Putin Declares War

Wall Street Journal ^ | March 2, 2014 | Editorial

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Vladimir Putin's Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean peninsula by force on the weekend and now has his sights on the rest of his Slavic neighbor. The brazen aggression brings the threat of war to the heart of Europe for the first time since the end of the Cold War. The question now is what President Obama and free Europe are going to do about it. --SNIP--

In the brutal world of global power politics, Ukraine is in particular a casualty of the Mr. Obama's failure to enforce his "red line" on Syria. When the leader of the world's only superpower issues a military ultimatum and then blinks, others notice. Adversaries and allies in Asia and the Middle East will be watching President Obama's response now. China has its eyes on Japanese islands. Iran is counting on U.S. weakness in nuclear talks.

The Ukrainians can't be left alone to face Russia, and the Kremlin's annexation of Crimea can't be allowed to stand. Ukraine must remain an independent state with its current borders intact, free to follow its democratic will to join the European Union and NATO if it desires. The world is full of revisionist powers and bad actors looking to exploit the opening created by Mr. Obama's retreat from global leadership, and Mr. Putin is the leading edge of what will quickly become a new world disorder.

[dfwgator]

Budapest Memorandum is as useless as the Dayton Accords were.

Another Clinton foul-up.

[swamprebel]

Obama has declared Congress useless, They passed the ACA as a budgetary amendment. Even worse, Congress has abdicated their power to the Executive branch, by not even passing a budget for 4 years, raising the debt ceiling twice, and forcing a targeted sequestration. The legislative branch too has remained mostly quiet. Chief Justice Roberts rewrote the ACA changing penalties into taxes to make it Constitutional (somewhat). Obama bypassed a convened Congress to make recess appointments.
And that's only a small list of what the Imperial Presidency of Obama has done. I'd say his “bar napkin” Presidency has become all powerful.

[wideawake]

It served French geopolitical ends to weaken the British Empire.

It serves US geopolitical ends to weaken Russian hegemony.

And, in both circumstances it is both moral and useful to lend a helping hand.

[beelzepug]

For the third time in a hundred years, we are staring down the barrel of another European, or maybe world, war, only this time we don’t have the means, nor our people the will, to get involved. If we do, I’m afraid the results this time will be very different.

[super7man]

Same here....

[dfwgator]

I’d rather have Russia controlling their former Muslim republicans than to let them become independent and fall under radicals.

[dfwgator]

republicans=republics

[TalBlack]

Obozo was always in over his head, now we will all SEE just how far. No Speech will camouflage it, no NYT editorial will spin it, no presidential sleeve snapping strut to the podium will overpower it. Reality. One Hard Bitch.

[CommieCutter]

The question now is what President Obama and free Europe are going to do about it.

Let France and the rest of the Euro-weenies deal with it. They always conveniently complain about U.S. wars while sipping wine in their tight pants. Let them see what a real bully is.

[moviefan8]

I wonder when China is going to make its move to send in troops to places it claims. I imagine it will be within a couple of years.

They need a strong Navy, however.

They have interests all over the world.

Perhaps it is waiting for the United States to get even weaker.

It isn’t hard to imagine that Russia and China will divide the world beteeen themselves.

[Travis McGee]

I would encourage you to pull this book from the library. The lines dividing Europe’s ethnicities and nations (not the same thing) have been rearranged a couple times a century on average. It is simply not America’s problems. The Ukrainians have been involved in vicious ethnic cleansing between themselves and the Poles and the Russians through history. It is just NOT our problem.

http://www.amazon.com/Savage-Continent-Europe-Aftermath-World/dp/125003356X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393793863&sr=1-1&keywords=savage+continent+europe+in+the+aftermath+of+world+war+ii+by+keith+lowe

[Travis McGee]

Never mind the fact that the Crimea, the area in immediate question, was Russian for over two centuries before Khrushchev literally gifted it to Ukraine in 1954 as part of a USSR internal political deal. And before the Russians, it was part of the Ottoman Empire, and before that, the city-state of Venice. The Crimea is more Russian than Hawaii is American, by a long shot, and the Russians are taking it back. Putin is reversing Khrushchev's folly during a moment of Western weakness.

But this is a great book and I can't recommend it highly enough.

[dfwgator]

Yeltsin could have corrected it, but he was too s—tfaced.

[Travis McGee]

Good old Boris earned his niche in the Russian pantheon.

[353FMG]

>....and let the USA decline into a footnote in history.<

.
Was that not his intention since the day he ascended the throne?

[353FMG]

He has demonstrated to the world that he has nothing but contempt for the country that he is the president of.

[353FMG]

You don’t know the answer considering that he who lives in the White Hut claims that he was born in Hawaii.

[Berlin_Freeper]

What was that about "so what?" and "nothing but a snap-shot in time"?
Now you went digging up old history. LoL!

There is no justification for Russia's military invasion of Ukraine.
There was no trouble there, even Putin had to admit that.

This is nothing but a geopolitical land grab because Putin could
get away with it - counting on the weak "simply not our problem"
wishful thinking that prevails with our leaders today.

Hitler had the exact same ideas as Putin with his land grabs -
and we saw how rolling-over led to the holocaust.

Ukraine doesn't exist in a box...
look at the example you are making for China, North Korea, Iran, etc.

I have a book for you:
Think & Grow Balls!: How To Shrink Your Fear & Enlarge Your Courage

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

Well, females and gays who want to be on the front lines, here's your chance. Good luck!