Norman Pollack
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Oh, those nasty Russians. Putin and his national-security advisers sitting around on Terror Tuesdays with their hit lists, planning drone assassinations thousands of miles away. Oh, those nasty Russians, with their black sites, renditions, and enhanced interrogation techniques of torture, water-boarding, sensory deprivation, rectal feeding, electronic stimulation, guided by blue-ribbon psychologists. Oh, those nasty Russians, their National Security Agency spying on the Russian people through the massive surveillance of their emails and telephone calls. Oh, those nasty Russians, their defense budget as large or larger than that of all other nations combined. Oh, those nasty Russians, forming regional alliances, providing military aid, conducting joint military maneuvers intended to confront-intimidate-threaten their adversaries both East and West. Oh, those nasty Russians, their Central Intelligence Agency functioning as a secret government engaged worldwide in regime change, subversion, sponsored-NGO propaganda activities. Oh, those nasty Russians, busily modernizing their nuclear arsenal in the name of nuclear reduction of forces. Oh, those nasty Russians, involved in two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, and numerous other skirmishes over the last several decades. Oh, those…. Hey, wait-a-minute, that’s us, not them—in every single particular, and then some, from the threatened veto in the UN Security Council to prevent the Palestinians from having their independent state to the Pacific-first strategy, battleships, carrier-groups, long-range aircraft, nuclear-capable, to contain, isolate, deconstruct China.