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Posted on 03/03/2014 11:38:55 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The last time Russian troops invaded one of its neighbors, the U.S. intelligence community was also caught off guard.
The year was 2008 and the country was Georgia instead of the Ukraine. And just as in 2014, back then there were early signs that Moscow was serious—it was issuing visas to ethnic Russian speakers inGeorgia, like it's doing now in Ukraine. U.S. analysts just didn’t believe Russia would go as far as it did.
Today, as in 2008, American policy makers have found themselves burned after trying to make Vladimir Putin a partner when Putin himself sees America as a rival. This has often led Republican and Democratic led administrations to find themselves flat footed in the face of Russian aggression and U.S. intelligence analysts racing to explain how they misread Putin’s motivations.
“This is less a question of how many collection resources we throw at Russia and more broadly about the analytic challenge of understanding Putin’s mind set,” said Michael Hayden, a former CIA director and NSA director under President George W. Bush. “Here our Secretary of State is saying this is not the Cold War, it’s win-win and it’s not zero sum. But for Vladimir Putin it is zero sum. That’s what we need to understand.”
Of course, U.S.-Russian relations have overlapped in some areas of mutual interest. The two countries have worked to maintain the International Space Station, with Russian Soyuz capsules bringing American astronauts into orbit. Both countries have cooperated, at times, on sanctioning Iran for its nuclear program. And both sides agreed to an ambitious plan in Syria to dismantle the regime's chemical weapons arsenal.
But when it comes to the status of the newly independent nations that used to comprise the Soviet empire, the United States and Russia have been at odds.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Your statement implies something derogatory towards Bush and his relationship with Putin.
In defense of Bush, he respected Putin as a Warrior and knew EXACTLY what he was capable of as evidenced by Bush's preemptive actions that prevented Putin from moving into Georgia.......
Such actions, by the way, have not taken place under this administration.......
Good old W....’looked into his eyes (Putin’s)” and was convinced he is a good man and a Christian. Perhaps you don’t remember that bit of nonsense.
shoot, you know me all to well ;)
Yea right.... tell that to Ronald Reagan
No she doesn’t say from Wilson. Her self published book claims from the second world war and FDR. Which of course anyone who knows the history of Whitaker Chambers and Alger Hiss already knew that. As did anyone who paid attention during the Rosenberg case.
O is an admitted communist and a possible muslim. He certainly has muslim sympathies. His admin behaves accordingly
Are you that dense??? My point was clear, if you can’t understand it I would suggest you take some reading comprehension classes
I recall an article, maybe 20 yrs ago, that complained of a spy culture that would, out of fear of being wrong, render anyalsis that took every possible position.
Obama has been President for over five years. We won WWII in less time. We elected a boob as our President. He is the Chief Executive of The Executive Branch. He is expected to come to this job with certain competencies. He should be able to plan and coordinate. He simply can’t do those things. We are in serious danger. Our ship of state is in a serious storm and the enemy is on the horizon. Our Captain is down below telling the cook to put less salt in the mush.
This was a common problem in U.S. intelligence agencies during the Cold War, and it likely continues to the present. Herb Meyer and others who served during the Reagan administration have written about how difficult it was to get a straight answer from the analysts in Soviet branch at CIA about the true conditions in the Soviet Union's economy and military in the early 1980s. There was an extensive CYA mentality among almost all of the career employees there.
bump
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