Russia, Cuba and the truth about Putin the U.S. media doesn’t want you to know

[newthinking]

[font size=2]Paging Keri Russell: Russia, Cuba and the truth about Putin the U.S. media doesn’t want you to know
We are making mayhem in Russia, and reality is almost the opposite of what is being described in the press
Patrick L. Smith

Salon

http://www.salon.com/2014/12/24/paging_keri_russell_russia_cuba_and_the_truth_about_putin_the_u_s_media_doesnt_want_you_to_know/


Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin (Credit: AP/Evan Vucci)

I cannot be the only one to note the remarkable sequence of events in the Obama White House last week. It tells us all we need to know—for now, anyway—about what Washington is up to as it puts Russia in an illegal police chokehold. This will end neither soon nor well.

On Wednesday the president announced his out-of-nowhere move to lift sanctions against Cuba and reestablish diplomatic ties. I cannot be the only one to do this, either: I wept. Half a century of suffering pointlessly inflicted on a humane and very brave people will now come to an end.

On Thursday Obama signed HR 5859, the Ukraine Freedom Support Act, into law. One is always suspicious of bills with Boy Scouty names like this, and one is always justified: Obama just gave himself permission to inflict pointless suffering on the humane and very brave Russian people more or less arbitrarily and indefinitely. And in all our names, the Pentagon will now arm Ukraine with lethal weapons. Funny, the $350 million committed as an opener just about matches what Truman gave the Greek monarchists in 1947, so commencing the Cold War.

Let us end the Cold War 90 miles off our coast and far too late. Let us prosecute it full bore against Russia and along its borders, far too irrationally and nostalgically. I find one key to Washington’s reasoning, if this is the word, on Russia in this contradiction, because it is apparent, not real.

“It is clear that decades of U.S. isolation of Cuba have failed to accomplish our enduring objective of promoting the emergence of a democratic, prosperous and stable Cuba,” Obama said Wednesday. “We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. It does not serve America’s interests, or the Cuban people, to try to push Cuba toward collapse.”

http://www.salon.com/2014/12/24/paging_keri_russell_russia_cuba_and_the_truth_about_putin_the_u_s_media_doesnt_want_you_to_know/

[Eko]

1. I thought this was over

Russian troops capturing the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, massing on Ukraine's borders and possibly sending troops into Ukraine to fight. My bad. I can see now that Obama made the Russians do this. Funny thing is we made him do this before in Georgia. Seems to be a pattern there, we keep making Putin take over territories. Before you know it it will be our fault for him taking over parts of France because we tried to spread democracy while the pro-russian separatists who while a minority in the country are a majority in a small part of it decide they want that territory. So they rebel, or attack or try to secede, France protects it's interests and Russia moves in. Our fault though. Of course I am being facetious to a certain point, but I am making a point. How about this, America has done some bad things, Iraq, Afghanistan, hey we share that with the Russians! Grenada, the list goes on. The simple fact is that we are two large superpowers who do good and bad things, neither of us are innocent, but yet we are against each other. Understanding this does not mean we should not hold world peace as our most important endeavor, but we should also not let our Allies fall to aggression. Good link on the history of Russia-US takeovers. http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/64602/charles-king/the-five-day-war

[KoKo]

3. I think a question we might ask at this point is:"How is Our Spreading Democracy working out for US?

Where are our Successes in this? Would you consider CUBA after 50 Years a Great Success? Or, are you using Vietnam as your example of a Success? They make cheap goods to import to Walmart and other US Cheap Goods and Upscale Goods Stores across America. They compete with China where we sent our Manufacturing Jobs in the 1980's.

How has this worked out for American Citizens...?

Give me Your View....

[Eko]

4. That would depend on your definition of a success.

And there are a lot of other factors other than the spread of democracy that affect American Citizens,,, is it the spread of democracy or the control of the Conservatives in our Government that have affected the American citizen the most?

[KoKo]

2. Article is an Excellent Read! Recommend...