Americanly Yours

Many people including President Obama have said that what Edward Snowden did was wrong because he should have complained to his managers before going public.  Well he did.  Ten times.  And he was ignored ten times.  He could have sat back and let this evil continue.  He could have complained an eleventh time and then a twelfth time…and eventually a two hundredth time, but it would have never made a difference.

So, rather than sitting back and doing nothing, he came forward with what he knew.  He defended his country against an egregious abuse of authority committed by the State–and for that he is a hero.  He risked his life by single-handedly standing up to the most powerful government in the history of the world and telling the world that what was happening was not right.

John Stuart Mill once said “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”  Well, Edward Snowden looked on, but had the courage to not do nothing.

Some people are calling for the US and EU to place sanctions on Russia for its deplorable actions in Ukraine. This is probably the worst thing that the US and EU can do about this situation without resorting to nuclear war. Sanctions are an act of war and should be opposed by all peace loving people.

Sanctions kill.

The Bush-Clinton-Bush sanctions in Iraq are just one example of how horrible of a policy sanctions can be. These sanctions killed an unknown but extremely high number of people. Sanctions also do not punish the offenders in the regime: rather they punish the innocent people who are already suffering under an oppressive regime. Estimates range from around 170K to around 600K or more children who were killed by these sanctions. I am willing to bet that not one of these children was a high ranking government official. In contrast: as terrible, as immoral, and as violent as the Iraq War was, estimates of civilian deaths range from around 100K to around 600K. In other words, sanctions killed as many or more people than did a massive military invasion followed by a bloody civil war.

Besides all this, some estimates put Putin’s personal wealth at $70 billion. Do you think that sanctions are more likely to hurt him or impoverished Russians?