says Putin's not playing chess—"he’s playing checkers.”
Oops, Earnest plumb forgot to mention Obama's deft game .....
Posted on 10/08/2015 5:28:01 AM PDT by lbryce
The official Washington line on Vladimir Putin’s military action is as follows: It is a mistake, demonstrating Russian weakness, sure to get the Russian military stuck in a “quagmire,” according to President Obama. Josh Earnest, the president’s press secretary, took that observation one further, comparing Putin’s policies to those of the Bush administration (the sickest of White House burns) by arguing the Russians “will not succeed in imposing a military solution” just as the U.S. did not succeed in imposing one in Iraq. Adopting the characteristic snark of his boss, at a later press conference Earnest assessed Putin not to be “playing chess—he’s playing checkers.” Ash Carter, the secretary of defense, weighed in by noting that the Russian strategy was “a backward approach that’s sure to backfire.”
If the Syria deployment is such an obvious mistake, why is Putin doing it? The conventional wisdom has concluded that his actions are driven by fear. The Assad regime, long friendly to Moscow, was about to fall, and Putin takes a dim view of the collapse of sovereign states as a consequence of popular uprisings or foreign interventions. Steven Lee Myers, long time Moscow correspondent for the New York Times, is out with a perfectly timed book assessing Putin’s life and ideology. Applying his broader argument to the case of Syria in the Times, Myers says:
Many have variously interpreted Mr. Putin’s intervention in Syria as a response to domestic pressures caused by an economy faltering with the drop in oil prices and sanctions imposed after Crimea; a desire to change the subject from Ukraine; or a reassertion of Russia’s position in the Middle East.
All are perhaps factors, but at the heart of the airstrikes is Mr. Putin’s defense of the principle that the state is all powerful and should
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...
Oops, Earnest plumb forgot to mention Obama's deft game .....
Plus, he humiliates Obama, at the same time and ruins Obama's legacy and record.
We can with a Republican President with half a brain, become energy independent, let the middle east go, just let it go!
Sometimes things are much simpler than they seem. If nearby Syria were to become a jihadist state, it would then become a haven and base for the terrorists who cause havoc in southern Russia and have even struck Moscow. It is a strategic necessity for Russia to defeat the jihadists in Syria.
I agree, I am so sick of us getting involved in the Middle East. Relief and non-profit groups can do what they want, but all countries should completely distance themselves from that region. Cut off trade and go energy independent so the Muslims stay buried in sand.
A dead jihadi is a good jihadi. I don’t care who kills him just so long as he’s dead.
“Putin understands American liberals better than most of them understand themselves, and lightyears better than they understand him. This is among the reasons their assessment of his motivations is so misleading and incomplete. By presenting his actions as essentially reasonable and defensive in nature, by continuing, humiliation after humiliation, to hope that Putin will one day be their partner, they fail to focus their analysis on the dark core of his beliefs, which are ironically the very traits they believe compromise American conservatism: toxic nationalism and neo-imperialism.”
” it is dangerously wrong to reason further that the man who seized Crimea in a surprise attack has some sort of principled preference for order over chaos. It isn’t order he wants. It’s the return of the Russian Empire.”
They use “quagmire” because of Vietnam, and the only reason Vietnam was a quagmire is because we allowed the media to set the goal line for victory. We beat the Vietcong and we were beating China and North Vietnam, but we left because we “lost”, according to the media.
So let’s say Putin and Russia figure out how to run the barbaric Middle East. Putin sets up his military controlled southern border, enters into league with Saudi Arabia, OPEC, etc.
Is Israel friendly with Russia? Israel is already taking steps to pursue that idea, in fact they have been pursuing that idea for several years. Obama’s behavior didn’t help and Israel understands that the fall of Assad will give rise to further extremism in the region.
But, what does Russia do with Israel? Perhaps this very old article might shed some insight into the future: http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21573600-warmer-relations-israel-do-not-stop-russia-backing-syria-and-iran-vladimir-putin-and-holy
Israel needs to be careful here for they may be laying down with dogs and getting up with fleas.
No, it IS about order not empire. Russia is reverting to its historic role as the reactionary anti revolutionary force par excellence. Russia straddles lots of fault lines from Europe to Asia with lots of ethnic and religious differences.
It’s about keeping control of the light and heat in Berlin.
Russia is an oil country. They are natural gas producers. They need to keep the price of oil and gas up in Europe. If they can deny cheap gas to Southern Europe they will maintain their economy.
If gas and oil become cheap, and the Arabs get a pipeline and port into the Med, Russia is screwed.
This is not about religion, it’s not about empire. It’s about economic survival.
At least with the Russians it’s about economics, rather than expanding a Moon-Cult as with the Muslims.
Putin’s Angels: Inside Russia’s Most Infamous Motorcycle Club
The Night Wolves are backed by the Kremlin, fighting in Ukraine and hellbent on restoring the empire
It's more about them seeking to expand their power and influence and wanting to replace the US as top superpower. And there has been no better time than the present for them to make the major moves they're making today. And they still have over a year with Comrade Obama in charge to do lots more.
Rolling Stone is a year & a half behind the times...http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3128771/posts
Whoever determines the "conventional wisdom" are they really that friendly to Vladimir Putin?
And how far does that go for us? How far is it about empire and how far is it about order for the United State?
Personally, I can’t think of people I care less about.
I hope that Bibi went to Moscow and said as long as we don’t have crossed interests...have a ball. And Vladimir probably asked him to not shoot at his planes (right away.)
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