America, the Ingrate Nation

Russia lately has done some significant favors for the U.S. Yet far from any gratitude, the U.S. has shown its appreciation by attacking Russia's core strategic interests in Ukraine, and now that Russia is defending those interests, the U.S. is trying to turn Russia into a pariah state, with punitive sanctions and a relentless campaign of public invective, aided and abetter by its Eurolackeys and corporate media. [1]

Letting bygones be bygones, Russia helped the U.S. in its Afghan campaign, with supply lines and intel, despite the fact that the U.S. helped kill thousands of Russian soldiers in Afghanistan. (Contrast that with how upset the U.S. got with Iran during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, when they accused Iran of supplying explosives that “killed American soldiers!,” the ultimate crime.) And the U.S. expects Russia to aid the evacuation of U.S. equipment and forces from their little Afghan adventure. [2]

Then there's Iran's nuclear enrichment program. Russia is part of the six-nation bloc- the five permanent members of the UN “Security” Council (the U.S., two of its subaltern states, Britain and France, and Russia and China), plus Germany, the so-called P5-plus 1 group, that has ganged up on Iran to force it to cry “Uncle!” and dismantle its nuclear program. What's in it for Russia?

And Obama is personally indebted to Putin and Russia. Obama managed to paint himself into a corner when he threatened the Syrian regime of Bashir al-Assad with military attack if he crossed Obama's “red line” of using chemical weapons to beat down the ongoing rebellion against his unbearable rule . After at least the second such attack, Obama growled like he meant business. But being cautious to a fault when it comes to covering his own ass, even if it's just protecting it from criticism, he ill-advisedly tried to drag Congress into it with him, seeking Congressional approval. And just to show how he tries to have things all ways at all times (a habit of his) he said he didn't really NEED Congressional approval anyway.

When it became apparent that Congress would probably vote against his bombing plan, Obama the Cool Cat was stuck up the tree he had just climbed. Who came to his rescue? The Russians, with a plan for Assad to voluntarily turn over his chemical weapons stockpile. (And now Obama boasts of “his” foreign policy triumph in this matter, with nary a nod to the Russians, who bailed his butt out!)

And this happened just last year, in 2013! Which doesn't even give Obama pause as he heaps opprobrium on Russia and Putin, and as his UN ambassador, the revoltingly self-righteous Samantha “I'm So Moral!” Power tongue-lashes Russia in speeches from her UN perch. [3]

The insufferable U.S. arrogance lies in the fact that it expects other nations to serve its interests, and get nothing in return except that the U.S. won't attack it if it always submits to U.S. diktat. That is a characteristic of a gangster empire.

But that is at least in part due to the U.S.' overwhelming power. I think one of the pathological effects of power is that it makes those who wield it insensitive to others, an effect that gets worse the more power one has. China for example is currently riding roughshod over its neighbors regarding islands, territorial water and airspace, and undersea minerals and oil. Interestingly, China, like the U.S., has an egotistical pseudo-historical mythology about itself, from which it derives a sense of superiority. In fact, many nations try to create an artificial pride via a distorted historical backstory. How often this leads to grief. All the imperialisms manifest this pathology. And even punk nations like Serbia. Recall how the Serbs thought that killing Muslims was “revenge” for an Ottoman invasion of 500 years ago! Demented.

Anyway, the only hope for checking malign U.S. power (which the people who hold the power have convinced themselves is God's Gift to humanity!) is that its blundering arrogance will catch up with it, as happened with Nazi Germany. Making Russia an enemy drives it into closer ties with China. If the U.S. “strategists” and “policy makers” had half a brain, they'd realize they need Russia to help contain China. But thinking more than a year or two into the future isn't their strong point. [4]

Speaking of ingratitude, there are Afghans and Iraqis who put themselves in grave danger, and many have been killed, because they helped the American invaders of their countries, such as by translating for them. Of course the Americans reassured them that they would be taken care of, that they could move to America. Well guess what? The U.S. has double-crossed almost all of them! More endangered Iraqis have been granted refuge in Sweden than in the U.S.! Sweden!

