movingtarget said:
that article unsurprisingly is missing an all-important objective time line and an impartial background.
i will attempt as briefly as possible and only based on the confirmed and verifiable facts to bridge the gap.
lets start with some simple basic tenets like:
a) most countries spy on each other including the closest allies,
b) the united states particularly, as probably many other states, including russia, have interfered both overtly and covertly into each others (and their neighbors) domestic affairs in order to leverage some political advantage
3) most govs despite being involved in this murky and dirty activities will deny doing anything of sorts
so, the current tit for tat btwn russia and the us isn't anything unheard of nor did it start with anything russia did that the us had done to russia, including multiple well-documented regime changes of russia-friendly govs etc.
what makes the latest round of tit for tat unique is the absolute fury and indignation with which the american elites in both parties reacted.
it is time now to go on record that
i do not buy the kremlin assertions that they had nothing to do with the last american elections. something took place. I have no idea what exactly. perhaps some facilitation of anti-clinton initiatives which - and lets be honest here - they may have considered, like hundreds of millions of americans, asians and some europeans, more dangerous. i also dont believe for a second the 'russians installed trump'. trump is a purely american phenomena indicative of the deep fissures within and ills of the american political system if not the entire society in general
even if so, the russians only took a sentence, not even a page, from the america's own playbook on how to subvert other natons.
yet, 'they stole our democracy' cries and screams and the non-stop sequence of russia investigations has practically paralyzed the all-important institution of the us presidency.
in large part due to this self-inflicted paralysis where russia is just a thin cover-up for the trivial inter partisan feuds, america has lost allies, reputation, credibility, wealth...
that the mutually pissed off and righteous elites are blind to the nation destruction is not any longer surprising, but where are the simple, common-sense american folks ? why dont they reflect on the double standard american politicos apply to america and expects of others ? why america can interfere in russia, change their friendly neighbor regimes etc and why it is unimaginable someone can respond with the SAME ?
but back to the current tit for tat time line and facts... when obama expelled 35 russian 'spies' with this loud self indignant cries, he ignored the very american spies in the moscow embassy doing....spying.
here are the dry numbers we learned afterwards - just prior to the obama order
the us had 1211 diplomatic staff in russia while hosting only 455 russians. 3 times as much !. consequently, in all probability, the us spies aka diplomats in russia were much more numerous. even then, the russians took 8 months NOT responding. when the congress imposed the new sanctions, they asked for a diplomatic parity. that is - 455 vs 455.
yesterday, the us escalated the tit for tat. that was expected. the ugly part was the state department explanation compleely ignoring who started it, why and a rather long patience the russians demonstrated before acting.
to me, this latest tit for tat indicates how far the american elites (and probably most americans) have fallen in their non-critical in fact hypocritical vew of the rest of the world.