'Bad Commies' vs. 'Good' Capitalists

Because of the events in the Ukraine, there has been a lot of propaganda swill churned out against Russia in the west, their supposed still-communist government, led by Stalin v2.0 named Vladimir Putin.

It’s no secret that US foreign and economic policies are dismal failures. Those failures, along with the international debacles and embarrassments that the US has racked up, have led it to absurd levels of political, public, and historical manipulation and lies in order to cover up its failures, gross incompetence, and plain scumbag-ness.

One of the most recent and enduring propaganda tools is to suggest that Russia is a crypto-communist state where nothing has changed, and is still being led by Joseph Stalin clones. Russia’s communist past is constantly brought up as a PR cudgel against that country. The past crimes of Soviet communists are superimposed on alleged crimes of Russia under its current leadership.

On TV channels, Sunday morning talk shows, debates, newspapers and blogs, all sorts of communist crimes are being rehashed in order to demonize Russia because it doesn’t want to be a slave of the US/EU.

So today I’ll list some accusations against communist governments and then find an instance of the same behavior in the US/west.


Accusation#1 – Communist governments killed a lot of people!

This is the main gripe people have with communism. It’s not an unfounded accusation, but is being used selectively, and more often than not exaggerated. First, name me a revolution where the new regime didn’t persecute/kill off the members/sympathizers of the prior one. There aren’t any. It’s just part and parcel of victors’ justice.

Second, and more importantly, people should look at all the violent revolutionary right-wing juntas the US trained, armed, and brought to power in Latin America, Asia and the Mideast; juntas who ruled by terror, who massacred people, disappeared them, tortured, raped. The US then protected members of these regimes from accountability and prosecution. Some members of those regimes still live comfortably in sunny Florida and elsewhere in the US—Orlando Bosch, the terrorist who bombed a Cuban civilian airliner, then found refuge in the US, is a good example.

Another example is the US revolutionary war and its aftermath. That revolution certainly wasn’t peaceful. Afterwards, half a million people fled themselves, or were told to leave by the new regime. Thousands who stayed, but didn’t see eye-to-eye with the new post-colonial authorities were imprisoned, tortured, and killed. This is something they won’t teach in US history class.

The US/EU has been supporting and coddling the Israeli regime for sixty-plus years. They have underwritten one of the longest-running, brutal, racist, and oppressive neo-colonial occupations in the history of the world.  Yet the US and their pals have the nerve to point a finger at Russia for annexing Crimea, a territory that historically was (and by popular referendum wants to be) part of Russia, and which in the past was attached to Ukraine without any approval by anyone living there at the time.

Accusation#2 – Communists overthrew democratically-elected governments and invaded countries!

From 1917, the US and certain western countries tried to interfere in Russia’s internal revolution by sponsoring anti-Bolshevik armies. Winston Churchill once remarked that ‘communism must be strangled in its crib.’ During Italy’s first democratic election after WW2, the US organized a huge propaganda campaign against the socialist party. People were flooded with propaganda and fake threats that the Italian socialists were under Stalin’s direct control; that if they come to power churches will be shut down and religion outlawed, that Soviet troops will occupy Italy.

Italy was threatened by the US that if it didn’t vote the right way, US aid would be cut off, and sanctions would follow. This same threat was used repeatedly later on in other countries where a leader or government not to the US liking won, or was projected to win a popular election.

After the end of communism in Eastern Europe, the US used the threat of withholding aid unless the people in those countries elected governments who were not socialist/communist, even though such parties had majority support. Early 1990s Bulgaria is one of those cases.

In 2006 Hamas won the Palestinian elections, fair and square. The US didn’t like this outcome. It refused to recognize the results, and cut off aid to the Palestinians. Along with Israel, it effectively put the West Bank and Gaza on military, diplomatic, financial, and political lockdown.

In 2009 Manuel Zelaya, the democratically-elected president of Honduras was overthrown by a pro-US coup with the US providing behind the scenes assistance because he wanted to usher in reforms that the US and its corporate allies didn’t like.

And of course, we have the Ukraine, a country which until February 2014 had a democratically-elected government. But since that government didn’t want to take orders from the US, it was overthrown by a pro-US unelected junta which has gone on to threaten half the country, launch a violent war against its own people, and most likely was complicit in the killing of 300+ people when its fighter jet shot down Malaysian flight MH17. Yes, that previous democratically-elected government was corrupt, but since the current one is as well, and add to that criminally insane, the corruption charge was just PR bullshit.