But on the other hand, any fascist or state terrorist serving U.S. interests (those are “friends” to the U.S.) can find a safe haven inside the United States. There are military and secret police butchers from places like Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras enjoying retirement in sunny Florida. (On the other hand, poor refugees fleeing for their lives from those lands blessed by the gift of U.S.-style liberty are deported as fast as they can get here, including children.)

So I guess it's not quite true to say the U.S. is never grateful for services rendered.

1] And also aided and abetted by other of the usual suspects, like Australia. On August 31st, Australia's right-wing prime minister Tony Abbott once again piped up to attack Russia for protecting its interests (and its ethnic brethren under siege by the Kiev regime), thusly:

“Russia started it and Russia must take responsibility for this loss of life."

“Russia quite brazenly is trying to break eastern Ukraine away from Ukraine, into a separate country."

“If Russian troops remain in Ukraine and if Russia persists in its attempts to break up a neighbouring country that has done it no harm, Russia risks becoming an international pariah.”

WHO started it? Who overthrew the elected regime back in February? Oh never mind.

And get this. Tony the Tiny Tiger also said: “I want to make it absolutely clear that the bullying of small nations by big ones and assertions that might is right should have no place in our world,” He wasn't talking about his U.S. masters either.

Russia, the aggressive invading warmonger, on the other hand called for a ceasefire in the civil war in Ukraine.

See also the very subtly titled "Tony Abbott Is An Insufferable Jackass."

"That was some speech, right Boss? I did good, right Boss?"

2] So twisted is U.S. derangement that U.S. imperialist elites saw what they were doing in Afghanistan as “payback” for what Russia “did” to the U.S. in Vietnam, as if Russia made the U.S. invade and destroy that country! This rage and vengefulness is attached to a grotesque self-pity, with much wallowing in ersatz sorrow over 58,000 dead American cannon-fodder. 58,000? Big deal. You bastards slaughtered three or four million Vietnamese (it's impossible to even know how many), a country with a much smaller population, plus a half million Cambodians and Laotians apiece. You dropped three times the tonnage of bombs on Vietnam as you dropped in World War II. To top it off, you saturated the soil and water with dioxins, creating misery to this day with horrendously deformed babies, the result of your mutilation of the human genome in Vietnam by your chemical Shut up about your 58,000 dead already and pay Vietnam reparations, you criminals.

Russia may have been willing to help the U.S. in Afghanistan because of its problems with Chechen Muslims who persistently attack Russian civilians and try and spread Jihadist Islam. Likewise, Russia may fear an Iranian nuclear weapon capability because Iran is a theocracy, although a Shiite one, whereas the Jihadis are Sunnis who murder Shiites when they get the chance. Since Russia has reverted to its primitive Russian Orthodox Christian roots, that could also factor into the equation. Whereas in Soviet times, the official atheism of the regime created conflict with all religion, now the Russian Christian church provides a basis for conflict with Islam.

3] Samantha Power is one of those bourgeois figures that is deployed to put a human mask on the face of the bourgeoisie's ruthless rule. She pretends to be oh-so-concerned with human suffering and humanitarian disasters, and pushes the absurd line that the U.S. is the antidote- a nation that has been the cause of immense human suffering for over two centuries, all over the world. Now she's going above and beyond the imperialist call of duty with the verbal ordure she dumps on Russia's head. Power's palaver is just pissing in Russia's face, pure insult devoid of substantive content. The U.S. is lucky that Russians are thick-skinned and used to abuse- because their own culture and society is abusive to themselves, mainly. We know how very thin-skinned Americans are. Criticize the U.S., and they even murder you for it sometimes.

You can read her chest-thumping drivel at the U.S. State department website, but I advise against it. The site probably will plant spyware on your computer- that's how the U.S. deals with people. At a minimum it will record your IP address and your computer's unique characteristics. Identifying you is the first step in attacking you. The NSA will compile a library of all your online activities. They may choose to infect your computer with a rootkit and other sophisticated spyware to remotely monitor in real time everything you do on your computer. They can also delete files, plant incriminating data, spoof your IP address, send forged emails seeming to come from you, and so on.

