SNIP
We currently have differences with Russia over Syria, Iran, missile defense, and, to some degree, arms reduction. There is also that pesky leaker, Snowden, hiding out in the transit section of the Moscow airport.
Some say, because of these differences, President Obama should not meet with President Putin in Moscow following the September meeting of the G-20, basically Europe plus Russia, in St. Petersburg. One opposition party Senator has even said that President Obama should not go to the G-20 meeting unless it's moved out of Russia. So much for diplomacy... and statesmanship.
The excessive anti-Russian sentiment within U.S. foreign policy circles remains a mystery. Left over Cold War resentments, more than 20 years later? Old grievances even before the Cold War? Failure of Russia to do what we want it to? Who knows. No one is saying.
I don't understand why many retain such hatred of Russia. Isn't it long past time that people of the USA began to realise that the only real enemies out there are the people leading: governments (any governments), military industrial complex, corporate power and big business, aided and abetted by complicit media ? People, ordinary people, all over the world are really just like the rest of us. Their priorities, as most of ours: to live as peaceful and contented a life as possible, care for family, meet whatever challenges come along, hopefully with good grace. Ordinary people are not interested in being part of an empire, they do not, left to their own devices, hate each other for any perceived freedoms, or for their different lifestyles.
I get that Joe McCarthy scared the living daylights out of y'all in the US regarding Russia, but that was long, long ago, in the 1950s. Not many who remember that time in any detail will still be around.
This built-in hatred, not only for Russia, but also for Islamic countries, China, and others - and for anything not fully understood - is fostered, encouraged, fabricated even, in order to provide dichotomies, stir up fear and confusion. All the while The Powers That Be are keeping the money flowing to the military and to the ultra-wealthy 1%, while the rest of the people are kept busily distracted, hating.
“... in a cycle as old as tribalism, ignorance of the Other engenders fear; fear engenders hatred; hatred engenders violence; violence engenders further violence until the only "rights", the only law, are whatever is willed by the most powerful.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
Lines from an old post of mine (2009):
When we were in South Dakota last week, enjoying one of the many sights there, I heard a nearby group of tourists discussing the political situation. One of the group said "all Muslims are terrorists, and now we have one in the White House". On another occasion, in an antiques mall in Nebraska, another group of people stood discussing health care, and though I didn't hover too long, as I passed by them I couldn't help hearing just one sentence deriding what is, in the USA seriously misunderstood and looked on as a dirty word: "socialism".
From Rogers & Hammerstein's "South Pacific":
You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!