Also, former Eastern European countries never fail to forget and remind everyone that they were invaded by Russia, and how the Russians illegally seized power in Eastern European countries. Then why did those same countries join the illegal US invasion of Iraq? Why did they aid and abet the US in bombing Libya and Syria in order to overthrow the governments there? By doing so, they were acting no worse than the so-called Soviet invaders.

Finally, what democratic governments did the Soviets overthrow? Poland—a politically unstable country ruled by army colonels, or Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary—all ruled by monarchs or puppets sympathetic to Nazi Germany, and whose territory and soldiers were used against Russia? 

Western governments, and especially the US, have setup and funded pro-democracy NGOs in Russia and elsewhere. On the surface, the mission of these organizations is to promote democratic principles and good civil society. But in reality, those organizations have acted as intelligence-gathering/political activist fronts for their foreign government sponsors. 

These organizations have constantly interfered in domestic politics and elections in other countries, have organized protests against governments and politicians whom the western governments found unreceptive to their dictates and orders, and who didn't want to put western economic/political/strategic interests first. These organizations also funded and trained subversive protest groups to undermine host governments not to the liking of western governments, especially that of the US. They've also supported/funded pro-western candidates for elections. All these acts are in violation of international laws and a blatant interference in a nation's internal affairs.

Russia certainly doesn't interfere in the US elections, or funds pro-Russian subversive organizations masquerading as democracy promoters in the US, whose aim is to elect pro-Russian politicians and enact pro-Russian policies.

President Putin, finally fed up with this nonsense, showed these NGOs the door. That's one of the reasons he's being vilified and demonized in the west as a dictator. Ironcially, the US has the same laws against foreign-sponsored NGOs operating on US soil. All NGOs who are funded in any part by a foreign government or act on behalf of a foreign government must register as 'agents of a foreign power,' (except israhell, of course). But when Putin passes such laws, he's labeled as a dictator who is destroying democracy.

But how would citizens of the US, or some other western country feel if the Kremlin setup Russian NGOs within their borders which meddled in those nations' internal affairs, national elections, and manipulated public opinion in favor of pro-Russian candidates and policies, and sponsored/encouraged protests and political unrest? Would western countries allow this? Would they not kick out these Russian subversives?

Accusation#3 – Communism ruined countries’ economies!

What most people don’t seem to know is that the socialist/communist ideology alone wasn’t enough to ruin any economy. Whenever a communist country popped up, the first move western countries, especially the US made, was to immediately sanction it. This was followed up with creating deliberate roadblocks in order to hamper any socialist country’s development. Sabotage, acts of economic terrorism followed. Blockades and bans, such as the one currently still in effect against Cuba, has cost socialist countries hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenue and opportunities for development and modernization. This led to shortages of revenue, and eventually to the lack of basic goods and services.

Another nasty tool the west used were loans to socialist/communist states with exorbitant interest rates. In some instances, they refused loans and forced countries to seek loans from private banks which charged loan-shark rates as well. All these tricks were used to impoverish and debilitate socialist/communist countries, cause misery and chaos, and finally regime change--the main goal of the rough treatment.

We will never know how socialist countries would’ve turned out if they weren’t deliberately sanctioned and had their economies hampered and sabotaged by US and their allies. We will never know how things would’ve turned out if socialist countries were left alone and allowed to pursue their own way, without being molested by the US and its bought whores.

And what exactly has wonderful US-style capitalism done in the last six years? Did it not con the world into fake and risky investments which crashed the world economy and bankrupted countries? How many people lost their retirement benefits and pensions because of this? How many countries were forced to swallow massive amounts of IMF debt which they cannot repay, and were forced to sell of valuable public-owned enterprises to the lowest bidder when they couldn’t pay off those loans? Countries which were promised wealth and prosperity if they adopted democracy and the free market system are still languishing in debt, unemployment and hardship, decades later! Add to that the fact that many older people in formerly communist/socialist countries yearn for the old system. What does that tell you?

Accusation#4 – In communist countries there’s no free speech and the press is censored!

Newsflash! Media censorship exists in every country.

What are we to think when journalists in the US and other democratic countries are forced, under threat of arrest, to name their confidential sources of information if the US government doesn’t like what they wrote? What about the journalists that are muzzled and fired for presenting a view that the US government, an allied country’s authorities, or a private interest close to the government doesn’t like? All these things have, and are, happening in the US and the west.

