Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile
Everything is measured in comparison. What have the Soviet Union done to the Middle East in those glorious days?
Many things, actually. Education, power plants, weapons, money, know-hows, etc.

Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile
Having said that, I'm not really sure what's the point of the caricature. It's not like the US didn't pay for the oil, did they? By the way, the Soviet Union exported their oil too, to those same capitalists, so why wouldn't they write СССР beside Ближний Восток?
I was sure you'll recognize it because it's a very old one, made by Кукрыниксы.

Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile
As to the "blood" that is shed, I think the USSR should have sat quiet like a mouse, since the dominant majority of the Middle East countries have adopted the soviet weapons (until today) and the USSR was a major exporter of those weapons to the Middle East. On the other hand, Israel adopted NATO weapons. It has never been a secret the Middle East was a field testing for the soviet and the NATO weapons. (And not only the Middle East, by the way.)
Yes, we've been selling giving them weapons sometimes for free and pursuing our own agenda, but weapons were only a part of it (see above).

Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
[I]The hypocrisy of suddenly condemning a regime it has propped up for 30 years is unbelievable.
Why? It was expected. Churchill once said 'Britain has no permanent allies, it only has permanent interests.' I don't see why US policy would differ from this.