If it hadn’t been for the subtle and cynical intervention of
the imperial Russian government, the American War for Independence might have
failed. George Washington and his colleagues would have been condemned as
traitors, and then dispatched to eternity with all of the horrors devised by
inventive sadists to deter similar impudence on the part of those described as
the Crown’s subjects.
This little-appreciated fact should be pointed out to those
who have claimed that there was something inappropriate about Edward
Snowden receiving help from Russia in his search for political
asylum from the world’s most powerful and most lawless regime.
At the time of the American revolt, the British Empire
enjoyed incontestable superiority at sea, but possessed a mediocre army. It
could project power anywhere on the face of the globe, but depended on foreign
mercenaries to do most of the hands-on work of killing and dying.
As the rebellion coalesced in the American colonies, George
III made a formal request to Empress Catherine to rent 20,000 battle-hardened
Russian infantrymen, and a flotilla of Russian naval vessels to supplement the
task force en route to chastise the colonists. Catherine politely declined the
offer while bidding her fellow monarch good luck. In private conversations,
however, the Empress was indulgently disdainful of the British king, saying
that he had bungled the management of the American colonies and should be
“taught a lesson.”
Catherine’s refusal to intervene on behalf of King George
was not the only favor she did on behalf of the American patriot cause. As the
War for Independence unfolded, the Empress conducted a brisk business supplying
the navies of France and Spain, both of which gave material support to the
Patriot cause.
When the British government began to interdict neutral
shipping to inspect for America-bound “contraband,” Catherine sent communiques
to Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and Prussia proposing the creation of a “League
of Armed Neutrality” with the advertised aim of protecting freedom of the
seas. This had the effect of isolating Great Britain diplomatically,
thereby nullifying its naval advantage. France labored under no similar
restrictions. This is why the French fleet was able to supply ninety percent of
the weapons used by American rebels in their War for Independence.
Russia was one of several countries to which the Continental
Congress had deployed envoys in search of aid. Francis Dana, a former secretary
to John Adams, endured a long, lonely, and apparently fruitless mission to the
Court of St. Petersburg. Harried by the imperial secret police and immersed in
the exhausting intrigue of court politics, Dana was never given an audience by
the Empress, whose decisions were guided by calculated self-interest, rather
than idealism. The dejected American emissary must have been astonished on his
return to hear John Adams laud Catherine as a “friend” of liberty’s cause, and
to hear Washington extol the virtues of the “great Potentate of the North.”
In his book The
Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World 1788-1800,
historian Jay Winik describes Empress Catherine – the authoritarian ruler of a
Russian police state – as the “midwife” of American independence. The American
revolt quite likely would not have succeeded if Britain hadn’t been
“neutralized and isolated by Catherine’s Armed League”; by denying King
George’s request for military aid, and using her influence to curtail Britain’s
naval advantage, the Russian tyrant “helped bolster the hopes of beleaguered
American rebels fighting for their lives….”
The Russian government of Vladimir Putin has rendered similar
aid to an American whistle-blower who is fighting for his life – much to the
dismay and outrage of people who are Americans by birth, rather than
conviction, and who mistakenly believe that patriotism is measured by one’s
willingness to abide the institutional criminality of the government that
impudently rules us.
In 1995, when he plagued the House of
Representatives, the
execrable Senator Charles Schumer of New York ardently defended the Regime’s
annihilation of the Branch Davidians outside Waco, and treated with unfiltered
scorn anybody with sufficient temerity to condemn that Soviet-caliber episode of
state-inflicted mass murder. As it happens, the
FBI’s campaign to annihilate state enemies at Mt. Carmel received material
assistance from the Russian security services in the person of the late Dr.
Igor Smirnov of the Moscow Institute of Psycho-Correction – whose wife, Elena Rusalkina,
has continued his work as a “counter-terrorism” contractor for the Department of Homeland Security.
Commissar Schumer, who lauded the joint U.S.-Russian production at Mt. Carmel, is now distraught that the Russians aren’t
willing to help the Regime in Washington apprehend a state enemy so he can be
tortured and put through a show trial. In a June 23 CNN interview, Schumer
fumed that by “aiding and abetting Snowden’s escape,” Putin had “put a
finger in the eye of the United States.” Schumer much prefers it when the
Russians are aiding and abetting Washington’s murderous crimes against the
American people.
Like the rest of his detestable cohort, Schumer believes
that the world’s inhabitants, including foreign rulers, have a moral obligation
to submit to Washington’s will. Assuming that Putin was involved in the
decision to facilitate Edward Snowden’s flight from Hong Kong to Latin America,
his actions may well have been motivated by a desire to give a metaphorical
middle digit to Schumer and his ilk.