What about the fact that major US newspapers, including the New York Times have, up to the present, printed US government propaganda without any fact-checking or research whatsoever? Iraqi WMDs, Libya, Ukraine are just a few examples where US and other western governments have deliberately manipulated public opinion in their favor by releasing fake and unsubstantiated news stories.

Recently, a German journalist admitted that the US and its European allies wrote propaganda stories which were pro-US, then handed these stories to journalists to be published under their names with no fact-checking or research whatsoever. These stories were blatantly false. Those journalists were beforehand bribed with money and other favors to get them to act as propaganda bullhorns for the US. From these sources we got the standard anti-Russian fare that has been all the rage in the US and European media lately. These false news stories today influence the world-view of the average US/EU citizen. They create a false reality which could very well lead to more misunderstanding, and possibly more death and violence in the future.

Great Britain has deliberately blocked journalist Glenn Greenwald, who published the Snowden revelations, and his partner from flying, detained them at airports, confiscated their equipment, and threatened them. No charges, no due process, nothing; just detention without any specific reason for hours or days.

In communist countries, the government censored the media. In the US and other democratic countries the media censors itself willingly in return for access to, and favors from, their governments.

Accusation#5 – In communist countries, there’s no freedom of religion!

Communist governments saw religion as reactionary because the religious organizations traditionally allied themselves with the wealthy elites in the country. Religious organizations benefited from this arrangement, which also made religious organizations naturally anti-communist, especially in Europe.

When communism was established in any country, the authorities tried to root out any defiant clerics who openly sympathized with the old regimes or who agitated against the new one. Although the same has happened in pro-US dictatorships as well.

Later on, the church was told that as long as it didn’t get political, and didn’t use its position to preach against the system, it would be left alone. This arrangement held, and priests were even given monetary stipends by the communist governments in order to keep them quiet. Some priests even went so far as to become informers for the state.

Generally, as long as the church stayed out of politics and didn’t preach sedition, they were left alone by the communist authorities. I’m sure this rule also applies to churches in democratic countries as well.

During the cold war, the US along with other western democratic countries, used the churches in Eastern Europe to disseminate anti-communist views and propaganda. This would’ve explained the harsh measures taken against the church by communist governments. How would the US government feel if Russia or China secretly used churches in the US to spread anti -government views and sedition?

Hypocritically, the US encouraged the church in communist countries to be political, something the US government would’ve never allowed on its own soil or on that of their allies. If they did so, they’d at least lose their tax-exempt status, and at most be arrested.

Also, during the Bush years, we saw the US government use popular preachers to sell its pro-war and other conservative policies in return for access to the White House and other hand-outs from the government, like George W. Bush’s granting of money to religious organizations for charity work.

As for religious freedom in the west, how much discrimination was encountered by immigrants to the US who weren’t Protestant? Catholics were discriminated against heavily because they were feared to be more loyal to the Pope than the US.

Look at the instances of discrimination against Muslims in the US and Europe, like the banning of headscarves, protests against the construction of mosques, vandalism of mosques, and accusing Muslims of being involved in a US-wide conspiracy to force Sharia law upon the country.

This foolishness even led to a congressional hearing chaired by the ignorant Peter King on the Islamization of America. He gathered all sorts of Christian fundamentalist, neo-con, and Jewish-zionist kooks and bigots, as well as 'experts' who terrorized the naïve public with scary stories, supposed evidence, and horrific predictions on how Muslims aim to turn the US into an Islamic country by force.

This has led to attacks against Muslims, both verbal and physical. It has also led to undercover FBI agents being placed in mosques all over the US to eavesdrop and inform on the doings of Muslims.

Accusation#6 – Communist regimes imprisoned and tortured dissidents, locked them up in camps or kicked them out of the country!

Violent right-wing governments worldwide sponsored and aided by the US did the same. US allies also did the same. Look at the secret rendition flights the CIA flew to Eastern European countries like Poland, Lithuania and others, where terror suspects were tortured, with disregard for human rights laws. Guantanamo Bay is still open; a place where prisoners were water-boarded, tortured and treated like garbage--and still are. Bagram air base in Afghanistan, and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq are examples of US love of torture and extreme interrogation techniques used on enemies.

