Well Israel, who has the most to lose here, begs to differ. The US is at least making some attempts to slow or stop Iran's nuclear development effort, Russia is actively supporting it. Big difference. Israel may not think the US is doing near enough, but they certainly prefer our position over the Putin one since he is actively helping them.
As far as the other despots go, I don’t see much different in our hemisphere than when Bush was president...same dictators...no effort to get rid of them.
Despots come and go, yes. There is a huge difference between doing too little and actively supporting them. The US does too little these days for sure, Russia actively assists them. It is hard for me to believe you can't see the difference.
The airliner - that system has been deployed since 1979. Ukraine DEFINITELY had it when the Soviet Union broke up. It’s VERY POSSIBLE that the rebels (who are former soldiers) had their own when they broke away. I’m just not jumping to conclusions yet on this one.
Are you spending your time reading RT or something? Come on man, denying that Russian supported thugs (ie, separatists), at a very minimum, shot this civilian airliner down is to be wearing multiple sets of blinders. It isn't hard to see where this shot came from and it was pretty obviously terrorist controlled territory. These are Russia's allies, whom they support with heavy weapons and training. The man ultimately responsible is Putin as he is determined to continue destabilizing a country that wants to look to the West and get OUT of Russia's orbit (and before you shout "fascists!", Right Sector only got 2% of the vote in Ukraine - they are not a significant bloc). Or are you one of these people that believed Putin when he said his forces weren't in Crimea? Seriously now, no one believed that and the end result proved he was lying all along.
By the way, the Middle East would be a MUCH BETTER place right now for Christians, if Putin’s, rather than Hillary’s, policies had been followed.
Yes, because a nuclear Iran - and the Islamic arms race that would follow - would be great for Christians. Putin is not some defender of Christianity in the Middle East, despite what he and his propaganda organs may claim from time to time. Putin supports whoever will buy weapons from him and support Russian foreign policy (which is mostly about opposing the US/West and creating a "multipolar" world). That is why they will support both a religious fanatic state like Iran AND a more secular run government like Assad's (not to mention Russia's only foreign navy base is in Syria).
“Come on man, denying that Russian supported thugs (ie, separatists), at a very minimum, shot this civilian airliner down is to be wearing multiple sets of blinders.”
I NEVER said who did or didn’t shoot down the plane. I only noted that, despite what we’re being spoon-fed, these weapons have been in Ukraine for DECADES and I really doubt that we know exactly who has which units.
Again, unless Putin, or the Russian military command, ordered the plane to be shot down, then Putin did not do it - no more than Germany attacked Pearl Harbor, since they were allies with Japan at the time.