It is the most natural of behaviors for the guilty to lay the blame elsewhere and to make the most noise. The Democratic Party leadership did the meddling — not the Russians — when it conspired with Hillary Clinton to deny Bernie Sanders the Democratic nomination. Thus Hillary was an illegitimate candidate to begin with.
Then there was the question of emails. Hillary refused to use the secure State Department server preferring a personal one. Why? Because she would then be selective in the emails that became public record. And an accurate historic picture of her tenure as Secretary of State is debatable if 33,000 emails were not surrendered. She said these were personal and not work related but the FBI later recovered about 17,000 and many of these were work related (para 7 from end of ABC report).
How did the Clintons become so rich? First, if you give commercial banks a license to gamble with depositors’ money, they ought to be grateful. Speaking fees are one answer, and heaven knows what else. That gambling can also lead to ruin proved true. Bankrupted, the banks sought help, and were rescued through the public purse. Turning losses public while bonuses and profits remained private emerged as a new capitalism for the very rich. The banks crooked schemes included certain risky mortgage-backed securities sold as safe that caused huge state pension funds losses, destroying state finances in some cases. People in those states are still suffering. Any surprise then if Donald Trump’s pejorative “crooked Hillary” resonates to this day.
Second, during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State, there was talk of her either using the position, or of the position itself leading to favor seekers donating to the Clinton Foundation. During the 2016 election campaign, Trump said Hillary Clinton received tens of millions by countries that ‘treat women horribly … and countries that kill gays’. Politifact says the claim is half-true. He also asked that she return the $25 million Saudi Arabia gave to the foundation.
The Democrats continue to blame the Russians for the election loss despite their own meddling — nothing like shooting the messenger — and other issues like emails erupting just before the election. Hence the uproar over the Helsinki summit. Add the Ukraine and Crimea issue and assorted lobbies, and soon Republicans joined in. But anger and hysteria are their own catharsis, and after Trump had been accused of treason and called a traitor, there was little else except to cool off.
When Trump placed the blame for poor relations with Russia on ‘many years of US foolishness and stupidity,’ he was being mild. Others might have said worse. Look at the record. Years of recruiting Eastern bloc countries into NATO after promising not to; after all, Russia accepted peace and disbanded the Warsaw Pact. Then the blatant interference in Ukraine, toppling an elected government and dismembering the country leaving a trail of blood.
The fact is, one either supports peace or one does not. In the US unfortunately, there are plenty of supporters for war. Otherwise, why would we get Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan (17 years and continuing), etc., etc., etc. And the Nobel Peace Laureate Barack Obama delivering the 2018 Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture. A supreme irony because the old man himself refused to meet Obama after what he had done to his friend Gaddafi. One has to be reminded, Gaddafi provide financial support to the ANC independence movement when no one else cared or dared. At the time in the West, Mandela was a terrorist. Gaddafi also helped the IRA. And what do we have in Libya now? A descent from a secular country supporting women’s rights and leading Africa in the Human Development Index to a disaster spawning fundamentalist extremists as far south as Nigeria. How soon the world forgets?
One may criticize Trump for much of his agenda — and I do often enough — but he has kept us mostly out of war. With Hillary the Hawk, we would have been mired in Syria up to our necks, in serious danger of a major conflagration with Russia.
Let’s support peace irrespective of who nurtures that gentle dove.