Posted on 03/04/2014 2:28:12 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Before we get to the substance of it, here’s a wider shot of the backdrop for today’s statement. Kneel before Zod, Vladimir.
jon gabriel @exjon
"If you listen closely, you can hear laughing
all the way from the Kremlin." http://shar.es/FLfgH
12:13 PM - 4 Mar 2014
89 Retweets 36 favorites
Anyway. Is O right that the Crimea walkover is more a sign of Russian weakness than of strength? And is there any way to answer that question dispassionately knowing how self-serving his spin here is? There’s nothing more Hopenchangey than watching this guy try to frame western impotence in the face of Russian aggression as some sort of image problem that can be corrected by his pals in the media, especially knowing that his “red line” humiliation last year in Syria surely emboldened Putin internationally. Plus, I don’t quite follow his read on what Russian satellites are apt to do now that Moscow’s brought a boot down on Ukraine. If you’re a Russian border state that’s intrigued by closer ties to the EU, what does Moscow have to offer you except the threat of invasion (or, at a minimum, turning off the gas/oil tap) if you get too frisky with the west? Clamping down on Crimea is a quintessential “pour encourager les autres” move by Putin, and surely his best bet to keep those satellites in Russia’s orbit.
But then, that’s Obama’s point. Only a state with comparatively little to offer economically would feel obliged to roll into Crimea when there was no Ukrainian threat to the peninsula and certainly no Ukrainian threat to Russia’s base in Sevastopol. They can’t offer their satellite states a more attractive political model than the EU so they’re reduced to gratuitous muscle-flexing to keep them in line. Like Ross Douthat said a few weeks ago, the striking thing about Putin is that, despite his reputation as a geopolitical grand master, he struggles to keep Ukraine in line in a way that earlier Russian autocracies never did. The fact that the Euromaidan was able to chase Yanukovych, his puppet, across the border is proof enough of his blundering. Putin’s near-term grand ambition is to build a Eurasian Union with Russia’s satellites as an economic counterweight to the EU, but not even the prospect of that was enough to lure Kiev to Russia’s side peacefully. He runs a fantastically corrupt, rapidly depopulating kleptocracy — George Will likes to call Russia a third-world country with a first-world army — and, go figure, his neighbors aren’t keen to gamble their national futures on an alliance with it unless they’re forced. (If you believe a poll taken in mid-February, before Yanukovych was toppled, only 41 percent of Crimeans want to become part of Russia.) That’s what Obama means by weakness, and that’s why you see him here hammering the point that nations should be free to choose their destiny via elections. Given a truly free choice, how many of Russia’s neighbors would opt to partner with the Moscow Mussolini instead of the EU? He can’t win the battle of ideas. He can only win wars.
But that’s what makes Putin dangerous. The more insecure he feels, the bolder he might get. And the bolder he gets without paying a price for it, the bolder other powers might get. That’s really why O’s mumbling about sanctions and other penalties — not because he cares much about Ukraine but because the things he does care about, like making a deal with Iran, get harder every time something like this happens.
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
The choomer is smoking some good Mary Jane.
What a doofus.
And a faerie.
So now the Sock Monkey-in-Chief (I know that’s disrespectful to sock monkeys everywhere, but, dude, have you seen his ears??? Prince Chuckles has nothing on 0’s ears!)is doing pressers from the playroom??? Why am I not surprised? And he wants anyone to take him seriously?? Send in the clowns, there must be clowns!
Ignorance is Wisdom.
War is Peace.
Freedeom is Slavery.
What next, a presser in Romper Room?
Media misleading people...
That would never happen obamamerika!
Maybe if Putin spoke to Barry “Mom Jeans” Obama in Austrian, Obama might understand.
Jug ears is way over his pay grade.
The possible Russian intervention was quite important when Obama forbade it.
Now that he has been ignored, it’s no big deal.
Got it.
This is liberal kook world, Russia can’t be strong we can’t be weak just because ....
