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Krauthammer’s Take: ‘Nothing that Obama Has Done Would in Any Way Dissuade Putin’
National Review ^ | March 19, 2014 | NRO staff

Posted on 03/19/2014 5:17:39 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

".....“We have no leadership from the United States. All we get from this administration is air,” he said. “The real problem is that the next step would be, can be, might be, attack on the rest of Eastern Ukraine and there is nothing that Obama has done that would in any way dissuade Putin.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: foreignpolicy; nationalsecurity; obama; ukraine
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What did Snowden tell them?

"U.S. officials might not know for years whether former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden divulged war plans to China and Russia, intelligence experts say.

Snowden has denied passing on U.S. secrets to either country and last month said American officials would “notice the changes” if rivals had been given his document trove.

But while former intelligence officials agreed that some tactical shifts might be apparent right away, they said it could be years before the full extent of Snowden’s deception is known.

“We may see some things immediately that might indicate that they have things, but it will create a great deal of uncertainty for years,” said Mark Lowenthal, president of the Intelligence and Security Academy and former CIA assistant director of central intelligence for analysis and production.

U.S. officials say Snowden’s leaks to the press about NSA surveillance have already begun to influence the behavior of adversaries, particularly terrorists looking to escape detection when building bombs.

American officials have also noticed some intelligence sources drying up.

[SNIP]

Some former intelligence officials say it’s possible the U.S. will never know whether Snowden spilled secrets.

“It’s impossible to prove a negative. They just will never know, even if Snowden returns and confesses. He doesn’t know himself what they could have, and what access they’ve had to his computers,” said Dan Gabriel, a former CIA official.

But others argue the proof that Snowden is working with the Russians or Chinese is that most of the files he stole had nothing to do with the NSA.

“He stole a lot of material that had nothing whatsoever with these programs that he’s opposed to,” Lowenthal said.

Gabriel said it’s hard to believe Russia wasn’t somehow behind Snowden’s intelligence theft, given how it has caused a public relations nightmare for the U.S..

“The nation’s dirty laundry is being displayed in an international forum. The political value rivals any covert action program,” he said."

1 posted on 03/19/2014 5:17:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Suffice it to say that Obama is “on the wrong side of History.”


2 posted on 03/19/2014 5:20:19 AM PDT by Graewoulf (Democrats' Obamacare Socialist Health Insur. Tax violates U.S. Constitution AND Anti-Trust Law.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Jimmy Carter is back in the White House after an extended tanning salon visit.


3 posted on 03/19/2014 5:21:00 AM PDT by NRA1995 (I'd rather be a living "gun culture" member than a dead anti-gun candy-ass.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Obama is not working for America. People need to face that and it all becomes easier to understand.


4 posted on 03/19/2014 5:21:12 AM PDT by dforest
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

The wishywashiness and incompetence of Obama is why Putin doesn’t fear him.

Obama is someone who Putin thinks can’t stand up to him. So far, he hasn’t been off the mark.


5 posted on 03/19/2014 5:22:17 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: NRA1995

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/373523/new-obama-doctrine-victor-davis-hanson

“...............The Middle East is a mess. The United States’ heroic effort to stabilize Iraq was thrown away when Obama yanked out all U.S. troops after the success of the surge. Afghanistan, where more U.S. soldiers have died in Obama’s five years than in Bush’s seven, is on the path of Vietnam in early 1975.

Iran will get the bomb. All the efforts to achieve an effective boycott have been abandoned willy-nilly without any Iranian concessions.

Red lines in Syria only empowered Assad and Putin. The corpses pile up, and the idea of the Russians and Syrians accounting for WMD is a cruel joke.

Libya is Somalia on the Mediterranean, a failed state that looks across to Europe. So does Egypt, where we at one time or another have backed and then withdrawn support from three successive regimes — and tuned out the once lavishly praised Arab Spring.

Relations with Israel are at an all-time low. Our special relationship with Turkey only green-lighted Recep Erdogan’s efforts to undermine democracy and Islamicize his country.

Our efforts to reduce our strategic arsenal in association with Vladimir Putin, together with our new Hamlet-like stance towards China, have terrified our Pacific allies. In the next three years, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan (and perhaps the Philippines and Australia as well) will either make concessions to China or threaten to go nuclear — if their suspicions continue to grow that they are no longer under the U.S. strategic umbrella.

So: Will Obama’s advisers Carterize the president — that is, persuade him to step back, as Carter did in 1980? Probably not — and for a variety of both practical and ideological reasons................

...............There will be no Obama Doctrine. More likely we will see a doubling down on reducing U.S. influence — with the end of reshaping a too-prominent global profile, which itself was supposedly a result of unfairly acquired advantage.”


