ARE AMERICANS CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING THE REACTION OF RUSSIANS TO THEIR SNEERING DISDAIN?

Russia was fair game in North America from 2016 till now.

Even before then her president was pilloried relentlessly. The president that a majority of Russians not only respect, but an enormous number revere.

Hardly a day went by without his image appearing with whatever the most insulting look the graphics department could conjure up. Will it be red eyes today or horns? At least a sneering glare... at least that.

There seemed nothing Putin or Russia was not capable of.

Murder, robbery, invasion, poisoning, spying, subversion. Every possible type of interference in U.S. affairs. Every possible malign act of a tireless, genetically sub-human enemy, completely beyond the pale, soulless and evil. Killers.

All provided as raw facts, not the allegations they were. No justice involved where the accused has a chance to make their case. No other side of the story. Simply pronounced guilty and sentence delivered.

How many deigned to point out the extreme injustice? None who were not named ‘Putin’s Puppet’ or ‘Russian Agent’. To offer a plea for hearing a defense was to be cancelled and treated as a traitor. The jingoism of that time outranked even the days after the ninth of September 2001. Outranked in many ways also the verbiage offered during the Cold War. A world leader was shunned in a court room where no evidence of any meaningful kind was brought presided over only by a hanging judge.

And what now... now that all the possible expletives of accusation have been irresponsibly thrown in the face of Russians everywhere with no right of reply? Guided to their target for purely political reasons largely by a political party that had lost its mind. Four years of unreason on all sides has created an unfathomable rift between two nations that must now find some way to live with each other again.

Or... are we to have world irrevocably broken into two. Does this remain the goal of a Biden administration that can contemplate only one future for the world, that where a single nation dominates and stands judgement over all others? A world permanently divided until it accepts that there can be only one ultimate and all-powerful aggressor with the overwhelming might and reach to demand complete obedience?  

If the above is the case then the insults to be hurled at Russians (and Chinese) will continue until humiliation or hubris destroys one side or the other in a new world war. A war of hatred unleashed via semantic weapons designed to intimidate, denigrate and unify allied mobs to reduce ‘the other side’ to as close to penury as possible.

If this is the case then Americans and Brits and any others within the coalition of killers that fragmented the Middle East with the deaths of hundreds of thousands based on lies will truly have a fight on their hands. Hearts have hardened in Russia in recent times toward not only the U.S. government but the people as a whole. During the Cold War it was not so, the U.S. government was correctly seen as the aggressor, the warmongering entity that constantly threatened to reawaken the dread loss Russians had suffered during WWII.

The die is largely cast. Though it is not too late for apologies.

But then the conditioning brought about by incessant, politically convenient lies about the Russian president and the Russian people has no doubt brought about a residual reluctance to admit any slight was wrong, any accusation anything but just, any sanction correctly applied.

Until the American people hear the other side of the story in each case, until true justice has been done with evidence presented by the already condemned then the ignorance that motivates spite will remain.

If this condition remains it will continue to fester in the Russian mind against all Americans not calling for justice for Russia and her president.

 Is there even the slightest hope? Right now it appears not. We can only hope some future Americans have the insight, courage and humility to look again at the injustice that has been done.

Can we hope? Is it possible?

ARE AMERICANS CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING THE REACTION OF RUSSIANS TO THEIR SNEERING DISDAIN?