To protect you from these dangers, I have reproduced Power's peroration in full at the end of this essay- I think it speaks for itself as an example of pure invective, indeed hate speech. To save space I use a smaller font size- you can copy and past it into a text document and enlarge the font. Or use the magnifier function in your operating system software. If you can't do that, don't worry- you aren't missing much. Reading it is about as edifying as reading a rant from an American apparatchik in the 1950s. The U.S. hasn't really changed fundamentally, contrary to what its propagandists sometimes try and trick you to believe. Same old fanatical imperialist nation. And of course the fundamental unity of “liberals” and “conservatives” is nicely revealed. When the chips are down, the mask of liberalism falls away and the same snarling beast is exposed.

One thing that really illuminates what kind of person Power actually is, is the fact that she has taken as her mate the totalitarian Cass Sunstein. Sunstein also worked for Obama. In that capacity, he pushed for a covert assault on people who don't buy the official pack of lies about the 9/11 attacks, and other official disinformation. He advocated infiltration and disruption to try and suppress such dangerous dissent. This totalitarian bastard cannot abide anyone not falling into line behind official lies. He should move to China. Or try North Korea, Cass! You can send in your blather to the Palestinian-hating The New Republic from there.

4] Speaking of utterly self-delusional self-serving self-aggrandizement, a perfect example is the halfwit Madeleine Albright, William Jefferson Clinton's secretary of state, who publicly boasted to the world that the U.S. is “the indispensable nation,” “because we see farther” than all you inferior nations. (Ironic in light of how short-sighted U.S. apparatchiks and politicians actually are.) This is the evil gnome who said that the murder of over half a million Iraqi children under Clinton's sanctions was “worth it.” What the “it” was that was allegedly achieved by this horrendous holocaust, she never explained. So in one person, you see the incredible arrogance, cluelessness, smug sense of superiority, moral obtuseness, and heartless cruelty that epitomes U.S. imperialism generally.

Now, without further ado, here are the Russian-bashing professional stylings of Samantha “I Get Paid To Puff Hot Air!” Power.

“RUSSIA STINKS! Or, Why I Hate Russia.” A Rant By Samatha Power. 

Screeched at the UN “Security” Council, August 28, 2014.

AS DELIVERED

Mr. President, representatives on this Council, this is our 24^th session to try to rein in Russia’s aggressive acts in Ukraine. Every single one of those sessions has sent a straight-forward, unified message: Russia, stop this conflict. Russia is not listening.

We said it when Russia flagrantly violated international law in occupying Crimea. We said it after the shocking downing of Malaysian Airlines flight 17, which took the lives of innocent men, women, children, and infants from 11 countries. And we say it today, as Russia’s soldiers, tanks, air defense, and artillery support and fight alongside separatists as they open a new front in a crisis manufactured in and fueled by Russia.

But Russia is not listening.

Instead of listening, instead of heeding the demands of the international community and the rules of the international order, at every step, Russia has come before this Council to say everything except the truth. It has manipulated. It has obfuscated. It has outright lied. So we have learned to measure Russia by its actions and not by its words.

In the last 48 hours, Russia’s actions have spoken volumes.

On August 26 – just this Tuesday – after meeting with Ukrainian President Poroshenko in Minsk, Belarus, President Putin spoke of the need to quote “end bloodshed as soon as possible.” End quote. Yet the same day, satellite imagery shows Russian combat units – combat units – southeast of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine. That same day in Luhansk, Ukraine detained regular Russian Army personnel from the 9th brigade.

In response, Russia claimed the soldiers had wandered into Ukrainian territory “by mistake.” This, supposedly, in a time of conflict along one of the most carefully watched borders in the world.

The day after those talks, Russia fired Grad rockets from inside Russia at Ukrainian positions in Novoazovsk, and then attacked with two columns of Russian armored vehicles and tanks. Russian armored vehicles and Uragan multiple rocket launchers are positioned on the outskirts of that town as we speak.

