EDITORIAL-Putin Hitler Comparison

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EDITORIAL:Hillary Has Had Choice Words For World Leaders,Too—She Compared Putin to Hitler

In Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy speech,

she claimed that Donald Trump was

“temperamentally unfit” to be President,

and that it would not be “hard to imagine

Donald Trump leading us into a war just

because somebody got under his very thin

skin.”1 

But back in 2014, Hillary “sparked,”what the Washington Post  labeled, “a

political uproar” when she likened

 Vladmir Putin to Adolf Hitler.2 The next

day, Hillary stood by, and refused to

retract, her statement.3 The Washington

 Post  quoted former officials from the

Clinton and Reagan administrations that

were critical of the former Secretary of

State.

James Collins, who was an ambassador

to Russia under President Bill Clinton,was quoted in the Washington Post 

describing the reckless nature of Hillary’s

comments. “A statement that equates

Russians to Nazis and Mr. Putin to what

Hitler was doing is simply going to

inflame Russian opinion,” he said.

Lawrence Korb, an alumnus of the

President Ronald Reagan administration,

said Hillary’s comments “hurt more than

they can help. Whatever Putin is, hewasn’t like Hitler. He didn’t massacre

thousands of non-Russians in Georgia or

anything like that.”4 

Moreover, Hillary was not even

accurate in her insult. One commentator

opined that Hillary’s comparison was

“tenuous at best,” and admonished

Hillary, because “[w]e are dealing with a

major power with nuclear weapons that

has the capacity to reduce the world to so

much irradiated ash. The West needs to

be careful with its words.”5 

We need not forget that the “Russian

Reset” that Hillary was put in charge ofhas epically failed.6 In the wake of the

Reset and arms agreement, Russia has

deployed new long-range missiles, 7 

threatened to use nuclear weapons 8 

against NATO countries over Ukraine,

increased their deployed nuclear

weapons 9  to levels exceeding the arms

agreement, announced they would add

another forty intercontinental nuclear

missiles10  to their arsenal in an effort to

“modernize” their stockpiles, and illegallytested cruise missiles11 in violation of the

1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces

Treaty (the same treaty the Obama

administration explicitly accused Russia

of violating12 in 2014).

In sum, it is utterly hypocritical for

Hillary to suggest Trump would do

damage to United States foreign policy by

having spats with foreign leaders,

especially when she has made one of themost egregious comparisons not only to a 

foreign leader, but to the next largest

nuclear superpower. Accordingly, cannot

assume, due to previous comments, that

Hillary is more temperamentally fit to be

the next Commander-in-Chief.

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References

1 Katie Reilly, Read Hillary Clinton’s Speech on Donald Trump and National Security, TIME M AGAZINE (Jun. 2,

2016), http://time.com/4355797/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-foreign-policy-speech-transcript/ (last visited Jun. 6,

2016).2 Phillip Rucker, Hillary Clinton’s Putin-Hitler comments draw rebukes as she wades into Ukraine conflict, THE

W ASHINGTON POST (Mar. 5, 2014), https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hillary-clintons-putin-hitler-comments-draw-rebukes-as-she-wades-into-ukraine-conflict/2014/03/05/31a748d8-a486-11e3-84d4-e59b1709222c_story.html

(last visited Jun. 7, 2016). See also Karen Robes Meeks, Listen to Hillary Clinton compare Russian President

Vladmir Putin to Hitler, LOS A NGELES D AILY NEWS (Mar. 5, 2014), http://www.dailynews.com/general-

news/20140305/listen-to-hillary-clinton-compare-russian-president-vladimir-putin-to-hitler (last visited Jun. 7,

2016).3 See Phillip Rucker, supra note 2.4 Id.5 Timothy Stanley, Hillary, Putin’s no Hitler, C ABLE NEWS NETWORK  (Mar. 5, 2014),

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/05/opinion/stanley-hillary-clinton-hitler/ (last visited Jun. 7, 2016).6 See Phillip Rucker, supra note 2. See also, e.g., Max Fisher, A visual report card for U.S. foreign relations in 2013

(it looks pretty bad), THE W ASHINGTON POST (Oct. 25, 2013),

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/10/25/a-visual-report-card-for-american-foreign-

relations-in-2013-it-looks-pretty-bad/ (last visited Jun. 6, 2016); William J. Broad and David E. Sanger, Race forLatest Class of Nuclear Arms Threatens to Revive Cold War, THE NEW Y ORK TIMES (Apr. 16, 2016),

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/science/atom-bomb-nuclear-weapons-hgv-arms-race-russia-china.html?_r=0

(last visited Jun. 6, 2016);7 William J. Broad and David E. Sanger, Race for Latest Class of Nuclear Arms Threatens to Revive Cold War, THE

NEW Y ORK TIMES (Apr. 16, 2016), http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/science/atom-bomb-nuclear-weapons-hgv-

arms-race-russia-china.html?_r=0 (last visited Jun. 6, 2016).8 The Editorial Board, Lost Opportunity on Nuclear Disarmament, The New York Times (Jun. 3, 2015),

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/opinion/lost-opportunity-on-nuclear-disarmament.html (last visited Jun. 6,

2016).9 Bill Gertz, Russia Adds 111 Warheads Under Arms Treaty, THE W ASHINGTON FREE BEACON (Oct. 9, 2015),

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/russia-adds-111-warheads-under-arms-treaty/ (last visited Jun. 6, 2016).10 W.J. Hennigan and Ralph Vartabedian, Future of nuclear arms control looks bleak, experts say, THE LOS A NGELES

TIMES (Jul 9, 2015), http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nuclear-treaties-20150709-story.html (last visited Jun. 6,2016).11 See, supra note 25.12 Michael R. Gordon, U.S. Says Russia Tested Cruise Missile, Violating Treaty, THE NEW Y ORK TIMES (Jul. 28,

2014), http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/29/world/europe/us-says-russia-tested-cruise-missile-in-violation-of-

treaty.html (last visited Jun. 6, 2016).