Talking heads on television, especially on MSNBC, keep repeating the talking point that neither Assad nor Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin can be trusted. I just want to know, when did Putin ever betray his word to the United States? They talk as if it were self-evident, but as far as I can tell, this is more a question of projection than fact. The United States is the one that repeatedly breaks its word in international agreements.
Putin Untrustworthy?
Ted Rall
http://rall.comTed Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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6 Comments.
When did you stop beating your wife?
I don’t know if I would go so far as to say “projection” because of how Russia has acted in many ways – whether domestic or foreign. But as far as the United States, we have been subjected to a real cavalcade of lies, misinformation and over-the-top spin on so many things domestically ever since the nation was founded, including all the slimy self-centered stuff we have done in foreign affairs and “policies” that a majority of the sheeple live in a historical bubble that bears little appearance to reality – and if you don’t know what’s real, how can you be expected to act or respond in a common-sense manner?
Putin never lied me into a war, never rewarded the company I worked for when it outsourced my job to a foreign country, never rewarded finance capital for economic crimes against me, never collected taxes from me to fund a bloated unaccountable war machine…and the list goes on.
Given that all states are unions of thugs so powerful that when they declare themselves to stand next to God, most people will find their denial of the state’s crimes against others expedient.
If the USA had an effective functioning democratic influence on policy then the beleaguered impoverished citizens of the USA would not have to rely on heads of foreign states, such as Putin, to impose restraints on the first use of the military to the exclusion of alternatives less damaging to the economic life, both at home and abroad.
“Cannot be trusted” is just a buzzword.
If you want to understand American propaganda, watch a bad action/adventure cartoon or play a particularly bad rpg.
Villains in terrible examples of these media are villains Just Because. They have no real motivations and have no real examples of villainous policy since any terrible thing they do is likely to be mirrored by the “heroes.” They’re bad for bad’s sake, since the real goal is to sell toys and/or get word-count up for a hack writer.
That’s the mindset mediating U.S. foreign policy. Associate a rival aristocrat with “bad things” and let cognitive dissonance do the rest. If you’re not an authoritarian follower of the mainstream, this act makes no sense. You sit around questioning the “bad things.” But if you are an authoritarian follower, your brain fills in the gaps and, like a child watching the Autobots beat up on hapless, yet sneering, Decepticons, rationalizes the badness.
This is why republicans hate Clinton — the male — for literally bullshit reasons, yet often can’t come up with any actual real reasons to hate him. (Because if they relied on the real reasons, it would push them out of the republican platform.)
Also, it’s easy to switch off. If Putin becomes useful to the local aristocracy again, playing up his virtues will be easy since his vices were pixie-dust and moonbeams that will dissolve into the ether the moment the echo chamber stops clapping.
Peace, love and understanding has been at odds with War, hate and discrimination since the world began. The desire for power, religion and self-centeredness seem to be well interned in a majority of people all over the world – sometimes for what may seem to be good reasons on the surface. Like George Tirebiter once said, “People are just no damn good!” But that is too much of a generalization. It may be more truthful to observe that people who genuinely good, kind people are a minority, and rarely find themselves in positions of power or great influence. Why is that?
It’s all a question of those bloated military and (in) security budgets, Ted, which devour more than 50 % of the taxes US residents pay to your country’s federal budget. Neither Vladimir Vladimirovich nor, for that matter, Jinping have the moxie with which military superiority (and more than 1000 military bases outside the US) provide Barack Hussein ; thus the latter, like his predecessors, can violate Treaties (according to Article VI of the US Constitution, «the supreme Law of the Land») with impunity, while the former must show more caution. Besides, think how much money those who run the country are making from this funnel, which continually channels wealth from the many to the few. No wonder the talking heads on television, who are well remunerated for serving the interests of the few, question Gospodin Putin’s credibility and trustworthiness – it helps to keep the collective eye of the US public off the ball. What’s not to like ?…
Henri