Some lies are sadly funny, eh?
” - - - White House is announcing an aid package to Ukraine of $1 billion - - - “
FINALLY! A highly successful backward solution to all known problems comes out of the Nobel Peace Prize winning White House!
“What is that?, “ You may ask? The answer, of course, is unlimited amounts of unfunded US Taxpayer Debt Dollars!
Yup! Works every time, and faster than you can can say “IcandoanythingIwantbyjustbyoassingCongress.” Nobel Laurette Soetoro-Obama just says: “Charge it to the next generation, please! Whoopee! My work here is done! Golf anyone?”
Secretary of Statements John “Cachup” Kerry will ride in, start writing rubber checks, and the ensuing bright rosy glow will spread around the World. Well, maybe not onto “the Arab Street.”
Although the always weak, Obamanation Foreign Policy is well on the way to its usual backward success, there are still a few topics that have yet to be resolved, as follows:
* Were is the Internet Video that caused the Ukrainians to force their beloved President to take the entire Ukrainian Treasury with him when he fled the country?
* Will “Catchup” Kerry enlist the help of famed video detective Susan Rice to help him track down and jail the perp. who made this awful, obscure, unknown video, that the United States had nothing to do with?
* Will the US Department of Statements spend more unfunded US Taxpayer Debt Dollars for the Ukranian Denial Ad than they did for the 2012 Benghazi Denial Ad?
* Note: Kerry must excel here because due to the obvious cruel onslaught of the aging process on Mrs. Bill Clinton, “Catchup” Kerry may be duty-bound to replace her as the obvious Democrat frontrunner in the 2016 Presidential race.
* Since POS Soetoro-Obama hit the famous RESET BUTTON on Russia, the NASA Space Program has had to be “dependent on the kindness of strangers” from Russia. Hopefully, our astronauts will be able to borrow food and vodka from the Russians while they wait for “Catchup” Kerry to resolve this Ukrainian “investment.”
* Will buddy Vlad Putin be as flexible with the Renowned Obamanation Foreign Policy as Soetoro-Obama was with Putin?
* Rumor has it that Vlad Putin has his eye on being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his defusing of the Syrian “Red Line” Crisis.
* Another rumor is that Putin could win the Nobel Peace Prize if he sold all of Russia’s US Treasury Notes, requested that the USA be dropped from the G9, and appointed Snowden to be the Russian Ambassador to the United States of America.
Yeah, when he rolls into Manhattan I suppose they’ll say “well, it only cost us $23, so what’s the big deal?”
I caught the "mom jeans" comment last night, and actually had to look up the term.
(And, it became much funnier).
.
Billy C sweet-talked ‘em into GIVING UP THEIR NUKES—back in the day.
For a NATO gay-run-tee and everbody agreeing to Ukraine’s borders.
Well.
How’s that workin’ these days?
Mebbie you should keep your guns (nukes)—just in case.
He does have an office in DC, does he not?
Russia is pursuing its national interests.
So there is a difference of opinion about it. But that does not give Obama the right to decide what those interests are.
Frankly, its true Russia wants a friendly Ukrainian government. This is perfectly legitimate - and you can use all allowed methods to secure it.
Every country does this to some extent. But its not like Russia is engaging in habitual expansionism. If this was a recurrent problem, we would have every right to be concerned.
It isn’t and Russia is nowhere as evil as the Soviet Union that killed thousands of people in the name of Communist ideology. Cold War metaphors do not work here. If someone can show us Russia is sending in tanks and mowing down people, yes we should do everything we can to ensure such behavior is not repeated.
This is not the case here and even Putin’s fiercest critics don’t claim he has shed any one’s blood. Compared to the Soviet Union, today’s Russian Bear appears to be remarkably civilized.
True, but arguments for just ignoring this are so reminiscent of feeble and cowardly responses to aggression by dictators in the past that people are going to be uneasy with advice to just not look at what's going on.
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