rilly's Vlad the Assailer column
This is a bit old but, it still irks me, and is important to make a dissection between Vladimir Putin “The Czar” and Vlad III the Impaler (or as he preferred Vlad Dracula).
In Bill’s column “Vlad the Assailer” (Aug 14, 2008), Bill O’Rilly compared Vladimir Putin & Vlad Dracula and essentially said they are identical, Bill, Bill, Bill, and you say you were a high school teacher, I the High School Dropout must properly educate the man with two University diplomas, by the way I love to educate the “Over Educated,” first Vlad Dracula was a man of his times his life was molded by the medieval conflicts with the Ottoman Turks, Islamists, and the eastern Christian countries of Europe, Vlad and a brother were given up to the Ottoman Turks as hostages so the Ottomans would not invade Wallachia (southern Romania),
which would fuel his hatred for both his father and the Turks.
In a Historical sense the Ottoman Turks were Russia with Wallachia (southern Romania) serving as Georgia, after Vlad’s father was assassinated, the Ottomans placed Vlad as a puppet ruler, this ended soon after, and Vlad was forced too fled, to Moldavia and to his uncle’s protection. Vlad would as Prince of Wallachia and the rightful ruler lead a campaign to take back his country. Now abought his Atrocities first I want to make something clear I AM NOT DEFENDING Vlad’s actions, but the first group of people Vlad had Impaled were the boyars (Romanian Nobles) who had repeatedly undermined the power of the prince during previous reigns and had been responsible for the violent overthrow of several princes. Vlad was
determined that his own power would be based on a modern and thoroughly secure footing, in place of the executed nobles, he promoted new men from the free peasantry and middle class, men who would be loyal only to their prince. In other words Vlad removed the nobles who would support anyone who would leave them in their positions of power, and replaced them with free peasants and middle class men the quintessential essence of what Bill believes in, to day in Romania Vlad Dracula is a hero remembered as just prince who defended his people from foreign aggression, whether those foreigners were Turkish invaders or German merchants, he is also remembered as a champion of the common man against the oppression of the boyars
(Romanian Nobles), sound familiar Bill. The remaining majority of the Impaled were the Ottoman Turk invaders whose end goals were to spread Islam by word or force throughout Europe.
Now for Vladimir Putin the wannabe Czar, a former KGB agent from communist Russia, and as recent history is showing us about Vladimir Putin’s rule it is far from being a “just” ruler. Every move he makes is about putting in place a new doctoral rule over Russia, oppressing and eliminating any against his doctoral agenda through secret police and KGB style tactics, and with the recent poisoning of that fellow in England, the attempted assassination of the Ukrainian
presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko by Dioxin, and the invasion of Georgia a small country (sound familiar?) Vladimir Putin is acting more like the Sultans of the Ottoman Turks then the ruler of a small country trying to prevent its conquest by a much larger nation.
In conclusion Vlad Dracula may not have been the nicest guy but for all Christians and Romanians, Vlad's actions during his time were the best he could do, he didn’t have a United States to go to for help, while there are many stories and tales of Vlad's Atrocities considering his actions in whole, Vlad Dracula is in no way similar to Vladimir Putin, who in my opinion could care less about his people, and more about empire building or rebuilding an empire.
By Solomon the Wise
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