Posted on 04/26/2014 7:33:22 AM PDT by carlo3b
Western powers led by US President Barack Obama have warning that Russia faces fresh sanctions over Ukraine, as Kiev accused Moscow of seeking to trigger a “third world war”.
The threat came amid heightened tensions on the ground as the Ukrainian military launched a new offensive to besiege the rebel-held city of Slavyansk and insurgents blew up an army helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade.
At the entrance to Slavyansk, seven members of an observer misson from the Vienna-based Organissation for Security and Cooperation in Europe were detained and taken to the rebel-held security services building, sparking immediate international condemnation.
Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the de facto mayor of the city that the group had a “Ukrainian spy”, a man believed to be a military escort for the OCSE observers.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
They’re gonna need a bigger tank.
Never fear my fellow Americans, our leaders will surrender without a fight..
How pitiful, cowards in charge of the willing..
Yeah! We want them shroom clouds over the worlds cities, dammit!! sarc/
So glad we are “leading from behind”.... this President is clueless... as are the MILLIONS OF AMERICANS that re-uped for a 2nd term.
Terry Lakin
What other cards to they have to play? The West has been sucking up to Ukraine since the collapse of the USSR, dangling NATO membership and EU goodies in their collective faces, apparently without ever considering the fact that the Russians might not be willing to play along.
It might have even worked if we had a real leader as a President. One the Russians could respect and who would taken steps years ago to prevent the current situation from developing. But we don’t, we didn’t, and the Russians see a perfect opportunity to jerk Kiev back into Moscow’s orbit, so they are taking it.
The US will not (nor should they) get involved in a fight about the Ukraine. We simply do not have a stake big enough to justify intervening. It would be different if Ukraine was an actual NATO member, but they aren’t.
Send Biden to Kiev and dare the Russians to make their move?
No, but they can do much more short of war. Cut off all trade relations. This time, don’t back off like we did in Berlin back when the Iron Curtain descended. Send tanks and troops into Kiev, Warsaw, and every Eastern European and former Soviet nation willing to take them. Call Putin’s bluff.
“Send Biden to Kiev and dare the Russians to make their move?”
Don’t you mean Ask?
Send tanks and troops to Kiev? Ummm.... can I get a “no” in here? Sam, there is no way in Hell we could put enough tanks and troops in Kiev to make a fart of a bit of difference if Putin decides to roll and even trying would ensure he did.
We don’t have the airlift, we don’t have the manpower, we don’t have the equipment, and the Army would probably tell Obama to go piss up a rope if he tried to order that kind of move.
Obama’s defense cuts and the ongoing commitments that we still have worldwide have stretched our conventional forces beyond any possible ability to make a significant contribution to defending the Ukraine, if that was in our best interests, and I do not think it is.
Face it. We’re clapped out. The cupboard is bare. Morale is down the tubes and readiness is now taking a backseat to social experimentation and gay rights. Any troops we moved to Ukraine would be outnumbered, outgunned, out supplied, and SOL.
As I said before, if we were serious about moving Ukraine into the western world orbit, there are things we could and should have done years ago. But we did not do those things, and now it is simply too late. If Putin wants to take the Ukraine, there is not a damn thing short of nuclear war that could stop him — and I don’t want to go there.
The question is where does he stop. The collective European Union has the manpower to stop him, but not if they let Putin pull a Napoleon and gobble them up one at a time.
Can we at least make Putin and Russia’s life hell? Stop all trade with them. Let them bury themselves and this time we don’t bail them out with humanitarian aid.
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