6 posted on 03/19/2014 5:26:17 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: dforest
Putin could not pick a better trio of stooges than Obama, Biden, and Kerry.

Delusional, feckless, narcissistic, effete bozos who have no experience in dealing with people like Putin. As a bonus, if Obama leaves office you get Biden. A chief executive with a sub average IQ.

Kerry, the trumped up gigolo, has been knowingly or unknowingly towing the communist line for over forty years. He knows no other way. The champagne corks must have been popping in the Kremlin when he was appointed.

7 posted on 03/19/2014 5:27:39 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Cruz/Palin 2016)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

In 1985, Reagan laughed at Russia, daring them to compete against US capitalism.

In 2014, Russia laughs out-load at Obamugabe for abandoning the pricipals of US capitalism.

Kruschev, once again from the grave, shouts, “We will bury you!”

and smiles.


8 posted on 03/19/2014 5:30:35 AM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Can you imagine the extent of the dossier the Russians have on Obama? I wonder if the contents, discreetly leaked, could actually destabilize the US?

Maybe just using it for blackmail would be more useful to them. Maybe they are blackmailing him now. Maybe they don't even need to, yet.

The average American has no idea how dangerous this president is.

9 posted on 03/19/2014 5:31:12 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Cruz/Palin 2016)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

The freepers love the NeoCons like Krauthammer, John Bolton, Dick Cheney, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Bill Kristol, Karl Rove, George W. Bush, etc. etc.


10 posted on 03/19/2014 5:34:49 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Considering his whispering with Medvedev prior to the election, Obama could well be working with the Russians in that he’ll not oppose the directions they choose.

The only reason that’s more acceptable a notion is because it’s hard to conceive of any competent enough to gain the presidency but absolutely, totally inept at dealing with foreign affairs.

However, it’s possible that Obama is so incompetent that this is a result of his inability.

I don’t think Obama’s incompetence has a single thing to do with Snowden.

However, Obama’s willingness to weaken America might well make him a co-conspirator in the Snowden affair. Anyone who would design a fast & furious campaign designed to intentionally injure the US would also design a Snowden campaign designed to intentionally injure the US.


11 posted on 03/19/2014 5:47:51 AM PDT by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: Former Proud Canadian
Putin could not pick a better trio of stooges than Obama, Biden, and Kerry.....

A stark difference from Ronald Reagan, Maggie Thatcher and Pope John Paul.

12 posted on 03/19/2014 5:49:30 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Stark? Not even the same planetary system.


13 posted on 03/19/2014 5:51:03 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Cruz/Palin 2016)
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To: dforest
What motivates Obama is his abject hatred of his political/ideological foes, and nothing else.

Thats you and I and our ideal of America, not Vladimir Putin or Ayman al-Zawahiri.

14 posted on 03/19/2014 5:54:31 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: xzins

How about disinterested, inept, and compromised?


15 posted on 03/19/2014 5:55:48 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Cruz/Palin 2016)
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To: Former Proud Canadian

It’s hard to imagine someone this incompetent winning the presidency.


16 posted on 03/19/2014 6:00:41 AM PDT by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: skeeter

.........“There is something that Obama and the European Union could do,” Limbaugh said. “It’s a very easy way to punish Putin in a way that would really matter. They could kick him out of the IMF and the G8, which would mean it would cost Russia more to do business with the rest of the world. They could do that.”

But Obama is “not going to do that,” he added.

Citing the “Limbaugh theorem,” the radio host argued Obama “doesn’t believe in American exceptionalism” and doesn’t mind if the U.S. is “brought down to size.”

He continued: “[Obama] doesn’t believe in any of the things about the United States being policeman of the world or being the outpost of liberty or freedom in the world. He’s never, never believed that. He doesn’t think we’ve ever been a legitimate superpower. He’s been of the belief that that’s been illegitimate and not warranted.”................

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/18/what-rush-limbaugh-says-president-obama-and-his-allies-should-do-to-punish-russia-but-wont/


17 posted on 03/19/2014 6:01:51 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Ben Ficklin

Nice little bomb you threw there. Care to elaborate?


18 posted on 03/19/2014 6:04:09 AM PDT by workerbee (The President of the United States is DOMESTIC ENEMY #1!)
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To: Graewoulf

The LIAR in chief said he would have “more flexibility” in his second term(to help spread russian socialism/communism across the world by doing nothing if Putin advanced.


19 posted on 03/19/2014 6:04:30 AM PDT by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like it)
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To: xzins

Obama could approve the Keystone pipeline, encourage oil and gas production here in the U.S.

Europe is dependent on Russian gas and oil.

Obama’s actions speak louder than words and his actions support Putin.


20 posted on 03/19/2014 6:04:44 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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