Putin Writes to America in The New York Times

In an unprecedented move, Russian President Vladimir Putin reached across an ocean to Americans and our political leaders in The New York Times “A Plea for Caution From Russia” yesterday. Putin argues that the evidence shows Syrian rebels used the chemical weapons our President claims Syria’s Bashar al-Assad targeted his people with in August, therefore, we should not support U.S. military action in Syria. Putin lays out all the ramifications of such a hasty action:

“The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from many countries and major political and religious leaders, including the pope, will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria’s borders. A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism. It could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilize the Middle East and North Africa.”

Putin goes on to point out our foreign policy of military intervention in other countries’ internal conflicts is ‘alarming’:

“Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it. Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan “you’re either with us or against us.'”

With conflicts are still raging in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Egypt, not to mention the U.S. policy of regularly drone striking targets (and innocent people) in Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and Afghanistan, one has to carefully consider that Putin makes a good point here.

In fact, readers in the NYT comments section for Putin’s editorial found themselves thrown for a loop by his thoughtful words. One commenter started out by claiming Putin’s assertion that the rebels used the gas was specious but went on to say, “Much of this post is thought provoking and has a tone of reasonableness that I find disturbing to my prejudices. What a crazy world we are living in when Russia sounds more sane and responsible than our own government on a serious international crisis. It’s as if I have blundered into some bizarre parallel universe.”

The bigger question many are missing here is why does America continue to get involved in the internal conflicts of nations around the world? Is America really the world police? Why? Can we really claim that our actions are justified or have “helped” the nations we have intervened in? Is “humanitarian intervention” and the resultant regime change actually masking our nation’s ultimate goal of empire building and world domination?

After a decade of war there, Iraq has been taken over by al Qaeda and is currently unraveling. U.S. regime change in Libya has ultimately resulted in the country’s descent into lawlessness and ruin. Egypt announced that it has extended its emergency law for two more months, and protesters there cry that President Obama’s backing of the Muslim Brotherhood there is resulting in the murder of innocent Egyptians.

In the case of Egypt alone, the majority of so-called U.S. aid sent there actually goes to benefit six major American corporations to the tune of $1.3 billion a year; in fact, nearly all of the $42 billion in aid Egypt has received since 1948 has actually been spent on American weapons of war. There’s a reason Raytheon stock hit an all-time high after President Obama announced the U.S. might take military action in Syria.

In short, we really aren’t helping things, and our government would have a hard time legitimately claiming otherwise.

Putin finished his statement with this:

“My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is ‘what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.’ It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.”

Parallel universes aside, I’d have to say I agree with the Russian President here.