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Posted on 03/02/2014 11:36:43 AM PST by Jim Robinson
President Obama faces the gravest challenge of his presidency in figuring out how to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. How he responds will define his two terms in office, as well as determine the future of Ukraine, Russia and U.S. standing in the world. After all, if the authoritarian tyrant Vladimir Putin is allowed to get away with his unprovoked attack against his neighbor, a blatant violation of that country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, then U.S. credibility, already damaged by Obama’s poor handling of Syria, will be down to zero. Allies won’t believe in us, enemies won’t fear us and the world will be a much more dangerous place. The White House statement issued late Saturday afternoon expressing “deep concern over Russia’s clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty” was woefully inadequate.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I heard Obama’s next and final line in the sand is to “de-friend” Putin on Facebook.
Putin knows exactly what he is doing and in my humble opinion Obama does not have a move to make. This is a checkmate.
Keep your eyes on China.
Question for everyone who wants us to “do something”. Just what do you propose? The world has changed. Two nuclear powers are not going to have another tank battle on the plains.
The US is broke, the military stretched thin, and there is no way we can do anything to stop Russia. Obama is an incompetent boob, but you would not see any president get into it with Russia over the Ukraine.
It also sucks to be us with Obama as commander in chief. My fear is that he’ll feel the need to finally prove his manhood by doing something incredibly stupid vis a vis his old buddy Vladimir, and get us in a shooting war with Russia that neither can win. That’s a long shot I realize, but with dumb pansies like Obama and Kerry in charge, anything can happen.
Now we have Kerry announcing that the military option is on the table.
They bring shame to this nation. There is no military option...at least one we could trust to these incompetents.
We'll be lucky if they don't get us all killed.
Czech television is reporting that Poland has begun moving military assets to the Ukrainian border, including armor.
So while Obama may not do anything, Poland just might. And maybe Hungary and Slovakia as well.
Obama will call it the “Russian Spring” declare victory and head out to the golf course.
And some Winged Hussars?
"...when arriving in the one part of Ukraine everyone knew might one day, through either war or secession, be reunited with Russia...""Crimea is in Ukraine, but it isn’t Ukrainian. This part of the country really is Russian. By this point I had learned the alphabet well enough that I could read, so I knew the gigantic words “Автономной Республики Крым” announced to all visitors at the border that Crimea is an autonomous republic..."
"Only a fourth of its citizens are ethnic Ukrainians... Kiev has been trying for years to teach everyone in the country the Ukrainian language, but in Crimea it’s meeting the stiffest resistance..."
"Even though Yalta is significantly north of the Mediterranean, the climate, at least for a narrow little band near the beach, is startlingly subtropical. It’s one of the only places in the world where a native Russian-speaking population can grow palm trees. It’s not only the language, but the political autonomy, and the general Russian-ness that set Crimea apart from Ukraine. It’s also those mountains and the trees and the moderate sea breeze..."
Odds are, Ukraine will not get it back.
We often hear of "the Middle East" and "the Far East," but few think about the Near East that is roughly from the Crimea, thence west to the Adriatic ... and includes so many "balkanized" states, where the west ends.
Polish troops may return to Lwow.
Some liberal Americans used to complain that the US should not be the world’s “police force”. Ok, with Obama we are no longer the world’s police force.
And what happens to a place when the police pull out? Just look at the world we are in today. Africa, south america, Asia Europe, Eurasia - what is happening is the direct result of a US power vacuum.
You can’t make an incompetent man president without consequences.
I do wonder what the Poles are up to.
Here, in the Czech media, I see the beginnings; one of the Czech TV stations had an hour-long special on Russian atrocities in the former Czechoslovakia and Poland, including the Katyn Massacre.
I’m old enough to know war fever being generated.
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Peace through superior firepower!
Amen
You would not have seen Putin be so bold under the foreign policy of a Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush or even a George HW Bush. No other President who had spent their entire administration putting American interests #1 would not have gotten into this situation in the first place.
The Budapest Memorandum was between three parties: Russia, the US and the UK. There should actually be a meeting between these three parties right now.
Except, of course, that Obama has PO’d the Brits and Russia regards him as a joke anyway, so I guess that option may not be quite as available.
He’s such a jerk. He’s destroyed our bonds with our traditional allies, attempted to make new allies among radical Muslims (yeah, that’ll work) and at the same time projected such an image of total confusion that the whole world is laughing at us.
Interesting. I can’t see that either the Czech Republic or Poland would have anything to gain from this, although I suppose they’re afraid they’re next (I don’t think they are).
Ukraine was sort of an artificial Russian creation of the 1950s, and I really don’t know why they tacked the Crimea onto it. It was probably bound to come apart, especially after the Kiev Ukrainian nationalists started announcing their anti-Russian program. There are a lot of Russian speakers still living there, and it was dumb for the nationalists to attack them.
In terms of the world, however, I’m more worried about Iran making a move now. They were talking about “retaking” Jerusalem, and they may be crazy enough to feel this is the time to do it.
China is a concern, too, although I’m not sure who or what they would strike. Japan?
In any case, the Pax Americana is clearly over, thanks to Obama.
Kruschev transferred Crimea to Ukraine in 1954. Maybe a uniquely Soviet way to apologize for Stalin’s BS, and of course, Nikita was Ukrainian himself.
Of all the things you listed, I’d add North Korea to the list. Kim the Third seems more than a little erratic in my opinion, and maybe he figures this would be a great time to indulge in a little ****-waving to the South.
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