Posted on 09/11/2013 6:29:40 PM PDT by kristinn
MOSCOW — RECENT events surrounding Syria have prompted me to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders. It is important to do so at a time of insufficient communication between our societies.
Relations between us have passed through different stages. We stood against each other during the cold war. But we were also allies once, and defeated the Nazis together. The universal international organization — the United Nations — was then established to prevent such devastation from ever happening again.
The United Nations’ founders understood that decisions affecting war and peace should happen only by consensus, and with America’s consent the veto by Security Council permanent members was enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The profound wisdom of this has underpinned the stability of international relations for decades.
No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate of the League of Nations, which collapsed because it lacked real leverage. This is possible if influential countries bypass the United Nations and take military action without Security Council authorization.
SNIP
My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I gotta disagree with the communist. Who happens to be our president.
Putin makes a decent point, but his faith in the UN is only so because he can manipulate it with his veto.
Both Obama and Putin miss on the true nature of “American Exceptionalism” Obama is a cynical bastard who seeks to simply award exceptionalism just like he was given everything in life for simply showing up sometimes.
Putin is right that it’s dangerous to tell someone they are “exceptional” - if they are Russian.
Americans....true Americans (not cynical Obama and his supporters, whom it is equally dangerous to declare as “exceptional”) ARE exceptional - with the mix of compassion, and cultural knowledge of right and wrong to handle it with humility.
That is something Putin will never get - he mistakes it for arrogance because he doesn’t understand the true essence of America.
“Putin is a communist, to hell with him.”
Obama is more of a communist than Putin. To hell with him too.
Just because the moron in the White House doesn’t understand American exceptionalism, it doesn’t mean we are not exceptional as a people. As with everything, Obama thinks it is the government and its policies that makes America exceptional. Putin is equally ignorant. I’m not particularly interested in being lectured by Putin on who I am, and what I should stand for.
You don’t have to hate to say it - he makes a ridiculous amount of good sense. A country that is broke with its military overstretched in theater after theater where there is no well-defined military objective is in no shape to be picking new fights. America’s top priorities need to be getting our act together here at home, because right now things suck for 99% of us and only promise to get worse in the future.
My friends are coming back from these wars wanting to blow their heads off, or drink their heads off. Those with injuries get treated like garbage at the VA. These are people who swore to protect America, not to enact a lobbyist-driven political agenda across the globe.
We are rapidly approaching the point where the choice will be made for us; we will not be able to engage in war as the economy will no longer be able to support it.
We’ve been “Team Saudi Arabia World Police” for the past 25 years.
Putin has been where Obama is taking the US:
Russia was a Communist country where God was forbidden,
Russia is trying to introduce capitalism and shake the socialist form of government. Russia has fought the Muslims for over 700 years in their back yard. Read The Ghost of the Balkans. They are fighting them today in Chechnia. The Russians know their enemies. The Russians are rediscovering the importance of God in their country, again they have lived with the past where the Communists banned all religions so the people had to turn to government . Most striking is Putin at least gives the appearance of a moral compass . The US administration sends out the same liars of Benghazi to try to convince the US populace to follow.
Dear Mr. Putin,
I disagree with your premise, that American exceptionalism is dangerous. It is simply true, we were an exceptional people. We were exceptional because we were moral, Godfearing, hard working, and an educated people, who worked in a system of freedom that fully allowed us to reach our maximum potential.
I also disagree with Obama's premise, that American policy ever made us exceptional, except to the extent that our internal domestic policy was HANDS OFF.
Obama does not believe in a system of freedom, or a hands-off policy, so he is entirely antithetical to American exceptionalism.
But the last 100 years, Mr. Putin, have shown that -- entirely differing with your thought that it is dangerous -- American exceptionalism made us the gold standard to strive for, as we expanded the boundaries of science and technology and increased our standard of living.
Then we became immoral and lazy and rejected God, and our leaders rejected freedom.
Now we are to become less-exceptional than any other nation on Earth.
I would suggest, Mr. Putin, that if you embraced RUSSIAN exceptionalism as I have described the American counterpart, there is a chance -- a small one, given your nation's history -- that your country could become the beacon of hope we once were.
Signed, Laz
Putin is a devotee of Solzhenitsyn, I don’t think he started out that way, but I think after meeting him, it had a profound effect on him. And Solzhenitsyn tried to warn the West that they were on a destructive path, but we haven’t listened.
Putin makes a couple of points. I wouldn’t turn my back on him. I still don’t trust him.
Thank God he's on the world stage.
The traditional meaning has nothing to do with foreign policy or international competition or military capability.
In Obamas first term, he bowed to The Saudis, then continued his American Apology Tour. He dismantled the economic fiber of America, like a mad scientist conducting experiments.
In his second term he has literally reinvented our military, not only financially but morally. Now WE THE AMERCAN PEOPLE are bowing to effing Russia, the arm of Iran. Is anyone surprised that Putin is showing his muscle, he knows a coward when he sees one, and is literally laughing at us, as he should’ve
The American people who elected this imposter Barack HUSSEIN Obama, through their illiteracy, has placed this nation in peril. For what? Free birth control, free abortions, gay marriage, legalization of marijuana, and free cellphones.
Every President since Reagan has “bowed” to the Saudis.
“...I don’t like his letter one bit.”
Read Putin’s first sentence and had the exact thought: “I don’t like this one bit.”
Wesley Clark is a mad man.
Part of American exceptionalism is the idea that each successive generation lives better than the one before. Especially as compared with the rest of the world.
It’s simply not the case any more.
Obama’s exceptionalism is leaving the next generation with something not as bad as it would have been, if not for me....
“......at a time of insufficient communication between our societies.”
A Russian delegation, I’m sure under Putin’s direction, offered to talk to our congress. They were rejected. That’s what I call insufficient communication.
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