Readers write taking issue with my piece on Putin-Harper

In our papers on Saturday and here on this blog, I wrote about Russian President Vladimir Putin, who I believe to be an anti-democratic despot with little concern for respecting the rule of law or upholding universal human rights. Many readers agreed but some did not. Here’s a lightly edited pair of responses which were typical of those who disagreed:

We’ll start with this rant from a computer sciences professor at London’s Western University:

I read your trashy (for the lack of a better term) “article” “Bad boy Putin won’t find friends at G20 summit”.

Could you, please, clarify, what was the purpose of the article? Or was it published just for the sake of calling the president of Russian
Federation “a bad boy”? Then it leaves a really bad taste in the mouth and clearly demonstrates the entire article is biased. [Um. It’s an opinion piece which means, by definition, that, yes, it is biased. – ed.]

In the article you brought 3 things together.

1) Syria.
Do you have any idea what happens in that country? Or you simply repost CNN propaganda under “award-winning” journalist’s so called “article”? Double standards in US politics are common nowadays. Back in 1980 Soviet Union was fighting terrorists in Afghanistan. US called those terrorists “freedom fighters” and supported them with money and weapons. So what happened to the term “freedom fighters” a few decades later? OR why don’t you mention that US troops are killed by US weapons supplied to the terrorists? Or what about the fact that US started the war in Iraq without approval of US Security country? And where is the weapon of mass destruction in Iraq ?
Or why don’t you mention that study documents nearly 1,000 lies from
Iraq war propaganda campaign ?

And why don’t you publish what happens in Iraq nowadays? That more people are killed every year than by Saddam Hussein from 1979 until 2003?

Or did you forget what’s going on in Libya? US destabilized the entire region and left the country without any government and in complete chaos. Yet they got what the wanted (i.e. control over oil regions)

Do you really want this to happen in Syria too? And why doesn’t US support “freedom fighters” in Saudi Arabia?

2) Gay rights violations.
What gay rights violations? Gays in Russia have the same rights as in US. The so called “anti-gay law” has nothing with gay rights.
Have you even bothered to read the law? It forbids gay propaganda around minors. That’s all. 30 (!!) states in US have similar laws.
Virginia, for instance, forbid any sexual explicit content around minors. You publish articles that gay people get arrested
during protest movements. Yet you blindly forget that US protesters get arrested and charged and charged all the time.
For instance, take Occupy Wall Street movement into account. So please stop putting your face in the gutter and look at the subject from a different prospective.

3) Snowden.
Don’t you find very amusing the fact that US demands extradition of its citizen from another country yet gives asylums to criminals wanted in that same country?
Here we can clearly see the same double standards about “whistle blowers”. Not to mention the fact that US refused to sign the
extradition treaty with Russia and there is no legal argument to demand any extradition in the first place.

Why didn’t you mention Obama promises before his election?

So next time you publish “articles”, please at least have something to say other than calling names the president of the largest country in the world.

Thank you,
Alex

Alex Babanski, Ph.D.
Computer Science Department
The University of Western Ontario
http://www.babanski.com/

I’m offside with God Squad, too, apparently;

Is Putin turning to Christian principles, while the West turns away from God?

The Bible says that in the last days people will turn away from sound teaching and will call good evil and evil good.
Around 18 times the Bible calls homosexuality evil. Explicitly, do not lie with a man as a man lies with a woman, that is detestable. Leviticus 18-22. Around 20-30 years ago sodomy was illegal, now it is legal.
Some people warn that because homosexual acts are legal, the next thing is to legalize bigamy, sex with animals and children. Time will tell if they are right. Do you think this is right and would you endorse it?
Bottom line. Who do you want as an ally, God or the G20?

– Bob Stewart