Posted on 03/14/2014 6:40:23 PM PDT by kristinn
The U.S. State Department warned American citizens on Friday of possible military clashes along the Russian-Ukrainian border and potential anti-American activities in Russia as Crimea prepares to vote Sunday on whether to join Russia.
SNIP
"However," it said, "all U.S. citizens located in or considering travel to the border region ... should be aware of the potential for escalation of tensions, military clashes (either accidental or intentional) or other violence."
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Ukraine files complaint against Russia with ECHR
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has accepted Ukraine’s compliant against Russia and has called on the sides to refrain from measures that may entail violations of the rights of Ukraine’s civilian population.
The ECHR press service said that the Ukrainian government’s complaint against Russia was submitted on March 13, 2014 under Article 33 (inter-state cases) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
“They also submitted a request under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court for an interim measure indicating to the Russian government, among other things, that it should refrain from measures which might threaten the life and health of the civilian population on the territory of Ukraine,” reads the statement.
“With a view to preventing such violations and pursuant to Rule 39, the president calls upon both contracting parties concerned to refrain from taking any measures, in particular military actions, which might entail breaches of the Convention rights of the civilian population, including putting their life and health at risk, and to comply with their engagements under the Convention, notably in respect of Articles 2 (right to life) and 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment). Both states were also asked to inform the court as soon as possible of the measures taken to ensure that the Convention is fully complied with,” reads the statement.
In addition, the statement notes that under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court the court “may indicate to the parties of any interim measure which it considers should be adopted in the interests of the parties or of the proper conduct of the proceedings before it.”
“The inter-state application has been registered under No. 20958/14, Ukraine v. Russia,” reads the statement.
“Why would Russia want to recreate the Warsaw Pact? What’s in it for Russia? They will never be obedient satellites of the Kremlin.”
They envision, with futility or not, a Europe under their political and economic control and in geopolitical opposition to the United States, whom they seek to isolate as the Soviet Union was isolated. Putin is simply pursuing a modified version of the old Soviet CHEKA/NKVD/KGB worldview of world domination under their personal autocratic Russian leadership. This was all they have been preparing for since they forced Boris Yeltsin out of control of Russia.
“But the US people will not stand for our troops to go into another war.”
Which is why Russia is virtually guaranteed to invade and conquer the entire Ukraine. Putin knows no one is willing to make the sacrifices necessary to defend the territorial integrity of the Ukraine. The same was true when Hitler and NAZI Germany invaded and conquered the Sudetenland and then the rest of Czechoslovakia, and when the Soviet Union invaded and reconquered Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968).
Failure to avoid appeasement of aggression has its own risks and penalties equal to or greater than the early confrontation of aggression.
“US warns” blah-blah-blah
I imagined this conversation:
(Phone rings)
Putin: Putin speaking, who’s there?
Obama: “It’s me again, President Putin. I demand you remove your troops from Crimea.”
Putin: “President Obama, I demand you remove your military base from Guantanamo in Cuba.”
Obama: “What happens in the Western Hemisphere stays in the Western Hemisphere. It’s none of your business.”
Putin: “What happens in the Eastern Hemisphere stays in the Eastern Hemisphere. It’s none of your business.”
Obama: “But France and Germany say ...”
Putin: “France, Germany, pfft. With Germany we’d been there, done that, remember 1941-45? Is momma Merkel sure to go there again?”
Obama: “Well, I draw the red line, too bad you ignore it.”
Putin: “Oh, no, red lines, and more red lines, what are you, a communist? Ha!” (Click.)
I haven’t heard anything about the United States occupying all of Cuba. Perhaps I missed it.
“All that the Russian regime needs to do to destroy the Kyiv government is to do nothing and let the forces in play play themselves out....they seem to be willing to fight each other with little provocation.”
Those are all false statments. The Ukraine has been remarkably peaceful and respectful of human rights given the extreme provocations the Russians and their Yanukovych cronies have perpetrated upon the people of the Ukraine.
Furthermore, Putin is acting under his assumption that Russia’s window of opportunity to reconquer the former territories controlled by the Soviet Union and advance beyond them into Western Europe is rapidly closing as the U.S. midterm election approaches in November 2014. He has to consider the likeliehood the socialist-Communist sympathizing Democrats will soon be losing control of the U.S. Senate. If and when the Democrats lose control of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, Russia can no longer rely upon the ability of the Democrats to stop impeachment proceedings against Obama and other Democrats and loss of influence over the U.S. Government and the U.S. Department of Defense. Accordingly, Putin sees the military campaigning season of Spring and Summer 2014 as the last opportunity for some years to come to embark upon and complete some of the military campaigning and conquests in Europe and Asia before the U.S. elections upset their ambitions.
