As if President Trump’s attempt at playing moral equivalence between the United States and Russia was not enough to cause controversy, NBC News is reporting that the Russian government is demanding an apology, not from Trump, but from Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. Somehow Moscow is affronted by O’Reilly calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a killer. Thousands of people in the Ukraine and Syria, not to mention numerous of Putin’s political opponents, were not available for comment.
No doubt O’Reilly will have a choice response on his Fox News show in due course.
One does not think it will be an apology.
When did bloody tyrants such as Putin suddenly become snowflake cry bullies, going into a paroxysm at the least little criticism? Previous Russian tyrants, Stalin and Ivan the Terrible, come to mind, relied on their reputations as mass murderers to keep their subjects in line. Why is Putin trying to deny he is a killer? He has put quite a number of people in the ground, by aerial bombing and from targeted assassination.
Trump, who is more selective of the sorts of people he seeks to kill, is far more forthright about it. If you belong to ISIS or some other group that wants to do America harm, you are going to be annihilated. Most people tend to agree with the sentiment because terrorists are evil people.
Perhaps it is because Putin manages to kill individuals who don’t, as is said in Texas, need killing. Slaughtering women and children in Syria and pushy journalist back in the Motherland are not something that is done if one wants to have a good reputation. Putin and his minions might just be feeling a little guilty. They realize that having a reputation of someone who kills people who don’t deserve it can cause people to want to kill them right back.
Trump admires Putin in the strange way that one alpha male respects another. But he is not too sure they will have a cordial relationship. Whether or not America and Russia has a rapprochement mostly depends on Putin. Trump can be pretty aggressive against people who displease him, something Putin should consider going forward.
