[Peace] This morning on the News Gazette

[Karen Aram]

day, November 1, 2016 67°F<http://www.news-gazette.com/weather> Today's Paper<http://eedition.news-gazette.com/>

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BREAKING NEWS <http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letters-editor/2016-11-01/colleague-accepts-us-propaganda.html> Two in custody for shootings in Urbana<http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2016-11-01/two-custody-shootings-urbana.html>

Home<http://www.news-gazette.com/> » Opinion<http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion> » Letters to the Editor<http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letters-editor>
Colleague accepts U.S. propaganda
Tue, 11/01/2016 - 7:00am | The News-Gazette<http://www.news-gazette.com/users/digitalmedia>

I was startled to read, in the Oct. 23 News-Gazette, the historian Mark Steinberg — a former colleague when I was a visiting professor at the University of Illinois — 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 U.S.: President Barack Obama has attacked eight countries (Bush attacked only six) and killed thousands of civilians 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 attack from the government in Kiev, established by a U.S.-organized coup against a legitimate president; the Minsk II agreement, to bring the fighting to an end, was arranged by Russia, not the U.S.

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

And as the refugee Edward Snowden — in Moscow — makes clear, "cyberespionage in the U.S." is at best a case of the U.S. pot calling the Russian kettle black.

And it is at least embarrassing, in the midst of the present U.S. 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 U.S.

C.G. ESTABROOK

Champaign
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