Posted on 07/18/2016 12:34:40 PM PDT by cassiusking
it looks like Trump wants to pull back from /McCain/Hillary/Obama’s hawkishness toward Russia.
“Putin is a communist thug”.
How many communists built churches? My history book says they tore them down
Russia will give up Sevastopol no sooner than when we give up Hawaii.
We should stop trying to make a war over something where we have no right or interest and one which, because of strategic isolation, we have no hope of winning. We just don't have an interest, much less a vital interest.
And the NATO thing with Ukraine? After Turkey? Seriously?
“Putin is a Communist thug”
That is a stupid neocon lie. It is “Islam is a religion of peace” level of neocon stupid.
“Excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence is another possible mistake.
True, the state’s increased role in times of crisis is a natural reaction to market setbacks. Instead of streamlining market mechanisms, some are tempted to expand state economic intervention to the greatest possible extent.
The concentration of surplus assets in the hands of the state is a negative aspect of anti-crisis measures in virtually every nation.
In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.”
- V. Putin, Davos, Switzerland 2009
Slow down Chicken Little... Russia is not going to invade Europe.
Restraint: A New Foundation for U.S. Grand Strategy (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs) 1st Edition
This is a good read...kinda wonkish, but it explains much of why we are where we are...and it has a lot less to with Russia than you may think. We have allowed the enormous defense industry and the neocons(using NATO as one of their tools) to continue and enlarge the cold war, while allowing countries like Germany to get a free pass, when we should have been taking care of our own.
Lighten up n00bie.
I thought I read something recently about Soros having his hands in the Ukraine problem and how he ended up owning their energy company when it was privatized. Supposedly Obama admin helped him with this.
Obama and Hillary were interfering in Ukraine internal affairs courtesy of George Soros. They were also at least turning a blind eye towards the use of al_Qaeda/ISIS terrorists acting as mercenaries sabotaging Russian oil and gas pipelines and infrastructure in the Ukraine, Europe and and Russia on behalf of Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
While I would not put it past Putin, there is no evidence that Russia was behind the recent Muslim invasion of Europe.
George Soros has already bragged about being a ring leader and the EU ruling elite, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, ISIS, The Taliban and al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan ect and the Obama Administration seem to be the big players in the Muslim Euro invasion, not Russia.
In fact, Russia was the first official news source to publicize and warn that there was a planned and organized invasion going on . Russia has it's own Muslim problem which it does not need to make worse.
Due to Cold War mindset, I have a hard time seeing Russia as anything but an adversary of the United States but the Cold War is 25 years done and so perhaps it is time to re evaluate and seek to normalize our relationship with Russia
“Russia’s work to invade Europe (again), to flood Europe with refugees, to support ISIS, and to break up NATO with the Turkey gambit.”
Russia is the only one really fighting ISIS. Obama won’t allow effective attacks because he doesn’t want “civilian” casualties.
In case you didn’t notice, Erdogan apologized for the Russian plane shootdown just before the “coup”.
Putin could never produce 1/100 of the migrant flows that Merkel’s “come on down” refugee policy did.
On Ukraine. Trump is just being realistic. The USA is not going to arm Ukraine. There is just too much downside with no corresponding upside.
Contrary to the Obama foreign policy, it is time to stop the teleprompter from printing cheques that the autopen cannot afford to sign.
Neo-Cons, people who haven’t figured out that the Cold War is over hit hardest.
Putin built churches? If so, you can bet that they are only practicing religion that is approved by Putin.
“Russia is not going to invade Europe, is not flooding Europe with refugees and is not supporting ISIS.
If we were smart we would find ways to work with Russia. We have more in common than what separates us.”
I’m as anti-Communist as they come - my grandfather ran from Russian Communism in his early 20s in 1923, and left his entire family behind. His father worked a lifetime, and the Communists took everything except the house that he and his family lived. They stole 15 houses that he and his sons literally built with their own hands, plus dozens of horses and carts. It tore up my grandfather that he had to leave his family and never see them again (well, once, in 1969 he went back and saw some surviving siblings for a couple weeks - big deal!), just to have freedom for himself and his family. It also tore him up to know how awful were the lives of his family - his father died at age 74, shortly after being beaten badly by the NKVD, a very bitter man because all that he worked for was for nothing.
