When Reagan went to Germany in May 1985 and laid a wreath at the German WWII cemetary at Bitburg, he was harshly criticized for honoring Nazi war dead, some of whom were members of the murderous SS. The idea that 40 years of peace and alliance required a measure of concilliation didn't cut it -- the Nazis were monsters and that wat that.
So today President Bush goes to Moscow and joins the Kremilin elite on the reviewing stand. Somehow, though, this is OK. The Hammer & Sickle, the posters of Stalin, the tanks and rockets and goosestepping soldiers -- the 20 million dead at Stalin's hand, and 50 years of brutal empire -- all is forgiven and not a drop of criticism from the media.
Balls. To my mind the Hammer and Sickle and the Swastika are two side of the same flag. The kind of thing you walk quickly away from should you encounter them, with distain and contempt.
Putin's Russia is not our friend, and is becoming increasingly less so. To talk about Liberty while honoring the icons of mass murder and oppression is irony of the worst sort. Shame.
