Posted on 08/26/2008 4:55:58 PM PDT by mavfin
you betcha!
Putin made this move when he was ready for his purposes of reassembling the Russian (economic) Empire.
He could care less about the American election. He thinks he can whip whoever gets elected.
Americans really do need to think about this, very carefully. There are still some items in re Russia which trouble me:
__________
The New Yorker, April 05, 2004
The Talk of the Town, December 13, 1999, p. 44.
The fuel, unfortunately, is getting easier to find. United States officials report that on May 29th Bulgaria seized approximately a third of an ounce of weapons-grade uranium at its border. The hot cargo, accompanied by documents in Russian, was concealed in a lead container in a pump stowed in a car. A third of an ounce is not enough for a bomb (Iraq's design, for example, needs thirty-five pounds), but this seizure and others like it show that weapons-grade fuel is beginning to circulate in the black market. Unless the U.N. Security Council can agree on a plan to reinstate meaningful inspections, Saddam may be able to complete his nuclear shopping sooner rather than later.
_______________________
The Washington Times, 04/03/2004
Chirac Arrives for Talks With Putin
MOSCOW (AP) -- French President Jacques Chirac became the first western leader to visit Russia's top secret Titov space control center, touring the site Saturday as part of Russian efforts to court the lucrative European satellite-launching business.
...
Russia's cash-strapped space program has worked closely with the European Space Agency in recent years, launching ESA satellites and carrying ESA astronauts on research missions to the International Space Station. The Titov space control center is in Krasnoznamensk, about 25 miles southwest of Moscow.
In February, the ESA reached an agreement with Russia to launch Russian Soyuz rockets from France's Kourou launch pad in French Guyana. The launches are expected to begin in about three years.
...
Putin and Chirac are also expected to discuss European Union expansion that will include eight countries that were either part of or allied with the Soviet Union.
The continuing violence in the Middle East and the international fight against terrorism are also likely to be on the agenda. The Kremlin said that Putin would also raise the issue of making it easier for Russians to receive visas to travel to France and other EU member states.
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New York Post, 04/02/04
Oil For Palaces
Saddam didn't just use Oil-for-Food to give preferential treatment to Iraqis: He rewarded foreign friends, too. He favored Russian and French contractors, even insisting that all Iraqi oil earnings be paid into just one bank, BNP Paribas in Paris.
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Yahoo, 04/02/04
NATO fetes seven new members but Russia not in party mood
France and Germany, which bitterly opposed the US-led war, have stressed that a United Nations mandate is essential before they can consent to a NATO mission being deployed in Iraq.
"The US believes the alliance should consider a new collective role after the return of sovereignty to an Iraqi government (planned for July 1)," Powell said
...
The talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were another point of controversy blotting the festive atmosphere of NATO's biggest expansion ever.
"We didn't want this enlargement, and we will continue to maintain a negative attitude. It's a mistake," Lavrov told reporters after meeting the NATO ministers.
"The presence of American soldiers on our border has created a kind of paranoia in Russia," he added.
But Latvian Foreign Minister Rihards Piks was defiant.
"The reality of Latvia's history in the last century showed us that the existence of nations is threatened when tyranny prevails," he said at NATO headquarters.
Obambi is the guy who gets rolled for his lunch money. Every day.
"Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned.
...
Defense officials said the Russians can provide information on what happened to the Iraqi weapons and explosives that were transported out of the country. Officials believe the Russians also can explain what happened to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. "
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RUSSIA TIED TO IRAQ'S MISSING ARMS By Bill Gertz , THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Excerpts:
Mr. [John A] Shaw, who was in charge of cataloging the tons of conventional arms provided to Iraq by foreign suppliers, said he recently obtained reliable information on the arms-dispersal program from two European intelligence services that have detailed knowledge of the Russian-Iraqi weapons collaboration.
Most of Saddam's most powerful arms were systematically separated from other arms like mortars, bombs and rockets, and sent to Syria and Lebanon, and possibly to Iran, he said.
(snip)
A second defense official said documents on the Russian support to Iraq reveal that Saddam's government paid the Kremlin for the special forces to provide security for Iraq's Russian arms and to conduct counterintelligence activities designed to prevent U.S. and Western intelligence services from learning about the arms pipeline through Syria.
The Russian arms-removal program was initiated after Yevgeny Primakov, the former Russian intelligence chief, could not persuade Saddam to give in to U.S. and Western demands, this official said.
