Here it comes.
Great, we’re going to war for the frikkin’ Turks.
That’ll be the day. Turkey is completely dependent on Russia for oil.
Putin “Hey, as long as we’re on a roll and Obama continues to encourage us, let’s take the Bosporus and the Dardanelles and declare them ‘World Heritage Sites’ under the protection of Russia.”
Already happened to a well known activist Crimean Tatar who was disappeared earlier this month. My question is did Turkey know before they issued the threat? His body was just found. I think we have our dead archduke stand in.
The trap was set before the announcement. My guess is Putin’s getting lots of calls from oligarchs. Closing the straits shuts down shipment of a big chunk of the Russian grain harvest and traps their Black Sea fleet.
Sounds good to me. Time to show some Tatars up Putin’s butt.
Maybe but, for other reasons. Turkish interest is not in Supporting NATO interests but for a small number of ethnic brothers. If this report is accurate, there is a bigger potential of a soft alliance being formed here between them and Russia. The Tartars being discussed here are not a threat to Putin. He may jump at the chance to present to the world what a humanitarian good guy he is, and insure the Tartars are protected, at least as well as they were under the Ukrainian government. And, by so doing flaunt that a NATO member is more interested in ethnic ties than European ties... The root issue of what pushed this whole historical conflict into its present manifestation. Perfect opportunity for Putin to show that NATO, like Obama, is a paper tiger.... At least as it pertains to foreign relations. If so, this will just serve to empower Putin to keep going. He and China have got to see that they have the West on the ropes. I do not have an answer for us and the West. We are disconnected and seem to be only able to ask Russia what the heck they think they are doing. Kerry’s scolding of them like they were a bully on the schoolyard, as if you could shame them into playing fair, is a bell weather indication of how far we have fallen. Palin was right, decisions have consequences and this paper tiger foreign relations has lead us to an untenable decision. What do you do when others do not play fair and you have been a large part of setting up the conditions that allow them to not have to worry about ‘our rules’? Putin is rewriting the rules and as others on Freerepublic have noted, it can have a certain appeal even to many in the West, US upcommance. I am not certain that is what Obama has been angling at but it certainly matches his domestic actions and viewpoint. I suspect he thought he could dazzle Putin and the world like he has done with the liberal contingent of the West all of his pampered adult life and be allowed to orchestrate the a world restructuring for his posterity. He is just a useful fool to Russia, China...