As far as jailing and persecuting dissidents, look at what was done to Bradley Manning for revealing US war crimes in Iraq. Look at Edward Snowden’s predicament. (ironically, it’s Russia who offered Snowden refuge and a new life) Look at the treatment Julian Assange has been subject to; all three people have one thing in common: they exposed US deception and crimes, nothing else. Dear US allies have behaved just as bad. Poland was not too long ago fined 235,000 Euros in compensation to the two terror suspects tortured on its soil.

But we can even go father back in time. The treatment of Edward Snowden and others is reminiscent of Philip Agee, who in the 1970s published a book about CIA operations and named names. For these revelations he was hounded and expelled from multiple democratic western European countries, under pressure and orders of the US, of course.

Accusation#7– The Soviet Union was imperialist!

And what was Great Britain? What was Turkey? Japan? What was/is the US if not imperialist? An Imperialist country is one which conquers, controls, and exploits other nations, near and far. By this simple definition, the US is an imperialist nation. Look at Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the various micro-stans of the Pacific. In the past, the US subdued and controlled the Philippines and Cuba. It also overthrew and controlled through friendly puppets Latin American governments.

The Soviet Union never sought to conquer and subdue countries beyond its immediate periphery. Surrounded by hostile neighbors, the Russians tried to retain as much control over nearby countries to serve as a buffer zone between them and their enemies. That’s why the Soviets setup Moscow-friendly governments in Eastern Europe after WW2. Some of those countries served as bases and highways for foreign invaders, and the Soviets wanted to shut those bases and highways down. This is not the same as taking over a country just to exploit its resources as did the British and French in India and the far east.

So those who insist that past Soviet political, military, and economic influence over Eastern European countries made the Soviet Union imperialist, then the present US political, military, and economic influence over Eastern European countries makes the US an imperialist country as well.

Accusation#8 – Communist countries were militarized and kept people from traveling freely!

Okay. So if you’re an American, try to travel to Cuba, Iran or North Korea, and see how free you really are. One thing that truly free and democratic countries don’t do is ban/forbid their citizens from traveling to any country, even if that country is authoritarian or even an enemy. The most the US or any other country can do, is advise or warn people who want to travel to those countries about the risks, but nothing beyond that. Democratic countries certainly don't threaten or punish their citizens for traveling to any country. But if the US allows its citizens to freely travel to Saudi Arabia, a country ruled by probably the most nastiest and repressive government there is, then it’s truly beyond me why Cuba and Iran, who are way more moderate, are on the no-go list. Could it have something to do with the fact that those two countries don’t want to kiss US ass? Nah . . .

Tell all those people who mistakenly found themselves on the terrorist no-fly list how free they feel. These people are effectively trapped within the US, unable to leave.

As for being militarized, it was the US which started the arms race which helped bankrupt the Soviet Union, and now seems to be bankrupting itself. As for militarization, look at what has been going on in the US since 9/11. The military budget has grown to record heights, the over-glorification of the military is sickening. In elementary, middle and high schools, ROTC drones and military recruiters swarm the campuses. Yellow ribbons, military recruiting commercials, shows and movies glorifying military operations are all part-and-parcel of a militarized society. Military parades and salutes at ball games and other public gatherings are everywhere.

The US is the biggest weapons dealer in the world. It causes crises and tensions and creates fake enemies and straw men in order to scare and force unsuspecting dupes worldwide to buy US-made weaponry; weaponry they don’t need and damn well can’t afford. All the while social programs are cut, austerity measures enacted so that a country can pay for useless and over-the-top weaponry they don’t need; all so they can prove what faithful and good US allies they are!

Add to that the bad habit of the US deploying its military everywhere as ‘help,’ but in reality it’s just a racket to inject US firepower and influence into a part of the world in order to exploit a natural resource, setup a strategically-located base, or push out foreign competitors (As is happening in Africa currently where US wants to push out Chinese investments). Makes you wonder about that whole Ebola scare, doesn't it?

The US is also in the process of militarizing its allies, and remilitarizing Germany and Japan, who up until now were obligated by treaty to have only a peace time army. The US, seeking to exploit these nations’ military power, and budgets, is prodding and enticing them into a militarist mindset. It does so by provoking both Russia and North Korea and other hapless countries. It uses those countries’ responses, which are sure to be full of anger or at least warning, to scare its allies into arming themselves to the teeth. This process is currently under way in Japan and Germany.