(snip)
Mr. Shaw said he believes that the withdrawal of Russian-made weapons and explosives from Iraq was part of plan by Saddam to set up a "redoubt" in Syria that could be used as a base for launching pro-Saddam insurgency operations in Iraq.
The Russian units were dispatched beginning in January 2003 and by March had destroyed hundreds of pages of documents on Russian arms supplies to Iraq while dispersing arms to Syria, the second official said.
(snip)
Documents reviewed by the official included itineraries of military units involved in the truck shipments to Syria. The materials outlined in the documents included missile components, MiG jet parts, tank parts and chemicals used to make chemical weapons, the official said.
(snip)
Also, an Arabic-language report obtained by U.S. intelligence disclosed the extent of Russian armaments. The 26-page report was written by Abdul Tawab Mullah al Huwaysh, Saddam's minister of military industrialization, who was captured by U.S. forces May 2, 2003.
The Russian "spetsnaz" or special-operations forces were under the GRU military intelligence service and organized large commercial truck convoys for the weapons removal, the official said.
interesting.
good work!
The candidates are in a situation like having their first day in a prison exercise yard, a group or group will strut that they are the boss.
Either you bend over and give it up or you pull out a shiv and threaten to emasculate them.
This is and has been normal behavior for eons in all phases of life, in the sea, on land and in almost any culture, the weak will be made to bow down to a superior or just plain eaten.
I would think that its time to blockade Syria from receiving any weapons from Russia.
I think President Bush will stand up to the bully, who knows maybe right now we have a couple of our subs in the baffles of some Russky subs, what goes on underwater tend to get sunk deep, very deep.
Consider how the Russian leadership might view America at this time: We are in an extended military engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan. We can't leave there right now without seeing all our efforts go for nought. Iraq and Afghanistan would fall quickly without an American military prescence. It's costing us a great deal to boot.
America must keep an eye on the Pacific with a miilitary prescence in South Korea and Japan. Also the ChiComs are a threat to us too. They are presenting a great challenge to the security of the western Pacific with their naval build- up. And then there are those missiles the North Koreans keep wanting to test. Japan & South Korea must be defended. And does anyone really believe the North Koreans have given up on their nuclear weapons program?
America is taunted and challenged by a much weaker Venezuela in South America. Then there is Cuba to keep watch on. Even though neither of the previously mentioned countries pose a direct military threat to America, they could be used in the future to harrass America by placing Russian forces there (eg. intermediate range missiles and naval forces for instance; not to mention terrorist bases.
America is tied down to the defense of Western Europe. The lazy European social democracies get a free ride on defense while competing against us economically. They contribute little to America's efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. They even oppose our efforts in the UN while we get the honor of defendng them from Russian aggression from the East. And America even want's to take on more of a European burden by defending Poland and other east european nations from the newly agressive Russia!
America has allowed itself to become dependent on foreign sources of oil whose delivery can easily be interrupted. OPEC routinely humiliates America and the Western Europe by raising the price oil anytime it chooses. Russia knows it has a strong "environmentalist" lobby working for it in the US and Western Europe which has stymied the energy inedpendence of these countries for over thirty years. In the meantime, enemies of America suck the wealth from the America consumer and the US Government does essentially nothing about it.
I could go with this but just considering the above points; yes, it was and is a good time for Russia to act. They know we are weak and getting weaker. There is nothing we can do about the Georgian situation. Frankly, the great surprise is that they stopped. Just considering the above situation of America and the many more I haven't mentioned, Russia has decided that America is weak and the time to act for itself is now. Expect more from Russia.
“you are saying that bush’s policies have invited russia’s responses?”
No. I am saying that Russia’s responses will be cause for independent American voters to vote for McCain instead of Obama.
Putin and Bush are in China, Bambi is building sand castles in Hawaii and the only person who gave a forceful response to Russias incursion into Georgia was McCain.
There’s a Liberal smear/conspiracy out there that the Bush administration and the Russians set this all up to force a win for McCain.... you know how those “anti-globalists” are. LOL
Yes, it is going to affect the election. ANYONE and I mean ANYONE with their head screwed on straight understands the Russians are not, will not be and never HAVE been our friends.
If they further think this through they will realize that putting a Socialist like Obama will positively destroy American thinking, and how America is thought of by the world.
Weakness is something we CAN NOT afford now, or ever, but certainly NOT with the Russians pushing like they are now.
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