Author: R J Adams

When Vladimir Putin wrote his op-ed to the American people in the New York Times recently the US media rose up as one to mock, taunt, vilify, and generally overstate their disgust of Putin for daring to criticize American exceptionalism. After all, if the US media is to be believed, America is the greatest nation on earth, and its people an example to the whole planet of just how people should be.

One man more upset than most at Putin’s gall was the eminent senator from Colorado, John McCain. Not even waiting for the support of his alter ego, Senator Lindsey Graham, or that other member of the political menage-a-trois, Joseph Lieberman…

…in bed with each other on so many matters of US policy, he rushed off a quick eight hundred words or so, not to Mister Putin, but to the Russian people.

Unfortunately, the tome wherein McCain intended to publish his offering was not in a position to accept it. Since Senator McCain is a little out of touch with modern Russia, he hadn’t realized that in the 1990’s the well-known newspaper, Pravda, had become the official organ of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Instead, our noble senator chose a website of the same name, but sadly one unlikely to attract the attention of many Russians, and certainly not Vladimir Putin.^[1]

According to Mister McCain [Excerpt]:

I believe you deserve the opportunity to improve your lives in an economy that is built to last and benefits the many, not just the powerful few. You should be governed by a rule of law that is clear, consistently and impartially enforced and just.

He [Putin] has given you an economy that is based almost entirely on a few natural resources that will rise and fall with those commodities. Its riches will not last. And, while they do, they will be mostly in the possession of the corrupt and powerful few…He has given you a political system that is sustained by corruption and repression and isn’t strong enough to tolerate dissent.

It appears to Mister McCain that Russia isn’t too different from the United States: “you deserve the opportunity to improve your lives in an economy that is built to last and benefits the many, not just the powerful few.”, and, “…has given you a political system that is sustained by corruption and repression…” It does smack a little of the old home country, John.

Whatever one’s opinion of Putin, a comparison between his writing in the New York Times, and McCain’s in pravda.ru, reveals on the Russian side a man who, while ruthless, is characterized by great intelligence, and on the other a blatherer better suited to a fireside chair, a warm cup of cocoa, and a rug carefully wrapped around aged knees.

^{[1] “Pravda vs. Pravda: Which one is McCain writing for?” CNN, September 15th 2013}

^{NOTE: Anyone still needing to compare the writings of the two gentlemen herein involved (I use the term ‘gentlemen’ in its broadest possible sense) can view Mister Putin’s offering HERE, and Mister McCain’s response HERE.}

January 1961, three days after John F Kennedy’s inauguration as President of the United States, a US B-52 bomber carrying two, 4-megaton, nuclear bombs broke up over Goldsboro, North Carolina. One of the bombs fell harmlessly to earth. The other, assuming it was over target and being released, began its detonation process.

There were four fail/safe devices incorporated into the weapon. The first three failed to activate. The fourth, a simple low-voltage switch, worked, preventing a catastrophe so huge it would be impossible for man’s imagination to comprehend it.^[1]

Four megatons: the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were only twenty kilotons each – one two-hundredth the power of this monstrosity.

It’s more than fifty years since this accident occurred. Yet, only now is the US government releasing the facts. Investigative journalist Eric Schlosser obtained the information under the Freedom of Information Act.

The 1960s: the Cold War at its height; everyone brainwashed into fearing a nuclear strike. If that bomb had exploded – would Kennedy’s government have blamed it on the Russians?

^{[1] “US plane in 1961 ‘nuclear bomb near-miss'” BBC, September 21st 2013}

^{FOOTNOTE: Their have been over a thousand near accidents with nuclear devices. Many of these were minor. Others were not.}

^{Click image to enlarge}

This image ^{(courtesy of “Twilight”}) really needs no interpretation.

In an interview with ABC this Sunday morning, US President Barack Obama, after discussing the Syrian situation, turned his attention back to Iran, saying:

“What they [Iran] should draw from this lesson is that there is the potential of resolving these issues diplomatically…

…if you have both a credible threat of force, combined with a rigorous diplomatic effort… you can strike a deal.”

Or, to quote a plethora of Hollywood film Nazis: “You vill do as vee say, or vee have vays to persuade you.”

If you’re bent on making diplomacy work, Mister President, you don’t need a ‘credible threat of force’ to back you up. America’s policy of foreign relations is one of, ‘Do as we say, not as we do’.

Syria has chemical weapons, but never signed the Chemical Weapons Convention 1993. The US signed, but twenty years later still has not destroyed all its stockpile, despite pledging to do so by 2012. Neither, incidentally, has Russia or China.

Iran is developing nuclear power for, it states, peaceful purposes. If it constructs a nuclear bomb, it will have one (1). The US has 5,113 nuclear warheads presently deployed, or in reserve. These are the numbers we know about.^[1]

Diplomacy is a lost art in the United States. Russian President Vladimir Putin, known for his tough guy image, has more diplomacy in his little finger than the US Administration en masse.

American media was appalled by Putin’s op-ed in the New York Times recently, but every word was true^[2]. There’s nothing exceptional about Americans, or America. The country’s falling apart. It’s infrastructure is crumbling away. It’s power service is early 20th century.

America spends so much money maintaining its ‘credible threat of force’ there’s nothing left to even educate its kids properly. The only gainer is the defense industry and its many subsidiary suppliers.

Isn’t it about time President Obama and his Congress did their sums and realized that, if they just took time out for a course in basic diplomacy, they’d achieve so much more good in the world at far less of a cost.

Perhaps they could invite Vladimir Putin over on a lecture tour?

^{[1] “US Nuclear Weapons Current Status Wikipedia}

^{[2] “A Plea for Caution From Russia” Vladimir V Putin, New York Times, September 11th 2013}