In full disclosure, I am Russian American, who has no reason to love the KGB and has all reasons to love America. I spent 6 years in GULAG and then was granted political asylum in America. But to me, this ’s stance on Syria makes more sense that anything else I heard from American political-military-industrial-media elite. I admit meeting very smart KGB guys even when they were interrogating me. Putin is obviously one of the most gifted and intelligent world leaders of our time. But of course great brain power can be very dangerous in the wrong hands, right? So what motives him?
Having lived in Moscow for 15 years I am confident that after decades of Communism Russia is obsessed with catching up with the West in technology and living standards. So Russia needs peaceful and stable international environment.
In contrast, the US is a crusading whose global ambition is to "civilize and modernize” the world according to its own image. Putin captured the fundamental paradox of American democracy: Can liberty, democracy and happiness be imposed on others by bombs and destruction?
America should help Russia facilitate solution to the Syrian crisis through negotiations and compromises. America has to learn to live with complexities of the real world. The black-and-white thinking leads to endless wars with others. Such policy will inevitably result in self-destruction.
Dr. K,
Thank you for staying on the Affordable Care Act case but your indictment of the media highlights a growing malfunction in our system. The good news and focus on the "red states" that are prevent people, who qualify for Medicaid, to take advantage of the advantages of the ACA should be a big topic but it is not. There is no rational explanation for it except the editors and news directors know on which side their bread is buttered and they are not independent.
It is an election year and the GOP can smell victory with their "relentless negativity" strategy with no "free press" to hold their spokespersons accountable. They want to take the Senate and strengthen their hold on the House, that is clear, but what is amazing they have forgotten the interests of the American people and the American people seem to have bought the message of the media, very critical and negative on the right and deafening silence from the "real media".
There are a dozen issues that are clearly causing harm to the common people of the United States and are patently unfair and misrepresented. E.g. income distribution, minimum wage, tax policy, education access, medicaid, deteriorating infrastructure, immigration fairness, and lack of affordable housing that should be filling the bill hopper. There are solutions but they are not being pursued.
Why we are ignoring these big issues and reporting on tired and worn out polarizing cultural issues? Quick answer, it is an election year.
This officer made a decision to join the police force, he wasn't forced. The decision to become an officer of the law doesn't give you the excuse to disobey it. The fact that this officer had to use deadly force when dealing with a JAY-WALKING incident means that either he was poorly trained or he never should of been issued a gun in the first place. This isn't some random civilian with a cause (ala George Zimmerman) this is a man who was trained to deal with life and death situations, how to confront danger....and excuse me but when is confronting two unarmed teenagers for JAY-WALKING!! a life and death situation that justifies the use of deadly force.
But you're right...We know almost every detail about the real victim here..Michael Brown. We don't even know this officer's name nor have we heard his statement on the events. Which if you are reading the coverage is part of the public outrage. Its almost been a week...at what point is this police force going to be required to answer questions!
The role of the police should not only be to protect store owners, but kids like Michael Brown from getting shot dead while walking to his grandmother's home!
Flip your perspective, your child, friend, neighbor is shot dead, left laying in the street for hours during a police confrontation and a week later you still have no details. How much patience do you expect this community to exhibit...especially in the face of rubber bullets and tear gas.
I am very concerned about the situation in Syria and the fact that a military strike by the US could trigger a wider war - even WW3 as other nations get pulled into battle due to alliances and treaties. I am concerned that a "limited" attack to punish Syria is not possible due to retaliation that will then escalate into a broader war.
Putin is warning us of this possibility in his statement, "The potential strike by the United States against Syria... will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria’s borders. "
The conflict in Syria is not worth starting WW3! I urge the President and Congress to consider the very real potential for a US military strike in Syria to blow up out of proportion and start a domino effect that leads to another great war. It is NOT worth it!
Putin is to be praised for ringing the alarm bells to stop this senseless and reckless action and to initiate a diplomatic solution to the chemical warfare issue in Syria and to be an advocate for peace, and save the world from another great, protracted and senseless war.
I hope that our President and all our Senators and Representatives in Congress take Putin's warning and call for peace seriously and negotiate an end to the Syrian conflict quickly. If Syria gives up all their chemical weapons to the International community and they are destroyed, then there really is no reason to attack and risk starting WW3!
This malaise–and I agree that it is real and disturbing–can be laid at the feet of a hideous alien, allowed to enter this country from a southern latitude, who unleashed a virulent and poisonous virus into our body politic.
It has festered unabated for nearly two decades, and it has corroded our very ability to think for ourselves and choose a better future by electing candidates who will forthrightly stand on reason, science, the best of the American experience, and the basic goodness of our people. In fact, it has caused many millions of those people to abandon goodness and embrace irrational evil as a public worldview. I lost all respect and affection for my own late oldest brother over this, and more than one friendship.
This perpetual bad mood and learned helplessness can be traced back to allowing Rupert Murdoch into this country and letting him build a fearsome and chronically mendacious 24/7 propaganda network with tentacles extending into every corner of our media.
I for one doubt that we will ever muster the will to turn back this fetid tide, and I'm glad that, at 66 years old, I am not younger. This disease is so thoroughly metastasized now that it is unlikely to end well.
I hope the voters brighten my mood by surprising the media and the pollsters next Tuesday, but I'm not holding my breath. The Democrats may be rudderless and spineless in this environment, but the modern Republican Party is just plain evil and destructive.
