Russia and Syria

I do not necessarily have any great love of Bashar Al Assad of Syria, even though I thought his father could be quite interesting and charming when I briefly met him. I merely speak of personal impressions during a brief encounter, and not about politics and government.

At present, I do support Russia's stance on Syria. I do so for a number of reasons, and I suppose that if my Arabic teacher were to read this, she would put the mother of all curses upon my head.

I firmly believe that the USA betrayed Mikhail Gorbatchev in his attempts at reform of the USSR; the USA believed that the Cold War could only end with the complete destruction of one of the two antagonists... how very much in the same way that it approached the beginnings of the Cold War, exhibiting no tolerance for multi-lateral approaches to atomic energy as supported by Niels Bohr, James Conant, and Robert Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer fully predicted and described the coming of the Cold War, and the USA establishment said "Bring it on!" However, do not forget how close we came to nuclear catastrophe. And we are not yet out of the woods.

After the USSR disappeared, the aid and support for Russia was laughable, even though such a commitment would have helped establish a friend and ally for the future.

The USA believes that there is only one way, even when it is egregiously wrong, as it showed us in the Iraq debacle.

There is a total Media tilt against Russia which sickens me. Now we are treated to the spectacle of a rock band being cruelly treated, and Madonna speaks out in support of Pussy Riot. More nonsense from the mindless.

I consider Russia and the Russian people to be friends, and important friends to whom we should listen.
--