Posted on 02/24/2015 12:54:53 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
For the West, the Cold War was a great triumph of ideas and economic systems over the intellectual bankruptcy of communism. For many Russians, this was not how it seemed.
There was no fall of Berlin. In fact, in many ways, it was much more how the end of World War I felt to many Germans, with years of economic hardship being presented as punishment by unsympathetic, if not vindictive, Western powers.
As sanctions were being applied to Russia following the annexation of Crimea, Putin even went so far as to tell the Germans that great powers should not be humbled, and that they, the Germans, should understand this.
It was the clearest evidence yet of Putin’s mindset and its frightening echoes of the past.
Let’s be clear about what is happening. Russia has a clear strategic plan which is to create and hold zones of potential destabilisation where it matters most for European security.
As well as having Kaliningrad in the Baltic, there has been a steady campaign to intimidate its smaller neighbours and to finance political candidates sympathetic to Moscow.
In the South Caucasus, not only does Russia have an occupying force on sovereign Georgian territory, but it has now created a virtual client state in Armenia.
In the Balkans, the encouragement of Republica Srpska to see the illegal secession referendum in Crimea as a precedent, risks further destabilisation in this most volatile region.
Then, of course, we have the annexation of Crimea itself by force, Russia’s boldest move so far. None of this is an accident, but part of a well thought out and, so far successfully executed, strategy.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Putin will keep nibbling away at his neighbors until he is stopped. To him being weak is like Vodka to a drunk—It just makes him worse. Time to sober him up by standing firm—but Obama hasn’t the ability to do this. A new bunch of leaders must step up and face him down. He might even welcome this.
“stopped” doesn’t necessarily mean bombing Moscow. Simply having these neighboring countries able to defend themselves well enough to make it not worth the trouble would do the job.
Of course for Putin that “well enough” is a lot stronger than others since he has plenty of cannon fodder to waste.
Not really. The Russian army is already stretched thin, and they are only holding onto maybe 10% of the Ukraine. They recently reorganized from a huge but ineffective draftee army, to a much smaller professional force. They organized about 20 rapid deployment units that are designed to handle problems where they arise, especially in Muslim central Asia. Now many of those are bogged down in Ukraine, and untrained Muslim draftees are taking their place. And of course there's always China. China and Russia may be nominal allies against us, but that can change. The fact is Russia has a huge territory with threats from within and without, and an army insufficient to do the job.
If China decided to invade Siberia, I think the Russians would almost have to use nukes
If they decided to take a piece like Putin has in Ukraine, I don’t think Russia would dare go nuclear. I don’t think it’s likely in the near future, but things do change.
I don’t underestimate the threat of Russia, but I think many people are disinterested in this because they are more focused on immediate needs and frankly they can’t believe Putin is any more evil than Obama.
I don’t think he is.
I’d be concerned if I lived along the border of Russia, but living so far away I can’t imagine anyone trying to rally beaten-down Americans to this cause. Putin is not leading the Soviet Union, and we are a mere shadow the country that we were 25 years ago. We’re not even allowed to voice pride in America, or in American exceptionalism; the country has been too “fundamentally transformed” to arouse any reaction at all in world events.
Buchanan is an embarrassment.
As are all homo-erotic Putin worshipers.
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