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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIgnore Western Hypocrisy, Putin Will Do What He Wants
Editor's note: Simon Tisdall is assistant editor and foreign affairs columnist of the Guardian. He was previously foreign editor of the Guardian and the Observer and served as White House corespondent and U.S. editor in Washington D.C. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely his.By Simon Tisdall, Special to CNN
March 7, 2014 -- Updated 1527 GMT (2327 HKT)
(CNN) -- All the self-righteous huffing and puffing in Washington over Ukraine jars on European and especially Russian ears after the multiple U.S.-led invasions and interventions in other people's countries of recent years. It's difficult to say what is more astonishing: the double standards exhibited by the White House, or the apparent total lack of self-awareness of U.S. officials.
Secretary of State John Kerry risked utter ridicule when he declared it unacceptable to invade another country on a "completely trumped-up pretext," or just because you don't like its current leadership. Iraq in 2003 springs instantly to mind. This is exactly what George W. Bush and Tony Blair did when they "trumped up" the supposed threat posed by the hated Saddam Hussein's fabled weapons of mass destruction.
Like Saddam, the Taliban leadership in place in Afghanistan in 2001 was deeply objectionable. But instead of just going after Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda training camps after the 9/11 attacks, Bush (again abetted by Blair) opted for full-scale regime change. The lamentable consequences of that decision are still being felt 13 years later, not least by Afghan civilians who have been dying in ever greater numbers as the final Nato withdrawal approaches.
U.S. President Barack Obama, a former law professor who should know better, has charged Vladimir Putin, his Russian counterpart, with violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, in breach of international law.
But it is Obama, following in Bush's footsteps, who has repeatedly and cynically flouted international law by launching or backing myriad armed attacks on foreign soil, in Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan to name a few, without U.N. security council authorization. It is Obama's administration which continues to undermine international law by refusing to join or recognize the International Criminal Court, the most important instrument of international justice to have been developed since 1945.
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http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/07/opinion/putin-western-hypocrosy/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
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Ignore Western Hypocrisy, Putin Will Do What He Wants (Original Post)
Purveyor
Mar 2014
OP
Catherina
(35,568 posts)1. International law, sovereignty, territorial integrity and.... resources!
But Obamas rhetoric was more combative than of late and he accused Russia of not just violating sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ukraine but of stealing the assets of the Ukrainian people.
In 2014, we are well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders, added Obama.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/06/us-eu-sanctions-obama-russia-ukraine-crimea
In 2014, we are well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders, added Obama.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/06/us-eu-sanctions-obama-russia-ukraine-crimea
I can't believe the jokes coming out of Washington right now. This is what happens when you have a bunch of neocons and neolibs infesting your administration and recycling their lies.
Stealing the assets of the Ukrainian people? That's too rich coming from the same people forcing the plundering, thieving IMF on Ukraine, after pouring in $5 billion to destabilize it, and ramming the IMF down their throats with the complicity of a rump Parliament and an interim coupster right before the upcoming elections that Ukraine's hard right had no chance of winning.
1000words
(7,051 posts)5. Yup ... Nailed it.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)3. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t
-Laelth
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)4. K&R