And This is Why Putin Will Never be Warm and Fuzzy

[peggysue2]

The Trumpster has dismissed Putin's KGB/violent background as unimportant or on other occasions has offered a whataboutism excuse:

You think we're so innocent? We kill people, too.

However, the last time I checked we--meaning the US government--were not knocking off journalists doing their jobs, investigating awkward or politically charged material. I have no doubt the Trumpster would have no problem trying his hand at this because he has demonstrated his MiniMe proclivities and has a boy-crush on Vlad. He also hates the press. I think he's quite capable of ordering a kill on an enemy. If he thought he could get away with it, that is. Which is far harder in this country (at least so far) to pull off successfully, particularly when you've totally pissed off your intelligence community.

But in Putin-World, journalists and nay-sayers winding up dead happens at a mysterious, alarming rate. Journalists, dissidents, diplomats and critics of every shape, size and gender have died from gunshots, falls, inexplicable heart attacks and strokes, self-inflicted poisonings or mysterious beatings/assaults. The nature of these unfortunate 'accidents' always have a common denominator: the victims all have a critical eye on the Kremlin and/or possess information that could bury Putin's grand expectations.

Or maybe coincidence hangs around Putin like a bad smell. Poor guy.

Today's headlines of three dead Russian journalists is a case in point. They were in Central Africa putting together a documentary on a mercenary group linked to Putin. The sort of mercenary group that attempted to storm a US installation in Syria, a group Putin has never acknowledged. Because if you don't acknowledge it, it never happened.

The journalists' car was ambushed. All three were shot dead while their driver was left alive. Robbery is being broadcast as the official motive.

So strange though. How these incidents keep bubbling up, only to be tamped down with: Nothing to see here, people. Move long.

Another coinky-dink, I guess. Or not.




https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russian-journalists-killed-central-africa-republic-ambush-reports-62404

[JonLP24]

1. We did during Iraq

Bush bombed Al Jazeera and he wanted to bomb them again but Tony Blair and Colin Powell talked him out of it.

[peggysue2]

2. Sorry, but there's no equivalence to . . .

what happens in war time (not that I think your example is okay) to these strange deaths of your own countrymen and women. These are Russian citizens snuffed out by their own government.

It's simply not the same.

[JonLP24]

3. I was just addressing the journalist

But there is a difference between deliberately targeted or accidents during war. What I think Russia is doing is terrible. To quote Christopher Steele "If Al-Qaeda had done something like this people would be up in arms."

[peggysue2]

4. Please know, I am not defending the Bush/Cheney debacle in Iraq

I don't remember GW specifically calling for the bombing of Al Jazeera. If he did, it was wrong just as the torture policy was despicable and the war itself was a huge and unnecessary waste of lives. Particularly for the Iraqis but for our men. too. Those who weren't killed were badly maimed and many came home psycologically wounded. Because war is ugly, and unnecessary war is even more obscene.

I get my fur up when I hear or read false equivalencies tossed around. The United States is far from perfect, no country is because all of them are populated by flawed human beings. However, Putin is a thug running a mafia state unhampered by Rule of Law. Except the laws that he and his cronies decide to execute. Any leader who has a record of killing his own citizen critics deserves no respect from the rest of the world. Including us and our representatives.

[JonLP24]

5. I agree with what You're saying

It maddens me they are letting them off the hook for poisoning and the elections.

Here is more info on the Al Jazeera memo

Al Jazeera bombing memo
Page issues

The Al Jazeera bombing memo is an unpublished memorandum made within the British government which is said to be the minutes of a discussion between United States President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Daily Mirror published a story on its front page on 22 November 2005 that said the memo quotes Bush speculating about a U.S. bombing raid on Al Jazeera's world headquarters in the Qatari capital Doha and other locations. The story said that Blair persuaded Bush to take no action.[1]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera_bombing_memo

That was after they were bombed covering in Iraq. I wasn't making false equivalents but there was a lot wrong under numerous Republican administrations foreign policy wise but Russia is on a new level with the information warfare.

The Christopher Steele quote references the 2006 poisoning on British soil.

[peggysue2]

7. We're on the same page then

Appreciate the link. And yes, the Bush/Cheney years were miserable for a lot of people.I must have tuned out the Al Jazeera plan; Bush's suggestion to Blair was insane. Sadly, there seems to be a lot of that going around in every Republican Administration.

Which is why I've been a Democrat all these years.

Good chatting with you. On to November!

[kskiska]

6. Remember Sarah Palin's warning?

"As Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state."

[peggysue2]

8. And now . . .

she's a Trumper, along with the rest of the Republican Party.

How soon they forget or change their tune or give up whatever they had in firm principle (even if it was ideologically twisted at the time).

The Art of the Steal. Also known as: how many rubles will you pay for my soul?