Stalin, Mao and Saddam killed their own poeple. To a liberal, this is ok because these were interal affairs of their respective countries and who the hell are we to tell them how to run a country. To do something about it would be 'imperialistic'. But to drop a couple of nukes on a foreign country during a war in an attempt to STOP a war is criminal.
You got that right. The Gulag was a usefull tool to help those "individuals" that didn't understand the good of the Soviet system. They wouldn't see any thing wrong with stuffing a pair of panties in to someones mouth to help them see the way.