Merkel Upbraids Putin For “Interfering” in Europe

German Chancellor Angela “The Iron Mouse” Merkel has publicly raked Vladimir Putin and Russia over the coals once again for “interfering” in other countries. [1]

And who can blame her? As U.S. Secretary of State John “I Love Being Important!” Kerry has sneered, interfering in other countries’ internal affairs is just SO “twentieth century!” I mean who does THAT anymore? Certainly not the U.S.! Certainly not the EU! (Oh wait, didn’t they arrange a coup in Ukraine in the spring? SHHH! You’re not supposed to notice that!) 

Actually Kerry might have been talking about “invading” countries, something Russia hasn’t exactly done in Ukraine. But again, when was the last time the U.S. invaded a country? Not since the 20^th century! (Well, not exactly true. Remember Iraq 2003? And Haiti in 2004? Oh, right.) OK, smarty, when was the last time before THAT? (Uh, 2001. But there was a good reason!) Alright then, what about before then? --1992 (Somalia). And don’t forget 1991. (Iraq.)  Um, and 1989 (Panama).  Then there’s Lebanon  in 1982 and 1984. And let’s  not forget 1983 (Grenada). And Vietnam, and Laos, and Cambodia. And the U.S. simply had to invade the Dominican Republic in 1965 when an election didn’t come out the right way. [2]

Then there’s all the coups and subversion and terrorism, the destruction of democracy in Guatemala (1954), Iran (1953), and Chile (1973- the only one of the three where some democracy has returned), to mention three. Oh, and the Iraq coup by which Saddam Hussein took over that nation, backed by the CIA. (He had a falling out with the U.S. much later.) All the subversions of elections and parties and unions and other organizations in Europe, the Operation Gladio terrorism in several European nations, and on and on.

Alright already! That’s different! The U.S. are the GOOD GUYS! Russia are the BAD GUYS! So it’s totally different!

Sheesh! Why do you have to be so FACTUAL all the time! That really spoils the rhetoric!

 Merkel claims Russia is “interfering” with the absorption of every country to Russia’s west by doing mean things to some of those nations.

And what constitutes “Russian interference”? Banning Moldovan imports. Of some products. I kid you not. Not even of all products- the way the U.S. has banned ALL Cuban imports for over 50 years now.

Russia isn’t obligated to trade with Moldova. How often has the U.S. (with its EU lackeys servilely in tow) used economic sanctions against nations to express its displeasure? Just what are they doing to Iran right now? It’s not as if Russia is blockading Moldova, the way the U.S. wages economic warfare.

And the EU and U.S. has been waging economic warfare against Russia for most of this year. Much more savagely than anything Russia is doing.

Merkel is also peeved that Russia supports breakaway portions of former Soviet Republics.  I mean, everyone KNOWS borders are inviolate and eternal. Borders NEVER EVER CHANGE. People NEVER separate from their old countries. That’s why Czechoslovakia is still one country, not too. (Oops, not true.) And there’s no such country as “South Sudan,” just Sudan. (Wrong again.) And Kosovo is still part of Serbia, isn’t it?

                                    

Merkel is so tired of Putin’s meddling! Doesn’t he know who rules the world?

But there was an interesting sentence in the Guardian’s (UK) article on Merkel’s latest sour swipe at Russia. Here it is:

“Moscow has shown its displeasure with Moldova’s pro-European course – confirmed in an election last week in which a pro-Russia candidate was prevented from participating – by banning imports of Moldovan wines, vegetables and meat.”

Now parse that a second. Moldova’s “pro-European course” was “confirmed in an election last week in which a pro-Russia candidate was prevented from participating…” An election in which a candidate was not allowed to run. Now how “democratic” is that? How is that different from Iran, where a bunch of mullahs decide who can run, or Hong Kong, where the Chinese rulers are picking the permitted candidates for the city’s boss? But the Guardian just breezed right past that. They slipped it in as an aside in a sentence about Russia’s import ban. They probably figured no one would notice. Probably almost no one did.

Oh, and get this: “Merkel also accused Moscow of trying to make countries in the western Balkans economically and politically dependent on Russia in order to gain influence there,” according to the Guardian.

Now the U.S. and its EU running dogs would never do anything like that! The U.S.-controlled International Monetary Fund didn’t just sink its claws into Ukraine, for example. (There’s only about 10,000 other examples in the last few centuries of Euro-American imperialisms- I won’t tax your patience by running through them all.)

One thing Merkel has learned well from her U.S. masters: the art of shameless hypocrisy.

                                                                      

"Putin? Meh. We don't like him anymore.
Obedient German Schnauzer looks to her Master for cues.

1] “Angela Merkel: Russia creating problems for EU-minded neighbours,” Guardian, 7 December 2014.

2] Notes: There’s a list of major U.S. violence and brutality in Latin America from 1890, History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America. That of course is after the U.S. invasion of Mexico in 1848 and the seizure of half of Mexico and its incorporation into the U.S.

 Also PBS Frontline has some events, A Chronology of U.S. Military Interventions: From Vietnam to the Balkans.

A more extensive list is From Wounded Knee to Syria: A Century of U.S. Military Interventions, which has an obvious ideological bias. (Too bad there wasn’t more intervention in Syria, if indeed there was even what this author claims.)

If you’d like to peruse a list that purports to show invasions by all countries going back centuries, there’s one on Wikipedia, titled List of invasions. (Nice and straightforward, eh?)

By the way, unlike doctrinaire leftists, I don’t think every single intervention was unjustified. Stopping Serbian rampages in the Balkans was overdue. And it was legitimate to aid the Libyan people in their uprising against the hated tyrant Qaddafi, to name two examples. And it would have been a fine thing to have supported the Syrians rebellion against the monstrous Assad with more than rhetoric- too late now!

As for the current operations against the self-aggrandizing nihilists now calling themselves “Islamic State,” a self-styled barbarous “caliphate,” the people literally fighting for their lives against these exterminationists deserve to be aided militarily and not abandoned to an awful fate. But as usual, Obama first dithered, then proceeded to half-measures. Obama nearly abandoned Kobani, a Kurdish city in Syria, near the Turkish border, to the IS onslaught, before changing his mind.