In any case, if Putin consciously aided Snowden, that choice
-- like those made by the Empress Catherine – was based on calculations of
political advantage, rather than a principled devotion to individual liberty.
And Edward Snowden’s willingness to accept help from Russia is akin to the
entreaties made on behalf of the American rebels by Francis Dana.
Commenting about Snowden’s flight to Russia en route to
Latin America, a very good friend (and former editor) of mine observed: "If Edward Snowden is going to hopscotch around the word
to locations where elections are rigged and human rights ignored, that giant
sucking sound is sympathy evaporating for him."
A better way of viewing Snowden’s behavior is that he is hopscotching around the world to countries not ruled by governments that kill people by remote control, and are strong enough to prevent him from being seized and tortured by the only government that routinely commits crimes of that kind.
A better way of viewing Snowden’s behavior is that he is hopscotching around the world to countries not ruled by governments that kill people by remote control, and are strong enough to prevent him from being seized and tortured by the only government that routinely commits crimes of that kind.
Yes, Vladimir Putin and his
clique are products of the Soviet system that murdered tens of millions of
people. At present, however, they are content to contain their ambitions to the
country they currently control.
Russian drones aren’t plying
the skies above distant countries, raining death and terror on helpless
neighborhoods. Putin the ex-KGB chief doesn’t have Tuesday meetings to
authorize summary executions on the basis of a “Kill List” compiled by
anonymous and unaccountable functionaries. Russia’s
FSB secret police, like its counterpart, the FBI, does stage false-flag
terrorist incidents, but once again, those are carried out for domestic
political purposes. Moscow doesn’t provide arms, training, and support to
terrorist groups in Syria, Iran, and elsewhere; that’s Washington’s gig. And since
September 2001 it has Washington, not Moscow, that employs the services of
KGB-trained secret police in countries like Uzbekistan
and Syria.
During the Brezhnev era, Soviet “journalists” routinely
participated in KGB-orchestrated denunciations of dissidents and human rights
activists. As the well-coiffed commissar David
Gregory demonstrated during his June 24 interview with Glenn Greenwald,
behavior of that kind is not quite commonplace for members of the American
media elite. An even more repellent example was provided by New
York Times columnist Ross Sorkin, who said on
CNBC that “I’d almost arrest Glenn Greenwald [because] he wants
to help get him to Ecuador or whatever.”
Russia is ruled by a degenerate
gangster regime, not a cunning Communist cabal pursuing global hegemony and
ideological domination. In many important ways, that long-suffering country is
less collectivist than the United States has become.
In Russia today,
"Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago is required reading in schools
for 11th graders," notes Russian writer Stanislav Mishin (who could be described as the Russian equivalent
of a Pat Buchanan-style nationalist conservative). "All the brutality of
the Soviets and the crimes that were committed will be in the minds of our
children for generations. Where is any review [in American schools] of the
crimes that Wall Street committed when it sponsored and set up those same
Communist Marxists or Hitler's Fascist Marxists? Nowhere. Where is the
admission of the massacres that the American army committed in the independent
nation of the Confederate States? Nowhere, nor [is there] anything of the
terror bombings of German cities or anything else of that nature. You will
never hear anything on these from those NYC/DC blabber heads who love their
Wall Street and think that genocidaires like Sherman were bully."
Mishin observes that under the
administration of former President Medvedev (a protégé of Putin), Russia had a flat income tax -- "and not
the 30% or so suggested by those American conservatives but at 13" -- and
a top corporate tax rate of 24% "compared to the American Federal rate of
36% and additional state rates." There is also a far greater diversity of
opinion in the Russian media than one finds in the American "free"
press – a fact underscored quite memorably by the way the American media
eagerly joined in the Orwellian Two-Minutes Hate of Edward Snowden.
What about foreign aggression and revolutionary subversion? Aren't Putin and his comrades to blame for promoting terrorism? One imagines Mishin drawing a steadying breath before addressing that subject.
"Who invaded over 30 nations in less than 200 years?" Mishin quite reasonably inquires. "Who has fought over 6 wars since 1991: Iraq followed by 10 years of bombing them, Somalia, Bosnia, Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, while engaging unofficially in Somalia, Kenya, Yemen, Pakistan and the Philippines? Who waxes and screams for full invasions of Iran, Yemen, Pakistan, Venezuela? Who threatened to bomb our ships and come in and defend the Chechen Islamics? Who sponsored revolutions in Serbia, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus (failed), Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan (failed), Moldova (failed)?"
What about foreign aggression and revolutionary subversion? Aren't Putin and his comrades to blame for promoting terrorism? One imagines Mishin drawing a steadying breath before addressing that subject.
