Self-righteous claptrap

It is interesting to read the opinions of US citizens
We ask our readers to contribute with letters and it is extremely interesting to hear their opinions, which are all as valid as each other in a newspaper (such as PRAVDA.Ru) which practises freedom of expression.

However, the views of one or two people who have attacked my opinions need to be addressed. One point of view is expressed by letters professing self-righteous claptrap about the USA being the deliverer of good against evil.

While one commends the solidarity shown by the vast majority of our readers with the victims of terrorism, it should also be pointed out that PRAVDA means "Truth" in Russian and that we are not here to invent stories or make up lies.

Therefore I take offence to comments such as the ones where I am accused of taking advantage of the misery of others to take pot-shots at the USA. I do not know what the newspapers in the USA say, but I consider it is up to them how they handle the coverage of international affairs. It is up to them whether they are using the term "freedom fighter" to describe an Iraqi who is fighting a murderous invasion force in his country or whether they call him an "insurgent" or "terrorist".

As for me, I like to call a spade a spade. Therefore when speaking about international terrorism, I like to get my facts straight before I talk. What is all this nonsense about the USA being the victim of terror and fighting terror in Afghanistan and so on?

A flashback.

September 11th. An aircraft flies into a building, killing innocent civilians. In Santiago del Chile. With the involvement of the CIA.
Installing the murderous regime of General Pinochet in power.

See what I mean? How many New Yorkers happily paid money to the IRA terrorists through NORAID, only to realize that terrorism has an ugly side to it on the other September 11th, in NYC? Then it was too late to remember the British men, women and children who were blasted through the plate glass
windows of shopping centres, wasn't it, by the terrorists who were darlings to so many of their sponsors in the USA?

Talking of Afghanistan, who started international Islamist terrorism in the first place? Guess who? The good ol' US of A, folks. Remember the Mujaheddin, you know, those cuddly guys led by a guy called Osama and financed by Washington to fight the Soviets?

Seems like the monster got out of control, eh? Or was it that someone somewhere made an agreement with him and broke it, as is Washington's habit?
And now we're speaking about Chechnya, how could one explain the USA's influence in neighbouring Georgia and the fact that American English has been picked up on radios used by the terrorists and that American citizens have been identified at terrorist training camps?

How to explain the many US personnel fighting with the AUC fascist anti-democratic forces in Columbia, against FARC?

It's easy to swallow the self-righteous claptrap preached by Bush and Rumsfeld and Cheney and their bunch of murderous war criminals and of course it is a virtue to be proud of your country, but to accuse me in public on these pages of using the dilemma faced by those Russian parents to take swipes at the USA is unacceptable.

If the USA wants better coverage, it would do well to adopt a more intelligent foreign policy, putting into practice the ideals of debate, discussion and dialogue, the foundations of the democracy Washington goes on and on about (you know, that Freedom and Democracy that drops cluster bombs on kids) and not bullying, blackmail and belligerence, which is what we see today.