[James Brancheau]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...d51_story.html

[Janice D. Soderling]

The Brexit should perhaps be reconsidered. In tight spots it is good to have friends standing staunchly by. Nothing Mr. Putin desires more than to see the EU disintegrate.

My falling ruble's worth.

[James Brancheau]

I agree, Janice, though you know far more about European matters-- being an American living in Taiwan, I generally pay attention to other things. But I have been concerned about Putin for a long time. From back when Bush the Second seemed to be chummy with him.

Anyway, I dunno why I posted a link. It's not exactly an obscure story. However, I do remember a heated discussion on Putin here not so long ago, and I guess I couldn't help myself. He's a bad, bad man with bad intentions and even just keeping that in mind is a good idea.

[ross hamilton hill]

Putin has a KGB traitor murdered, Obama has thousands of innocent adults and children murdered by drone strikes, I'm not about to label one bad and the other good.

[James Brancheau]

That's just stupid, Ross.

[Susan Breeding]

How is what America does with drones any less than an evil atrocity?

I hate American exceptionalism. That kind of attitude doesn't help us move forward in the area of human rights.

[James Brancheau]

When you get it wrong, Susan, it's not fashionable.

[ross hamilton hill]

James read the 2013 UN report on US drone strikes (it's on the net) and the number of civilian casualties in Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

[John Whitworth]

But Ross, you can label them both bad. Putin was head of the secret police. He must have murdered an awful lot of people. He is a bad man. President Obama, with all his faults, is not a bad man. The previous vice-president, I've forgotten his name, Bushie's sidekick, he was a bad man.

What is it you all have with drones? They are just aircraft. When american airmen murdered British troops by mistake in the first Gulf war they did it with aircraft.

Communist governments routinely murder their opponents. Stalin and Lenin were worse than Putin. They killed more people, a lot more people. Is it? When you bomb people you kill civilians. As in the Second World War. And the First, come to that.

American governments are not routine about killing their opponents. Maybe they do it from time to time but it isn't routine. When you bomb people you kill civiians. Always. As in the two World Wars. Everybody bombs people in a war if they can. It's the way you win.

[James Brancheau]

Ross and Susan, I apologize for being short, rude. I just don't think you're being realistic. And Ross, the how and the why are important here. That murder was brutal, and it was meant to be. For crossing Putin. He's a gangster and a gangster running a country that powerful is scary for all of us.

John, I'm in the strange position of agreeing with most of what you said. Except the bombing. Indiscriminate bombing here is not just immoral, but ineffective. WWII was awful because it exposed just how evil we're all capable of becoming. Of course the Allies were correct. It was a just cause. But just look at what we did. Everyone mentions Hiroshima, but Tokyo was on fire for a year.

As an aside, I lived in Hiroshima and every time I had someone visit me, we had to go to that damn Hiroshima war memorial museum. And every time I became nauseous. It physically affected me. (The only reason my ex-wife, God bless her, and her family exist is because her grandfather's bike had a flat tire the day of the bomb.)