Posted on 04/18/2014 12:30:26 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Vladimir Putin happily allowed the Kiev authorities to shoot a few pro-Russian demonstrators while keeping his military forces on ice across the border. I predicted (and am sticking to my story) that Russia will not seize more territory in Eastern Ukraine–not for the time being, in any case. Russia will stand back and watch Ukraine implode, the way Egypt did during the two years following the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. Before the Maidan coup, Putin was willing to sit on $15 billion in arrears to Gazprom and put up $18 billion in new money. Now he wants $35 billion in back gas bills, on top of Ukraine’s $15 billion a year current account deficit. The IMF wants massive cuts in subsidies, which will make the Kiev government an object of hatred without putting a dent into the problem. Western taxpayers won’t cough up $50 billion for Ukraine, not even a small fraction of it.
Yankee Doodle went to Maidan, stuck a feather in his hat and called it democracy. Our foreign policy ideologues are like UFO cultists who are so convinced that space aliens are invading the earth that they see moon men in every glare of swamp gas. In this case, it isn’t moon men, but aspiring republicans. First Tahrir Square, then Maidan, were glorious proof of the Manifest Destiny of Western democracy.
A Google search with the terms “Putin” and “genius” yields over 10 million hits. If I hear another pundit’s panegyric to Putin’s great intellect, I’ll lose my lunch. Putin is not that smart; the trouble is that we are complete idiots. When Ukraine imploded, our leaders–from Victoria Nuland at the State Department to the neo-conservatives–rather assumed that we would reverse Ukraine’s polarity to the West, and humiliate Russia with the loss of Crimea. Putin called our bluff, and we had no viable military options.
Putin doesn’t need to send the Red Army into Ukraine. Every Ukrainian officer above the rank of major came up through the ranks in the Red Army. Ukrainian commanders won’t fight the Russians. They are the Russians. Yesterday we watched Ukrainian paratroopers turn their armored vehicles over to Russian separatists. Maybe John McCain can send them more weapons to hand over to Moscow.
Americans play Monopoly, Russians chess: We landed on Park Place fair and square, and that gave us the right to put down a hotel. Never mind that Ukraine is a basket case with a per capital income a tenth that of the European Community, whose best young people (along with some of its worst) have left the country, with a ruined economy and a declining population. Putin isn’t playing by the rules printed on the inside top cover of the board game. He’s another Hitler! Where is our Churchill? It’s a Monty Python remake of Dr. Strangelove. A few provocateurs holding a Russian flag pass out handbills demanding that Jews in Eastern Ukraine register with the authorities, and the whole of the media as well as the Obama administration hyperventilates, until the affair is exposed as a hoax.
The threat, as the great chess theorist Aron Nimzowitsch wrote, is mightier than the execution. Putin will let the West take ownership of the Ukrainian disaster until it festers, and then he will pick and choose what he wants. We will huff and puff and bloviate about Putin, the new Hitler, while Ukraine’s economy disintegrates. Bismarck’s aphorism applies: die ganze Ukraine ist nicht die gesunden knochen eines pommerschen Grenadiers wert.
Putin is not genius, and we are idiots, agree with that. The difference between us that we are humans, he is not. We are trying to help, no matter how clumsily; he is stabbing the weak “brother” in the back and enjoying it.
“We” aren’t idiots. Those who voted for bam bam and the vast majority of his administration are idiots on a good day.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Too bad he appears to be an a—hole.
Don’t need to read the article. The headline says it all. “We,” that is, our leaders and those who voted for them, are idiots.
Compared to the Obamadork and his ill-educated clueless minions, anyone is a genius.
Even my dog.
No, the administration is. Americans are not stupid and saw this coming. All we can do is pound the table in frustration over our “so-called” leaders.
well Stalin killed all the smart Russians
A hoax?? My, my, how could that be? I thought John Kerry verified it.
Putin has the devil in his heart.
Putin is an Opportunist .Our administration is led by a guy trained in Community Organization. Obama is reaping what he sows.He has no Backbone.
Putin is an Opportunist .Our administration is led by a guy trained in Community Organization. Obama is reaping what he sows.He has no Backbone.
The impudence of that Putin, screwing the EU and West with their own tactics and strategy.
Not true. The Devil is in the White House.
He has no Backbone.
O cajones.
5.56mm
Bingo! What were we smoking that made us believe Russia would allow Crimea to fall into NATO's hands? The Black Sea is absolutely vital to Russia's defense, and we were fools to poke Russia's borders and not expect opposition. Just imagine if China signed mutual defense treaties with Mexico or British Columbia or Quebec and then based troops, planes and ships on our borders. What did we expect?
Putin isn’t playing by the rules printed on the inside top cover of the board game. He’s another Hitler!
This is where I disagree with Goldman. Conditioned by decades of struggle against an enemy that no exists, we think Russia is still our great enemy. But the real threat to freedom the growing bureaucratic leviathan in Brussels. Now that the once-sovereign nations of Europe have surrendered their parliaments, courts and armies to the EU, they are powerless to halt the rise of the next strongman. Hannan, Farage and Bloom have been sounding the warning, but we are dancing to the EU's drums while NATO encircles Russia and seeks its economic domination.
The next and greatest dictator will emerge in Europe, from the framework that was designed to ensure it would never happen again.
Putin isn’t a genius.
It’s just that compared to the clueless goofball in the White House he looks like one.
This article is full of errors and BS. Putin has sent regular Russian Army commandos into Ukraine. That Ukrainian “airborne” unit is apparently minimally trained conscripts.
It’s pretty simple what is happening now in Eastern Europe. Germany has always been wobbly toward the USSR/Russia. The difference now is there is no US POTUS to stiffen them up. The kenyan could care less about Europe and wants to get back to attacking his domestic enemies. So the Germans wobble, the kenyan diddles and Russia’s neighbors reap the whirlwind.
“Americans are not stupid “
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Well, 49 percent may not be stupid, but 51% ARE VERY STUPID.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-03/final-tally-shows-obama-first-since-56-to-win-51-twice.html :
“The president nationally won 65.9 million votes — or 51.1 percent — against Republican challenger Mitt Romney, who took 60.9 million votes and 47.2 percent of the total cast, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.”,
and this was for the second term!!
This strongly indicates that America is in deep trouble from a very dumb electorate.
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