"Quite simply, I am a forty-five-year-old Muscovite who observed the Soviet Union at its most disgraceful in the nineteen-seventies and eighties. . . . Putin has, by chance, gotten his hands on enormous power and has used it to catastrophic effect. I dislike him because he does not like people. He despises us. He sees us as a means to his ends, a means for the achievement and retention of personal power, no more than that. Accordingly, he believes he can do anything he likes with us, play with us as he sees fit, destroy us as he sees fit. We are nobody, while he whom chance has enabled to clamber to the top of the pile is today Tsar and God. In Russia, we have had leaders with this outlook before. It led to tragedy, to bloodshed on a vast scale, to civil wars.”

- Journalist Anna Politkovskaya. On october 7, 2006, Ms. Politkovskaya was murdered in her own apartment building by four 9 mm shots, the first two bullets piercing her heart and lungs, the third shattering her shoulder, and the fourth and final shot point blank into her head.



This blog is not about the criticism of other sovereign nations, especially when there are such profound problems right here in the United States. However, I was moved by the frank candor of Politkovskaya's words and I was shocked by the brutality of her death.

I was also struck by the similarity of her description of Putin to a certain other world leader. I dislike George W. Bush because he also has gotten his hands on enormous power by chance, and has abused that power to catastrophic effect for this nation and the world. I dislike him because he does not like people. He despises us and sees no problem with torture, suspension of the Geneva Convention, and "extraordinary rendition." He sees people as a means to his ends, a means for the achievement and retention of personal power, no more than that. Accordingly, he believes he can do anything he likes with us, play with us as he sees fit, destroy us as he sees fit. We are nobody, while he whom chance has enabled to clamber to the top of the pile believes himself to be an "imperial" president above the law, and the conduit of God's will.