[Peace-discuss] Letter to the News-Gazette

[C. G. Estabrook]

Editor, News-Gazette:

I was startled to read, in the Sunday (10/23) News-Gazette, the historian Mark Steinberg  - a former colleague when I was a visiting professor at UIUC - repeating dangerous Obama-Clinton propaganda about Russia. 

He speaks of “Russia’s belligerent role in world affairs” - when Russia’s role seems defensive in comparison with the much more belligerent role of the US: President Obama has attacked eight countries (George Bush attacked only six) and killed thousands of civilians - including US citizens and hundreds of children with his drone assassinations, which have been called “the most extreme terrorist campaign of modern times.” 

Steinberg speaks of Russia’s “covert armed intervention in Ukraine” - referring to Russia’s limited support for the Donbass region’s resistance to US-encouraged attack from the government in Kiev, established by a US-organized coup against a legitimate president; the Minsk II agreement, to bring the fighting to an end, was arranged by Russia, not the US.

He refers to “the bombing in Syria,” where Russia is legally supporting a legitimate secular government against a US-supported jihadist insurrection - while Obama administration killing (which Clinton proposes to expand) is illegal by international (and US) law.

And as the refugee Edward Snowden - in Moscow - makes clear, “cyber-espionage in the US” is at best a case of the US pot calling the Russian kettle black.

And it is at least embarrassing, in the midst of the present US election, to refer to “the erosion of democratic pluralism” in Russia, where Putin has far greater support than either Obama or Clinton do in the US. 

“What is to be done?” Steinberg writes (perhaps with an historical parallel in mind), while Clinton touts war with Russia via a “no-fly zone” in Syria; but he’s surely correct to advise as follows:

“Not simplistic declarations about Putin as a petty dictator. Not even economic sanctions. Both have tended to ... reinforce his popularity with the majority of Russians ... Neither the Russian people nor President Putin respond positively to being insulted...” (as Clinton channels Joe McCarthy).

When academics, subservient to power, lend aid and comfort to warmongers like Obama and Clinton, they betray their responsibility to “tell truth and shame the devil.”

Regards,

C. G. Estabrook