Posted on 07/25/2009 4:04:00 AM PDT by docbnj
Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview that Russia's economy is "withering," and suggested the trend will force the country to make accommodations to the West on a wide range of national-security issues, including loosening its grip on former Soviet republics and shrinking its vast nuclear arsenal. **** "I think we vastly underestimate the hand that we hold," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
All the tricks he suggested have been tried, and they do not work. One problem is that the Russians do not act in their own rational self-interest; nor is that in their general historical tradition.
OMG. Georgia is a goner.
“Biden says”. The perpetual sarcastic/funny headline. :)
If Joe Biden says the sun rises in the east, you should double check. He might be trying to get some free publicity for AmTrak.
LOL. Biden is such a fool. These are the same russkies who would starve millions of their own people just so they could one-up us militarily.
Joe Biden is a drunk.
Like all drunks he says and does things all the time he later should regret but he is too stupid to understand his many gaffs.
He’s right about one thing. The Russian economy sucked to begin with, and now they are headed right back to another decade or longer depression. Their economy is completely undiversified and no foreign company is going to want to heavily invest in there after Putin and his billionaire boys club at the Kremlin went on their little nationalization money grab.
Screw the Russians. Let them try to act the tough guy. Nothing but a bunch of two-bit gangsters running the country.
The Soviets never gave up communism. They took a tactful retreat to become the recipients of massive international handouts and they made us drop our guard.
Their population numbers are in the tank.
In order to become a global threat, they need to ally with China, India and Latin America, and they need to control the oil supply to Europe.
That is what they are doing.
Of the iron-curtain countries that were “let go” by the Soviets, all but one was immediately taken over by a former member of the KGB or some other office of the politburo: Georgia.
The Soviets hate Georgian independence as much as they hate American independence, and they want to crush Georgia because it is strategic to controlling the oil supply to Europe.
Biden is either a complete fool or he is fully complicit in Obammie the Commie's (and his anti-American network of power-players that work from the shadows) goal to destroy the US economy and eventually her sovereignty. I'm not sure which, because he may be as stupid as Al Gore and may be equally incapable of seeing beyond his own nose.
You think India would turn?
LLS
I hope the Russians know Biden’s an imbecile, too.
LLS
“Nothing but a bunch of two-bit gangsters running the country.”
Are you talking Russia or the dems?
I won't say it was their intent all along, but when they joined China and Russia recently in calling for dumping the US dollar as the world's reserve currency, they showed where their greater alliance is.
They'd rather drive America down and destroy the US economy and ally themselves with the next great economic powerhouse, the BRIC countries, which will control most Latin American nations and the Pacific Rim.
Yes, I agree. But they won’t go into a depression without using the opportunity of their economic situation, a weakened America, and war-weary Western civilization to launch a war. Their goal is to formally re-establish their previous holdings but to come back on top of America as the global super-power, sharing that title with China, who will then turn their sites on the neo-Soviets.
Given what Obama, Inc. are doing to America's 'backbone'; we cannot be sure who is the weaker. This 'sorry/axsed' Administration is determined to bring America DOWN by every measure possible while refashioning America's spine, so as to facillitate their goal.
Biden; seems not to have noticed.
Going along with your neighbors is one thing. Turning on the USA is another thing.
I’m sure that’s part of their reasoning. They have Pakistan just across a line, they are in easy reach of China and Russia. They probably feel a bit intimidated.
But, like you said, they will receive no aid and comfort from those communist nations, and, when/if America falls, India’s economy will fall and they will have no one to protect them. It’s really sad that the Indian people are subject to the corrupt, treasonous group of leftists that is their government.
One word Joe: Detox
OH BOY! Russia is still EXTREMELY sore that we pushed them into collapse in the 80’s. They’ve been itching for payback since then. This is like throwing mega-salt into that wound.
We need to airdrop them some more ties
Biden is an idiot. Russia knows the US has weak leadership and they will take complete advantage of that.
Way to push the “Reset” button, Joe!
Can you believe that this guy was selected for the job because he was the Democrats foremost foreign policy expert?
Russian society is drinking itself to death and has the highest abortion rate in the world.
But they still have all those missiles and fungible wealth in the form of oil and natural gas.
Russia is sick, dangerous, and heavily armed, like a wounded rhinocerous.
And Biden this DAMNED FOOL doesn’t even realize it!
AND SARAH PALIN WASN’T QUALIFIED TO BE “A HEARTBEAT AWAY FROM THE PRESIDENCY”????!!!!
The Russians may as well have invented the concept of intrigue, deception, and disinformation (well, actually they sorta did invent that one). They certainly at least perfected them at both the internal/external national policy level, long before Joe Biden snuck his shot of vodka.
Even at the personl level, they are crafty bastards. The most brutally backstabbing place I ever worked was an office full of Russian expats. Every day was like a constant 4-D chess game.
They do certainly have a lot of self-inflicted problems, but unlike us, they are not walking around blabbing about them for everyone to hear.
Unlike us, their “leaders” are working to strenghten their country.
Here’s an interesting link on the topic from an earlier freep.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2300252/posts
Spot on, from my experience.
The Russian do not care if Biden is an imbecile or not, since they’ve already IDd the Messiah as one.
There is a diference actually: the Russian gangsters would fight to protect their interests and their country.
That newly refurbished naval base in Syria is a case in point.
Yep and coming from the same party that for years didn’t want to upset the ruskies. What a putzmeister.
Biden, you really, really need to lay off smoking crack, kkthx.
Russia is building its military, we are expending ours. Russia is flexing its political muscles, we are wearing out our knee patches. Russia is expanding its energy production and we are locking ours down, while driving all manufacturing out of business with massive carbon restrictions and tax schemes.
I suspect that Biden has it EXACTLY backwards. If Obama continues, America will be helpless before Communist expansion plans next decade.
Russia is pulling a bait-and-switch, and will come at us with a vengence.
Obama can’t tell the difference between a rank socialist and a hardcore communist. This played out in Russia.
BTW Biden...Russia is not weak. And they are not our friends. This is NOT the early 1990’s.
I once mentioned to a Russian who lived in New York that in high end restaurants the head waiters seat tourists at out-of-the-way tables and that the waiters refer to that area as
“Siberia.”
My Russian acquaintance was deeply offended.
These people are hyper-sensitive and have an inferiority complex as big as, er, Siberia.
Our jackass Vice-President has just delivered a profound insult.
Nice going, Democrats.
IMHO I think that Russia will come out of the recession in better shape than the US, in the fact that they are net exporters, exploit their energy and other natural resources, have heavy industries, and are not afraid to expand their military. All of this has a positive economic impact.
Meanwhile, we nationalize healthcare, socialize our economy, make it impossible for us to have domestic heavy industry, and basically ban using our natural resources and energy reserves. All of this while we disarm our military.
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