Based on just the headline I have to ask: Is the author stoned?
Stalin was much worse. Stalin was more competent. Putin just screws up everything he tries to do and invariably causes a lot of damage to innocent people in the process.
Pat Buchanan sets up a straw man when he argues that since Putin isn’t as bad as Stalin, what is he is doing is OK.
I hear that the rebels wouldn’t know how to use the rocket launchers by them selves and must have had direct Russian assistance.
“Putin said Stalin deserves statues in his honor as much as the late British lord protector, a “cunning fellow” who “played a very ambiguous role in Britain’s history.”...”
With that headline, it’s not worth reading.
The article seems mistitled. Why not “Long History of
Engagement Between US and Russian Tyrants”? I don’t see
much in the way of comparisons between Putin and Stalin.
Putin is Pee Wee Herman compared to Stalin.....so far.
It would be difficult for anyone in Russia today to be as bad as Stalin was.
I don’t think Vlad has anywhere near the body count to be worse than Stalin. Which is not quite the same as saying he’s a saint among men.
Don’t have to I know Pat’s views.....and he like Alex Jones is one of those who lives in fantasy land.
Apparently Pat forgot that when the Soviet Union fell apart that they signed a treaty that said the Ukraine was sovereign territory and that they would come to the aid of the Ukraine if it was attacked.
Now under Putin the Soviet Union (formerly known as Russia) is back at it. The way Putin handles the press would make old Joe proud
Thus is a serious commentary that deserves a serious response. The article really has not so much to do about the comparison as it drives to our current elite and administrations skewed idea of the world (both at home and abroad)and policies. Buchanan has been around the block and I believe this article has merit.
He is correct in that we had a hand in engineering the Ukraine coup. Partly with the NGOs there as a tool. Ukraine is quite useless to us as was supporting the overthrow of Mubarak in Egypt and Qaddafi in Libya. Egypt is and hopefully will be a valuable and close ally again.
Bolton, whom I like, generally, McCain and Obama and his metro-sexual advisor children are way off the mark which Buchanan tries to point out. The the incitement causing actions by the administration do nothing but to push Russia away from tables of engagement. Arming Ukraine would be stupid. World wars start this way. Far better to come to an understanding through close engagement than to saber rattle sanctions, which become tit for tat get evens.
There are enough problems in various countries where Russia can do a little and cause the US and the west grief. Unfortunately Obama and Lurch are the antithesis of a Churchill, Ike or even a FDR. So is seems also by the rants of the current Republican elite a similar lacking. History can teach us well if we use it. it seems many of our ruling elite failed history.
Pat favors a Putin empire but is worried about an American one.
The Obama Administration and John McCain make all prior US foreign policy seem sane, sober and brilliant.