Stocks fall sharply on reported Putin comments

Marketwatch ^ | Friday September 6, 2013

[Bigtigermike]

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks erased Friday gains, with the major indexes down about 0.5%, after Russia's president reportedly said his nation would help Syria if that nation were attacked

[RS_Rider]

“So why hasn’t he helped them yet?”

Putin only wants to jab the imposter, see how many more things he can make him reverse himself on.

[rarestia]

I hope everyone recognizes that by attacking Syria, in the eyes of the world, and in eyes of most US citizens, Obama has committed an act of war in the name of the US.

THANK YOU! I've been saying this for weeks, and no one believes me.

I guarantee that Obama will make a move without Congressional approval. He'll say, "Oh, well the Senate passed the measure, but the Congress won't take a vote. One out of two ain't bad. So I've got SOME approval. Let's just do it."

Meanwhile, people are forgetting that Obama's actions are seen around the world as a collective American action, not just the actions of one maniacal dictator.

My question: if Obama orders this strike, and the destroyers fire those missiles, will the military brass step up and either order a stand down or even order a coup d'etat? I think it is BEYOND obvious that Obama is a domestic threat and needs to be imprisoned.

[hinckley buzzard]

I think Putin sees what everyone else sees: that this is a historically weak American president and a once in a lifetime opportunity for Russia to establish international hegemony at the expense of a crippled and politically impotent US.

[Zhang Fei]

I think Putin sees what everyone else sees: that this is a historically weak American president and a once in a lifetime opportunity for Russia to establish international hegemony at the expense of a crippled and politically impotent US.

I'm gonna have to disagree. In the post-Cold War era, I think we've established international hegemony at the expense of a crippled and politically-impotent Russia, sweeping aside one former Soviet client regime after another. Putin is merely trying to stop the rot. Basically, we've pressed our bets for over a quarter-century after the Soviet empire crumbled. It remains to be seen whether the Russians will finally put their foot down and say the equivalent of "this far, but no further". One way of doing so would be for the Russians to take over Syria's air defenses, with S-400's based there, daring the US to bomb Russian personnel based in Syria and risking significant aircraft and personnel losses. If Putin decided to take this really seriously, Russia could sign a mutual defense treaty with Syria, making any attack on Syria an attack on Russia. I think the difficulty any president would have with Russia today is that Russia has been pushed around to the point that there is broad public support in Russia for ending this seemingly relentless series of retreats.

[dfwgator]

I agree. And it goes all the way back to our stupidity in Kosovo.

[bill1952]

Yeltsin did not land anything. They were already on the ground there as part of the multi national mission and simply drove there.
They have almost no ability to project force in a hostile environment and every military in the world knows it, especially the Russians.
In any conflict with American military might today, they would get butt kicked right out the door - and they know that as well, which is exactly why they are not going to one thing that so many dream about..

[Zhang Fei]

In any conflict with American military might today, they would get butt kicked right out the door - and they know that as well, which is exactly why they are not going to one thing that so many dream about..

These aren't dreams - they're nightmares. If they choose a limited nuclear war, by nuking our fleet, we're checkmated. If we nuke their fleet, that's a lousy trade. If we go to the other end of the spectrum, by initiating a first strike, we risk the destruction of the thousand or so biggest cities and military bases stateside to Russian warheads. There are multiple reasons to avoid serious confrontations over issues that don't involve our interests, with an adversary who has the Samson option (of pulling down the temple over all of our heads). The most important of these reasons is that if we're wrong - even if the possibility is remote - we'll lose a hundred million dead.

And we'll lose that mounting an ill-conceived crusade over an issue that really isn't our problem. The original crusades had as their aim the stemming of Muslim power, and they had the salutary effect of holding Muslim armies in the Levant for a couple fo centuries, until the Mongols devastated them and put that genie back in the bottle for another century or so. This "humanitarian" crusade empowers Sunni Muslims who are the sworn enemy of non-Muslim world. I put humanitarian in quotes because if put in power, they will proceed to exterminate anyone who's not a Sunni Arab.

[Schwaeky]

God I hope so. That usurper needs to be taken out asap to save America from his malignant machinations. High time for a coup d’etat. God I hope there are enough good men and women in the Pentagon, that are sane and will not follow this charlatan into the abyss. Oh Franco, Oh Pinochet, oh Stauffenberg, where are you?

[GOPJ]

Flash point.. flash point...