Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

letter to the editor:

Russia is doing what the U.S. does

“Do as I say, not do as I do” seems to be the mantra that underscores past and present American foreign policy. Otherwise, how does one explain the idiotic comments from American diplomats regarding Russia and Ukraine?

Secretary of State John Kerry recently accused Russia of 19th-century behavior in a 21st-century world. Obama had said that Russia has broken U.N. conventions and invaded a sovereign country. There have been other comments in the same vein.

How absurd are these comments? Do these people have any idea how ridiculous they sound? They have no credibility to criticize Russia.

It is just more than a decade since American forces, with token help from other nations, invaded two sovereign nations, Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. occupied the former for nearly a decade and continues to occupy the latter.

Moreover, American forces disregarded the national sovereignty of Pakistan to assassinate Osama bin Laden. British, French and American forces attacked the sovereign nation of Libya.

If that is not enough, American drones continue to target and summarily execute individuals, along with innocent civilians, in other countries around the world, invading sovereign airspace.

Anyway, Russia has stronger justifications to invade Crimea than the West did in the cases of Iraq and Afghanistan. That is, the region is on its border, and there are ethnic Russians who may or may not need protecting.

Therefore, American and Western diplomats should cease protesting when another country pursues the same behavior they have been pursuing for over a decade.

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