POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN THE TELEGRAPH
You've no basis for saying this.
I've seen nothing that would warrant Putin being
characterized this way.
He is not the kind of democratic spirit we tend to have in
the West, but he is intelligent and capable, and he is the kind of leader a
huge nation struggling to get its footing needs.
No democratic nation in the West is without an early history
of strongmen, aristocrats, or kings. Indeed, today, those of great wealth still
exercise inordinate power in our so-called democratic states.
Just look at the example of Rupert Murdoch, a man whose
enterprises appear to have broken every British tradition of civility, privacy,
and equality before the law.
But then the True Blue Right Wingers of Telegraph's editorial
staff don't need proof to spout about those they don't like, do they?
The truth is we have one absolutely proven gangster state in
the world, and that is Israel.
It steals from others whatever it wants.
It kills anyone it feels like killing.
It holds more than 4 million people in seemingly endless
bondage.
It threatens the security of every state within a thousand
miles of its border, whatever that happens to be on a particular day.
Its leader is so flagrant a liar that two heads of major
states were overheard saying.
