Vladimir Marches into the Past

It’s pretty clear that many people would prefer to see fascism reinstituted in Iraq than it be the United States that brings democracy. Many of these same people probably had little real interest in democracy in the first place, if you scratch the surface even slightly. The least you can say for Vladimir Putin is that he makes little pretense anymore of being pro-democracy, whether in the Ukraine or Iraq. He is a KGB man through and through.

Now Pooty-Poot is casting aspersions on the election in Iraq while that country is under “full occupation.” When does he think elections would take place? Of course, he knows they would be literally impossible if the US pulled out.

But the US will pull out only if we decide to do it. Unfortunately many in our media would seem to be encouraging this on a covert or unconscious level (how unconscious remains to be seen). They pay lip service to the Powell doctrine that “if you break it, you keep it” while at the same time fostering a national mood of defeatism which cannot help but exacerbate the situation on the ground. I am not saying that press criticism is not important or should even be muted, but the kind of unsourced reports going on now (quoted again in this same BBC article) function as propaganda, not information. I would imagine they make Putin smile. As a KGB man, he knows their uses.