But the Soviets are NOT the Russians. I believe Putin to be a nationalist, not an ideologue. I believe he admires the period of Communist rule ONLY because the nation was strong and respected, not because he believed in its (rather crappy and absurd) ideas - because they just didn’t and can’t work, and as a practical man he knows this. I don’t think that he wants anything but a secure Russia - physically, economically, etc. That involves having the same control over Ukraine that Russia/the Soviet Union had for over 200 years, and not allowing distant and powerful foreign nations to have enormous influence and military bases so close to the Russian heartland. I don’t like the SOB for a good deal of what he’s done, but I respect him as a leader and believe that I understand his principal motivation. I believe that Trump feels about the same way.
FYI, the US and Russia are probably natural allies, and it is IMHO only the cancer of Communism that kept us not merely separated, but nearly at each others’ throats for much of the 20th Century. We are both large nations with substantial resources, very diverse but Western-oriented populations, advanced science/military programs and some common enemies/adversaries (China and Islam, to name the 2 biggies). We SHOULD be cooperating against common enemies, not trying to undermine each other. We are half a world apart. We no longer desperately need the Saudi/Persian Gulf oil fields to survive, and we can also help Russia grow food and drill its own massive energy reserves more efficiently. Eliminate those tensions and the ideological one (which is already gone), and suddenly we can be if not friends, than at least not enemies.
Trump is the only guy willing to give this a shot, but to do so with our backs to the wall and our military gearing up for whatever challenges we may face. Putin will respect him (I’m certain that he has nothing but contempt for Obama), and respect is the beginning of any decent relationship.
“the GOPe is the “right” wing of the DNC and the Left.”
I think it’s even more sickening than that ... I think the GOPe only exists to say “look, what the Democrats are doing is OK ... we approve ... would we approve if we thought they were evil?”. The only thing you need to look at to see that they’re joined at the hip is the ridiculous growth of the Federal debt.
I think all of us fell for it early on. I think a lot of relatively good Reps. and Senators fell for the scam too. However, they’ve burned their bridges after being exposed this time around. This election could very well put an end to a *lot* of the political class’ various “revenue streams” and they’re terrified. If Hillary loses, they’re done for (for the most part ... there’s still a fight after a Trump victory, but a major part of their chattering/brainwashing class is lost after Trump wins).
Let's do nothing then. That will surely temper his enthusiasm to expand his sphere of influence. Putie's dream stops at Ukraine, right? I'm sure when his tanks roll up to the border of the Baltic states you'll still be arguing for letting Putin be Putin and avoiding making new enemies. What could possibly go wrong?
The “reset” was a PHONY!!!!
The Ukraine coup was engineered by obama/Hillary agent Victoria Nuland (Noodlehead).
GHW Bush promised Russia that NATO would not be moved up to the Russian border, after Germany was reunified in 1990. The clintons broke that promise, and turned NATO into a different kind of alliance than it had ever been (e.g., bombing Serbia). NATO generally serves to get America into trouble—in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Central Asia, and now Ukraine. Our troops are getting shot at for no good reason!
We should work with Russia to stomp on ISIS and other muslim terrorists. And we and Russia should work to cut Western Ukraine off from the rest of that country, so that they cannot cause any more trouble. Solzhenitsyn said the same thing!!!!
With Turkey surely becoming part of the caliphate (and migrants have been going to Ukraine in very large numbers) the situation in Ukraine and Crimea is very complex at this point
ISIS is just as virulent as Nazi Germany? That defies history but you believe whatever you want to believe. Putin can fight ISIS, and Islamofascism in general, without laying claim to, and invading states, that aren't his. To allow Putin to pursue his dreams of rebuilding Soviet Russia simply because he's an ally in the war against Islam, is, well, dumb.
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