Entry 1634, on 2014-03-05 at 22:07:35 (Rating 4, Politics)
When the US invaded Iraq back in 2003 the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said "You just don’t invade another country on a phony pretext in order to assert your interests. This is an act of aggression that is completely trumped up in terms of its pretext. It’s really 19th century behaviour in the 21st century." Oh wait! I got that wrong. That's what Putin easily could have said about Iraq, but in fact that is actually what US Secretary of State, John Kerry, said recently about Russia's so-called invasion of Ukraine.
Many people have, like me, marvelled at the sheer hypocrisy of the statement. Surely his speech writers (because very few of these political statements are ever genuine, they are usually carefully crafted by spin doctors to achieve a particular purpose) saw how it would be taken? Maybe they just didn't care or maybe this was just another deliberate way to say "look, we are the US, we can invade, spy on, murder, or sabotage anyone we like, but if any other country does it we will act all morally outraged.
There is no doubt which of the two is the greater evil. The US had no right to invade Iraq and it was done clearly on false pretences and resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. Russia has a clear interest in Ukraine, it hasn't even really invaded in the usual sense, and there have been (so far) no deaths as a direct result.
If we ever needed proof of how utterly corrupt the US has become this is surely it. And yes, I am criticising a so-called left-leaning (Democratic) president. I think Obama is a terrible leader, but he's still the best president they have had for decades. Not that I am a great supporter of Putin, of course. But the US should be fair about this and make sure that they maintain their own moral standards before they go around criticising anyone else.
It will be interesting to watch how the situation develops in the future, especially with how the US makes use of it for their own benefit. But judging from the reaction to this one statement: from outright amusement at the complete temerity of it, to disgust at its hypocrisy, I think they might need to just back off a little bit from the fantasy notion that they occupy the moral high ground. That is far from true!
Comment 1 by Otrazhenie on 2014-03-11 at 13:04:55:
Crimea, Ukraine - just another "chess games" of the geopolitical bullies :-( Unfortunately, it is the ordinary people like you and me who are suffering as the result of such "games". My thoughts are with them :-( A prayer for Ukraine.
Comment 2 by OJB on 2014-03-14 at 10:56:34:
Yes, the more I hear about this conflict the more I realise that the Americans have had a lot to do with stirring up trouble and backing various groups, such as new-Nazis. It's just their standard MO as far as I can see: back a murderous regime to illegally seize power in a country they want to control and a few years later sabotage or invade that country to get rid of that same regime. Not that Russia wouldn't employ similar tactics if they had the chance, of course!
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