Who’s bad?

When countries start trading accusations and portraying each other as “the bad guy,” I am always reminded of Michael Jackson’s hit number “Bad.”
It is also apposite to recall the famous quote of a well-known English writer of the 19th century, Aldous Huxley. ” To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.”
The release of Mikhail Khodorkovsky after 10 years has triggered a debate, especially in the United States. At the time of his arrest he was Russia’s richest man who reportedly funded opposition parties. Presumably, that was his crime that landed him in hot water. He became Russia’s best-known political prisoner. Analysts say that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be trying to ease international criticism of Russia’s human rights record ahead of February’s Winter Olympics. But how can one defend the US, when it used “innovative” torture techniques like waterboarding, carries out drone attacks on wedding convoys and funerals, outsources renditions, bombs countries, which have not attacked it, snoops on its own allies and keeps thousands, who have never been charged with any crime, behind the bars. Now, tell us who’s bad? Sadly, Michael Jackson is no more with us to answer this million-dollar question. — S.H. Moulana, Riyadh