Posted on 03/02/2014 6:21:09 AM PST by mandaladon
President Obama is tiptoeing around Russia's apparent intervention to help separatists in Ukraine's Crimea region, but what else can he do when he has squandered any clout he might have had?
Obama came to the podium in the White House to say that "we are now deeply concerned by military movements taken by the Russian Federation within Ukraine," and warned that intervention would invite international condemnation. Obama warned Russia that there would be "costs" from the international community, but did not say how that would be arranged. Russia, as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, has the power to veto any action by the world body.
But what he said didn't go much farther than earlier statements by administration officials, including press secretary Jay Carney, who earlier refused repeatedly to speculate on what the U.S. might do if proof emerged of Russian intervention aimed at splitting Ukraine. Since Russia has a major naval base in the Crimea, at Sevastopol, at least some of its forces are already in the region and are a focus of reports that Moscow is aiding separatists there. Some conservatives slammed the response as insufficient, but there really isn't much the administration can do after years of giving Russian President Vladimir Putin the impression that President Obama is a pushover. From the "reset" through the voluntary withdrawal of missile defense deployments in Eastern Europe and the "red line" over chemical weapons use in Syria that wasn't a line at all to Obama's Feb. 19 comment that Ukraine is not a piece on a "Cold War chessboard," the administration hasn't given Putin much reason to fear its resolve.
Putin "views the United States as weak," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told Britain's Channel 4.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Libya is an underpopulated wealthy oil rich country. The “Arab Spring” was perceived in the West as a popular Arab revolt against rigid harsh dictatorships and a yearning for Western style participatory democracy. That misconception is cultivated by Western journalists, businessmen and diplomats who have their opinions molded by the minority of urbane Western oriented secularists with whom they work and socialize. The real story in Muslim countries is that the majority of the population is destitute, poorly educated and very susceptible to political Islam. However the Arab Spring began, it soon became a vehicle for political Islamists to seek or achieve power. This happened in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Syria. The situation in Libya is still not stable. A good hunch is that the Saudi and other Sunni donors will tire of the huge subsidies they are giving to Egypt and would not be opposed to Egypt having hegemony over the area. Egypt would not get rich but they wouldn’t starve if that were to happen. Ironically the Russian success in Crimea may encourage the Egyptians to attempt a merger for “security” purposes.
What I mean is: Since everyone already knows Obama is a sodomite, crook, drug user, and illegal alien, is it possible for Obama to be blackmailed?
Tingle down his leg.
Maybe the guns, the Ar15’s that the Liberals will take from us they can give to the Ukrainian so they can defend themselves.
B. Hussein O. ---->
Putin says "BHO, thanks for Crimea. Thanks for the flexibility."
How's that "reset" working for the people of Crimea....
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