The same kind of timing issues came into play in the Second World War.
The Japanese moved up their plans to instigate what they called the Pacific War from April 1942 to December 1941 because the United States was scheduled to complete the training of a significant Philippines Army contingent in April 1942. To forestall the arrival of a new generation of U.S. navy warship construction and the appearance of a trained Filipino military force, the Japanese moved the invasion dates forward to December 1941.
Likewise, Hitler miscalculated when he invaded Poland in 1939. Accustomed to the appeasement of German aggressions by Great Britain and France, he expected them to take no more action than protest the Germna-Soviet invason and conquest of Poland. He had promised Germany’s Navy, the Kriegsmarine, he would not commit the Kriegsmarine to a naval war before sufficient naval construction had been completed in 1943-1944. Surprised by the Allied declarations of war in defense of Poland, Hitler mistimed his intended initiation of war with Great Britain and France, the guarantors of Poland’s territorial integrity and political independence.
Putin is now embarked on a serious miscalculation in his war plans.
All of that assumes the the Balts, Poles, Slovaks and Czechs would welcome renewed Russian occupation.
There are frankly easier ways for Russia to dominate Europe than by incurring the costs of maintaining distant imperial possessions.
And for the Russian elite, making money is more important than pursuing ideological messianism guaranteed to end in disaster. And Putin relies on them to keep himself in power.
“All of that assumes the the Balts, Poles, Slovaks and Czechs would welcome renewed Russian occupation.”
Now that was ridiculously wrong. Of course, the “Balts, Poles, Slovaks and Czechs” are not going to welcome the Russians. Putin could care less what they think, except to the extent he can compel their cooperation.
“There are frankly easier ways for Russia to dominate Europe than by incurring the costs of maintaining distant imperial possessions.”
Russia could attempt to dominate Europe by technological and economic superiority as Germany has done for centuries, but the Russians have been too corrupt, inept, lazy, and impatient to make the attempt. Instead, they seek the autocratic and socialist methods of seizing what they want from whomever has what they want like socialists everywhere do, but without the military werewithall Russia has to do so.
“And for the Russian elite, making money is more important than pursuing ideological messianism guaranteed to end in disaster. And Putin relies on them to keep himself in power.”
You couldn’t be more wrong. Putin’s regime enshrines such socialism as the only kleptocratic means capable and justifiable to do so, and the Russian elites are just the discardable means to do so. Hitler used the same methods. Promise the elites anything necessary to consolidate power, and then put any elites capable of challenging that power into the concentration camps, gulags, or outright executions and assassinations. This is why empire builders like Soros are opposed to a rival like Putin and Putin’s cronies. hitler put the industrialists into the concentration camps. Lenin-Stalin used and eliminated anyone that got in their way, especially their fellow Communist Trotskyites, Leninists, and Bolshevists. So it is today with the Putin regime, whose powers are still in the early stages of consolidation under a strengthening totalitarian regime.
And I bet you’ve never heard anything about the United States bombing (since the end of WWII) numerous countries either. Do these ring a bell?
Afghanistan 1998, 2001-
Bosnia 1994, 1995
Cambodia 1969-70
China 1945-46, 1950-53
Congo 1964
Cuba 1959-1961
El Salvador 1980s
Korea 1950-53
Guatemala 1954, 1960, 1967-69
Indonesia 1958
Laos 1964-73
Grenada 1983
Iraq 1991-2000s
Iran 1987
Kuwait 1991
Lebanon 1983, 1984
Libya 1986, 2011
Nicaragua 1980s
Pakistan 2003, 2006-
Palestine 2010
Panama 1989
Peru 1965
Somalia 1993, 2007-08, 2010-
Sudan 1998
Vietnam 1961-73
Yemen 2002, 2009-
Yugoslavia 1999
The total population of the countries bombed at one or another time by the US airforce, represent one-third of the people on earth.
Now, how many countries were bombed by the Russian Federation’s army?
“U.S. Warns American Travelers in Russia and “Border Region”.........
They must mean along the Southern U.S. Border (sarc)
“The total population of the countries bombed at one or another time by the US airforce, represent one-third of the people on earth. Now, how many countries were bombed by the Russian Federation’s army?”..
Guess it’s time for more bombs then, the initial tasks didn’t seem to do the trick. (sarc)
Actually, I see this as NO JOKE! Bad times a brewing folks and I lay a lot of that right on odumbo’s door step.
Dang! I was considering going over just to stand in the way of a few tanks...
Nice post, I was unaware of that tidbit. It just goes to show, always follow the money.
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