Trump: U.S. Not 'So Innocent'; Even A Broken Clock Is Right Twice A Day

Donald Trump spoke with FOX News host Bill O'Reilly in a wide-ranging, predictably softball interview yesterday, and the discussion turned to Russia:

O'Reilly: Do you respect Putin?

Trump: Yes

O'Reilly: Why?

Trump: Well, I respect a lot of people but that doesn't mean I'm gonna get along with him

...

O'Reilly: Putin is a killer

Trump: There are a lot of killers...Got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country's so innocent?

You can watch the video here:

Predictably, Trump's comment made establishment heads explode. Most in the media looked at it and were horrified. CNN's John King argued that compared to Russia, the U.S. has been basically innocent. Other pundits were having heart attacks left and right, while establishment reps on both sides of the aisle threw fits. How could Trump say such a thing?

For now, let's set aside the absurd hypocrisy of Trump's statement -- and the fact that when Obama acknowledged the slightest problems with America's history, Republicans went nuts.

The fact is, when Trump says we're not "so innocent," he does have a point.

It is true that Russia is responsible for a lot of misery in this world. In Syria, the Russian military has worked with Assad to kill thousands of innocent people. In fact, Al Jazeera estimated that around 4,000 Syrians civilians were killed by Russian strikes.

Furthermore, in The Ukraine, over a thousand innocent people were killed.

While it's not clear how many of those deaths occurred on either side, Russia is clearly responsible for the war, and therefore it's in some way responsible for those deaths.

And hundreds more people died in the Malaysian Airlines plane that was likely shot down with Russian missiles.

Clearly, Russia is responsible for a large number of recent civilian deaths. By our estimates, at least 5000. But what about the U.S.?

While Russia was killing people in Syria and annexing land in the Ukraine, the U.S. has been killing people in drone strikes all over Africa and the Middle East.

According to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Obama authorized nearly 400 drone strikes in Pakistan during his tenure -- as well as around 100 in Yemen and 30 in Somalia. Those drone strikes have killed several hundred innocent civilians.

Worse, the U.S. has supported Saudi Arabia in its proxy war in Yemen. The Independent estimates that 10,000 civilians have died in Yemen, and another 40,000 have been injured.

While not all of those have been caused by U.S. allies, a large portion have. And the U.S. has provided drones, missiles, military, and technical assistance to carry out the war.

Finally, let's not forget the civilian casualties in other wars that the U.S. started. According to this Wiki, around 120,000 civilians have died in the Iraq war. While the U.S. is not directly responsible for most of those, as we pointed out earlier, we're at least somewhat responsible because we started the war. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, another 25,000 civilians have been killed. Again, the U.S. isn't directly responsible for all of those, but we're definitely responsible for some.

Anyone who reads this site knows that we're not huge fans of Trump. However, in this case, he is totally right. Russia is responsible (or partially responsible) for around 5000 recent civilian deaths, but we are responsible for nearly 150,000.

Clearly, then, the U.S. is not "so innocent." Let the establishment start freaking out...

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