Posted on 08/30/2005 6:33:30 PM PDT by jmc1969
Russia is ready to assist the United States in dealing with the damage caused by hurricane Katrina, which has taken 68 lives so far and left behind a tremendous amount of devastation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a message to U.S. President George Bush Tuesday.
"Russia deeply sympathizes with Americans, who faced a disaster of such a colossal scale, and is ready to offer necessary assistance," Putin said.
Putin asked Bush to extend his condolences to families and relatives of those killed in the disaster.
"Accept my sincere words of regret in connection with the natural calamity in the USA. I know that hurricane Katrina, which swept the southeast coast of the country, resulted in deaths, left tens of thousands of Americans without roofs over their heads, and caused substantial damage to the region's economy," the message said.
Sure as heck the Japanese know how to deal with the ocean.
Tsunami, the Bill and George tour, the yappin about we didn't do enough?
Well, I hope the many callers to talk radio who were complaining that "no one will offer us help" see this story.
I don't think anyone HATES Russia. They are still in a transition stage going from communism to some sort of a free-enterprise/capitalist economy. However, in my lifetime (55 years) I have never heard of ANY COUNTRY ever contributing to America in times of America's need.
Hate? Much too strong a word..
Distrust? Much more "definitive"..
Some people think Socialism failed with the fall of the Berlin Wall..
Others believe it was the Election of Boris Yeltzin and the beginning of a "democratic" Russia..
Then there are those (of us) that question the accepted "truth" that socialism is a failed ideology and that we no longer have anything to fear..
Socialism is not dead..
It still rears it's ugly head in various places around the world..
For the moment, socialism does not need Russia..
It has France.. Germany.. Brazil.. Venezuela.. Cuba..
Russia itself has a large percentage of it's population that regrets the democratic revolution and wishes to return to the "old days"..
Russia is a nation that taught socialism for some 75 years, and they have generations of citizens that have absolutely no idea what capitalism is.. or how it works..
In fact, it has been instilled in those generations that capitalism is "evil"..
How do you convince nearly 4 generations that to work hard and make money is somehow better than not working at all, or only working when you feel like it, and getting enough to get by whether you work or not, is better?
They didn't have much, and sometimes they had to do without, but at least they didn't have to "do" anything for it...
And for a nation that supposedly forsook socialism for democracy, the new russia certainly seems to support a lot of nations that still adhere to the old ideology..
I don't Hate Russia..
But I'm not quite ready to "trust" Russia, either.
The Tsunami was in the Northern Hemisphere, primarily the Indian Ocean.
"""I'll give Putin nothing but credit ..."""
Considering that he and George W. Bush are the best of friends, it's nothing ... really.
France, Germany and most of Europe is Socialism in action. Socialism is a stepping stone to Communism.
"Russia deeply sympathizes with Americans, who faced a disaster of such a colossal scale, and is ready to offer necessary assistance," Putin said."
Yeah but will you send us any money like the billions we have sent you in the last 10 years?
I agree. About 11 years ago, there were some high level executives from various oil companies fro Russia. Texaco and these Ruskie folks (Idon't remember, and Karen is out of town), whereby the largest issue was the Dumas not trusting American oil companies in refining their oil. (I've seen pictures acres of crude on the ground - there is no EPA there). So. The Texaco/Soviet Gas talks never came to fruition.
The bottom line, that we heard from the Russians as well as Texaco engineers and logistics personnel: "Yup; we can punch a hole in the ground and get this black stuff on the frozen tundra. Now what do we do with it?"
Remember, The former Soviet Union could't even figure out how to get potatoes from point A to point B before they rotted in railroad cars. 90% of their tv sets were scrapped. Their elevators rarely worked. I could lecture here for hours... but I'm tired.
BTW, my wife was a strategic resource on putting together a JV with the Russians. Her most memorable memory was that they smoked so much, it set off the fire alarm. Ergo, 1,400 people were evacuated from the building.
It's sort of funny with Paul B. Hicks, (Prez of Tex Europe) standing outside with a cig.
First decent response I've read in this thread so far. Dittos
Thank you Russia and Mr. Putin.
I'm fine with this... the people of Iran are wonderful. It's so like them to express concern for our families. I hope the peoples of our countries can be friends in the future too... Thank you.
Putin was also the first foreign leader to call President Bush on Sept. 11th.
"Any word from the South Pacific?"
About the only thing those poor bastards could do is give our money back. Europe is who I'm listening for.
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