The most ominous part of the militarization of US society is that, unbeknownst to most of the US public, the president can now use the military to apprehend and/or kill anyone anywhere in the world deemed a threat, including US citizens. This has already been done.

For the US/western public, the Berlin wall remains a symbol of the perfidious lengths to which authoritarian communist governments went to to keep their citizens locked up behind the iron curtain.

But the true story of how, and why, the Berlin Wall came to be in 1961 is more nuanced. Western propaganda states that the wall was built to prevent people from East Germany from defecting and fleeing. But in reality, East Germans were free to travel to East Berlin regularly for years. But over time, this led to labor shortages in certain fields because East German-trained professionals went to work for West German companies which paid better.

Also, most of the East German workers didn't defect. They came home at the end of the day back to East Germany. 

Add to that the fact that the free access between East and West Berlin allowed western/US agents to cross into East Germany and cause acts of terrorism and sabotage, the East German authorities got fed up and sealed the border. 

Even US officials quietly admitted that the Berlin Wall made East Germany safer and most likely prevented another war.

Speaking of walls, why hasn't the benevolent and eternally wonderful US/EU done anything to condemn Israel for erecting the apartheid wall inside the West Bank, effectively cutting off Palestinians from their own land and de facto annexing it to Israel.

To this day, Israel hasn't been held accountable for building this wall, which is even worse than the Berlin Wall was. At least the Berlin Wall wasn't used to steal land!

Accusation#9 – Under communism, people were poor. They didn’t have anything!

When the other accusations are explained and debunked, the accuser turns to this one as a last-ditch attempt to exonerate their warped and uninformed worldview.

Yes, in a socialist/communist country foreign consumer goods weren’t plentiful, and certain items were not sold. That’s because socialist/communist governments were concerned with the basic practicalities, and were not materialistic/consumer-oriented societies. But were many of these goods necessary?

The next time you go to the store, look around and ask yourself: how much of the stuff in that store people actually need. What can you do without? I guarantee that the majority of the crap there is either frivolous or just plain useless.

People in capitalist countries have been conditioned to think they need a constant stream of stuff, but in reality, they don’t. A century of psychological manipulation and subtle mental queues that appeal to, and amplify, a person’s most base instincts and insecurities is being used to sell people things they don’t need or that are harmful to them.

Also, people shouldn’t confuse poverty with the absence of consumer goods, or access to them. People in socialist/communist countries had free health care, education, full and permanent employment, and guaranteed retirement and pensions. Sure, they didn’t have glitzy housing and the luxury goods, but is an iPhone, cheese-in-a-can or a Barbie doll really more important than those previously-mentioned benefits?

Many people in western societies, especially in the US, see themselves as poor just because they can’t afford everything that they want. They also assume that people in other countries who don’t have the things Americans have are also poor. This is a sick attitude, and there are people out there with this mentality. It’s also ignorance of other peoples’ cultures and mentalities. Westerners and Americans just can’t fathom the possibility that to other people and cultures, western toys and gadgets are not as important, or seen as wasteful, childish or unnecessary; a view that is actually very astute and correct. The western mind hasn’t evolved to see things this way yet, I guess.

Plus, as I’ve said to my relatives recently, democracy doesn’t equal store shelves full of stuff. There are authoritarian countries with despotic, capitalist free-market true-believer governments where stores are full of all the things you’d see in the US. Capitalism shouldn’t be seen as synonymous with democracy and freedom. Seeing it as such is incorrect. 

Poverty and homelessness in the US and Western Europe is increasing. People are unemployed, and having a harder time providing the basic necessities. On more than one occasion I was approached by people asking me if I can buy them something to eat, here in the good old rich USA!

I’d be willing to bet that there are tons of impoverished people living in capitalist countries throughout the world today for whom the basic amenities that an Eastern European government offered its citizens during the communist years would be the ultimate in luxury!

Ironically, incidents of homelessness in communist countries were rare or non-existent. 

Accusation# 10 - Communist countries were technologically backward!

This is more of a cheap-shot than accusation. 

In the western world, communist countries were looked upon as uncreative, unsophisticated, and primitive as far as technology and innovation went.

But just a cursory glimpse at history shows that this is not true. 

Question: Which country started the space race, launched the first satellite, first rocket, first living organism, first man into space, and conducted the first spacewalk?

Answer: The Soviet Union

Not the US, France, Great Britain or Switzerland.