"Who invaded over 30 nations in less than 200 years?" Mishin quite reasonably inquires. "Who has fought over 6 wars since 1991: Iraq followed by 10 years of bombing them, Somalia, Bosnia, Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, while engaging unofficially in Somalia, Kenya, Yemen, Pakistan and the Philippines? Who waxes and screams for full invasions of Iran, Yemen, Pakistan, Venezuela? Who threatened to bomb our ships and come in and defend the Chechen Islamics? Who sponsored revolutions in Serbia, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus (failed), Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan (failed), Moldova (failed)?"
Whatever we learn about Snowden’s
motives and affiliations, questions of the kind raised by Mishin should be honestly
considered by those who criticize the whistle-blower for “hopscotching” from
country to country to elude the long reach of the drone-murderers and dungeon
masters in Washington. Assuming
that a gap separates post-Soviet Russia from proto-Soviet Amerika, it's one
that can be crossed in the kind of modest jump one performs in a hopscotch
game.
Dum spiro, pugno!
19 comments:
This is definitely one of your best
Outstanding Will!
Russia and China laughed at Dear Leader's bluster. See how that leading from behind works? When you reduce a once great republic down to a third world laughingstock the days of telling other countries what to do are over. Meanwhile Russia just sent some elite units and equipment to Syria. The immaculate Chicago toilet water to wine converting messiah is going to mess with the wrong bear and get a long overdue comeuppance.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/russian-anti-terror-troops-arrive-syria/story?id=15954363
Some chickenhawk just called the Fox (Sauds) owned AM radio station and called Snowden a traitor. He also said he is hoping a missile will take him out and wouldn't it be nice if it was broadcast live on the teevee. The host moved on to the next caller before chants of USA! USA! could break out. The old quote about patriotism being the last refuge of a scoundrel comes to mind.
I paid attention in many history classes, but I never knew about Catherine the Great's role in the Revolution.
Thank you for further educating me.
Now if we could just get the Clover's of the world such as suck-up and would-be Chekist Ross Sorkin, and puppet's like David Gregory to take notice of the rest of this article, maybe then the other Clovers would get a clue too?
Ah who am I kidding, the Clover's of the world might figure things out, but the Ross Sorkin's and David Gregory's of the world never will. Something inside them is dead.
- IndividualAudienceMember
breaking:
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2013-06-25/russia-rejects-us-demand-for-snowdens-extradition
Poetic "irony?"
God provided for cities of refuge in His Kingdom.
Only the godless state claims sovereignty over every
square inch of the earth, solar system, galaxy, universe.
WE ARE THE ENEMY
from Lew Rockwell's blog:
Thanks to Norm Singleton for this comment of Ron Paul's:
My understanding is that espionage means giving secret or classified information to the enemy. Since Snowden shared information with the American people, his indictment for espionage could reveal (or confirm) that the US Government views you and me as the enemy.
"Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious." -Oscar Wilde
We have met the enemy, Will, and it is us.
Another excellent post.
Is the Snowden affair distraction for the beginning of WWIII:
http://xrepublic.tv/node/4001
Off topic in bad lieutenant police news:
http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/06/andrew-cain-19-commits-suicide-after-sheriffs-office-posts-sarcastic-facebook-message-2694304.html
I'm constantly finding out more and more dirt about this corrupt government and its twisted and alltogether forged "history" that we've been lied to all of our lives.
More bad lieutenants, woman arrested for purchasing bottled water mistaken for underage buying beer (?):
http://refreshingnews99.blogspot.in/2013/06/police-pull-guns-on-and-arrest-uva.html
Sir that was very intellectually stimulating, I have been a history person of sorts and am quit amazed to this day what this country has resorted to for our criminals in charge and what we mundanes have continued to suffer from them.
Just another comment... Amazing that now we'd be better informed by reading Pravda or watching Russia Today than anything our nations mendacious media spews out.
@MoT
Amazingly, the people (slaves) of the USSR managed to throw down the most repressive govt. of the age, and they did it without enriching US arms dealers.
Interesting how this cataclysmic yet peaceful transformation is rarely if ever spoken of here in the US.
How did they do it?
In a word, "bankruptcy."
We can thank God that 1 + 1 = 2 because it is our last hope.
Regarding the Snowden affair, Bolivia's president says embassy we don't need no stinking embassy after U.S. ambassador in Austria falsely claims Snowden was on his plane and France, Italy, Portugal and Spain refused the plane from entering their airspace:
http://21stcenturywire.com/2013/07/05/morales-cuts-us-down-to-size-we-dont-need-your-embassy-in-bolivia/
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