Russia’s force along the border is the largest it has been since it began redeploying forces there in late May, and includes significant numbers of combat aircraft and helicopters. Russian unmanned aircraft routinely cross into Ukrainian airspace.

Other Russian deployments into Ukrainian territory include advanced artillery and air defense systems not found in the Ukrainian inventory. These artillery systems have shelled Ukrainian positions outside Luhansk City in conjunction with the recent separatist counteroffensive.

One of the separatist leaders that Russia has armed and backed said openly that three or four thousand Russian soldiers have joined their cause. He was quick to clarify that these soldiers were on vacation. But a Russian soldier who chooses to fight in Ukraine on his summer break is still a Russian soldier. And the armored Russian military vehicle he drives there is not his personal car.

Meanwhile, in Russia, family members of Russian soldiers are holding funerals for their loved ones who have been killed in the fighting in Ukraine. They’re demanding answers for how they were killed. Journalists who try to cover these funerals are harassed and threatened by armed men. Yet, still, according to the Russian government, the soldiers were never there. They were never in Crimea either, until Russia announced that those soldiers who were never there had annexed Crimea.

The last 48 hours fit into a well-established pattern for Russia. Each step has paved the way for the one that followed. And yet in spite of all of these outrageous actions, Ukraine has repeatedly sought a political solution to this crisis. It has repeatedly sought a path to de-escalation. Despite this pattern, President Poroshenko showed up in Minsk to meet with President Putin. In contrast, President Putin was still unwilling to acknowledge the most basic facts we all know: that Russia has armed, equipped, and now joined illegal separatists fighting in Ukraine. Serious negotiations are needed, urgently needed. But Russia has to stop lying and has to stop fueling this conflict.

The mask is coming off. In these acts – these recent acts – we see Russia’s actions for what they are: a deliberate effort to support, and now fight alongside, illegal separatists in another sovereign country.

Now, Russia has claimed that Ukraine is not interested in a ceasefire, but let’s be clear: we have every interest in a ceasefire, as do the Ukrainians, as long as it is a real one. But Russian separatists not only have no interest in observing a ceasefire, but they cynically use the time to rearm and wait for additional soldiers and supplies to flow across the border from Russia.

In the face of these deeply alarming actions, the most important question for us now is not what we should say to Russia. The most important question is what we should do to make Russia listen.

The United States has, throughout this crisis, and in close coordination with our European partners, the EU and the G7, exerted targeted, effective pressure so that this message is heard, so that Russia begins to de-escalate, rather than escalate, so that the reasonable peace plan put forward by President Poroshenko is adopted and implemented. And in the face of Russia’s continued aggression and blatant disregard for the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, we will continue to work closely with our G7 and European partners to ratchet up the consequences on Russia.

Now, I understand that there are real costs felt by citizens of countries when their governments take these actions. It has costs for businesses that trade with Russia and sell to Russian markets, from small-scale farmers to big factories. Those costs are considerable, and nobody should take them lightly.

But let’s be clear: if unchecked, the damage that Russia’s blatant disregard for the international order poses is much, much greater. These rules and principles that have taken generations to build, with unparalleled investment – countless lives have been lost to establish and defend these principles. And every single one of us has a stake in defending them. A threat to the order – the international order – is a threat to all of our peace and security.

These are the rules that Russia is flouting when it illegally seizes territory and arms, equips, and fights alongside illegal groups in neighboring countries.

Ukraine is one of roughly a dozen countries that share a border with Russia. Let me close with a couple questions: How can we tell those countries that border Russia that their peace and sovereignty is guaranteed if we do not make our message heard on Ukraine? Why should they believe it will be different if tomorrow, President Putin decides to start supporting armed separatists and allowing soldiers “on vacation” to fight in their countries? And, just as important, what message are we sending to other countries with similarly alarming ambitions around the world, when we let Russia violate these rules without sufficient consequences? In the face of this threat, the cost of inaction is unacceptable.

Thank you.

You're welcome, Samantha. (Gee, she was so polite at the end there!) But you could have saved yourself some time and just taunted Russia like this: “Liar liar, pants on fire!”