PRESS RELEASE
‘Listen Liberals: Russia Is Not Our Enemy’
Feb. 20, 2017 (EIRNS)—Under the above headline, Don Kovalik, a human rights and labor lawyer writing in the Huffington Post on Feb. 15, reflected the growing sense that the Democratic Party under Obama has been turned in a nightmare version of a right-wing, war-mongering, anti-labor disaster.
"I must say that I am simply baffled by what appears to be the prevailing view in this country," Kovalik writes,
"and especially among liberals, that Russia is somehow a threat to the United States. In truth, one of the only redeeming qualities of a Trump presidency that I saw was the possibility that his administration would repair ties with Russia and work with that country in trying to solve issues of mutual concern, particularly in the Middle East. Yet, that is one goal of the new White House which the establishment, both in Washington and in the media, seem hell-bent on preventing."
He says this could be expected from the military-industrial complex, but, "I am a bit taken aback at how eager most liberals are to embrace and even stoke this demonization." He notes President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's cooperation with the U.S.S.R. in defeating fascism, but also notes that Trump’s response to Fox news about Putin being a killer was absolutely correct—i.e., that the United States was less than innocent in that regard.
"Let me be so bold as to say that, certainly since 1960 and up to the present time, the U.S. has been much more brutal and blood-thirsty than Russia. It is not even a close call here.... While many are up in arms about Russia’s annexation of the Crimea (though this was done with the approval of the majority of Crimeans who are happy to be returned to Russia) as well as Russia’s intervention in the war in Syria, these actions pale in comparison to the U.S.’s own intervention in Syria, its recent destruction of Libya, its destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, its continued support for the Saudi rape of Yemen and the U.S.’s support for the pillaging of The Democratic Republic of the Congo which has cost the lives of around 6 million innocents."
Now, he adds, the United States is mobilizing military forces and missiles along Russia’s border.
"In other words, it is Russia which should be afraid of us, and not the other way around.... Certainly, liberals, who at least once stood for peace and for greater social spending, should be in the lead in cheering such overtures [by Trump] instead of drumming up anti-Russian hatred which can only lead to more war and more impoverishment of our society."