The Soviet Union's pioneering space exploration and research set the stage for, and inspired, the US space program. It also shook the US enough that they actually started educating their people better in math and science so they could keep up with the Soviets.

Soviet scientists, engineers, and technicians were/are some of the best in the world. By the 1960s the Soviet Union was very close to achieving economic and technological parity with the west.

The US saw this, and got scared. So it started to turn up the heat on the cold war. In the coming decades the US deliberately did everything it could to ruin the Soviet Union's economy. It lured the Soviets into the arms race, which unfortunately led the Soviet government to put an increasing number of brains and muscle power, materials, time, and money into weapons research, development, and manufacture.

This left too few people and resources for civilian development, leading to the lack of consumer goods, and general shoddiness and lack of quality in the ones produced.

Nevertheless, Soviet weaponry was of good design and quality, some of it quite ahead of its time. So obviously human intellect and technical expertise weren't the reasons for the Soviet Union's economic problems.

We'll never know what the Soviets would've achieved if they weren't manipulated by the US/west to squander their efforts on weapons, and instead put most of their ingenuity and resources into the civilian economy.

Even today Russia makes the best rocket engines on earth. They're so good that the US uses them to send its domestic rockets into space. Russia banned the sale of these engines recently to the US because of the sanctions the US passed.

The US also uses the Russian Baikonur space facility, and Russian-built Soyuz rockets to send US astronauts and equipment to the International Space Station.

Even East Germany back in its heyday managed to domestically design and build its own 386 computer.

Of course, we'll never know what further technological advancements the communist countries would've made if left alone to live and develop in peace without being deliberately saddled with ridiculously exorbitant interest rates on loans, sabotage, sanctions, and blockades by the west.

  

* * *

That’s about all that I can come up with, but I’m sure there are other accusations that can be hurled upon communism and socialism. But I’m also sure those accusations can be countered by-comparison. 

Also remember that communism isn't a Russian-created, or Eastern philosophy or system. It is a political/economic philosophy born in the West, and was meant to be applied in the west.

My aim in this essay is not to excuse nor condone acts of violence and inhumanity committed by any regime in any system, past and present.  It’s not to glorify communism/socialism as the only, and best solution, while ignoring its flaws. Doing so would make me no better than the misguided and foolish disciples of capitalism.

What I’m totally sick of and pissed at are the deluded and uninformed ignoramuses out there that see things as black and white. The worst, smelliest, and annoying offenders are those shitheads who can recite communist crimes by rote while holding the USA as a paragon of virtue and goodness who has done no wrong.

Such an attitude doesn’t only show profound ignorance; it’s downright criminal. Such an attitude is a denial and betrayal of all the innocent victims of US warmongering, and that of US-sponsored regimes. Such an attitude is on full display currently in Eastern Ukraine, where the civilians, and their neighborhoods, were shelled with tactical missiles meant to destroy cities by the US/EU supported Kiev regime forces. These people don’t matter to the US and the west. These people are branded as figments of the Kremlin’s imagination; they don’t exist to the US and their vassal governments in Eastern Europe. But yet those victims are real, and they are dead, killed by US and western criminal connivance.

That’s why I don’t get why the current governments in Eastern Europe bow down and listen to every US order and each piece of pathetic and false Russophobic propaganda when there’s so much proof of US criminality all over the world. How can a Polish or a Romania politician think that the US is good while ignoring the death, destruction, and total disregard for democracy the US is guilty of in places like Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Latin America and others? How can these so-called democratic leaders lament past communist atrocities in their countries, yet ignore and deny atrocities committed by the US and their allies? Either these so-called leaders are willfully ignorant or bought off puppets. Either way, they’re also criminally negligent, and can be bought up on war crimes charges if there was any true justice in the world. Hiding behind past victim status while carrying out war crimes, or aiding and abetting other who commit them is just disgusting.

In this age of information, no one can claim that they were uninformed or didn’t know, as the clueless and slimy Hillary Clinton opined when asked about the bad intelligence concerning the imaginary Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

It must be remembered and taken as holy writ that the US has no friends; it only has subordinates. Anyone who stands in the way of the pursuit of US interests, or aspires to be an equal, is an enemy.  Vladimir Putin found this out the hard way.

Those who submit to US control are rewarded. Those who don’t are punished with sanctions and regime change.

That’s the extent of US democracy and freedom, and of course capitalism.