Plus ça change....
Posted on 08/22/2014 10:10:56 AM PDT by wetphoenix
BERLIN/KIEV (Reuters) - After months of ratcheting up pressure on Vladimir Putin, concern is mounting in Berlin and other European capitals that an emboldened Ukraine's military successes in the east are reducing the chances of a face-saving way out of the crisis for the Russian leader.
As a result, the focus of German-led diplomatic efforts has shifted, according to senior officials, towards urging restraint from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and averting a humiliating defeat for pro-Russian rebels, a development that Berlin fears could elicit a strong response from Putin.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's planned visit to Kiev on Saturday, her first since the crisis erupted at the start of the year, is above all a signal of support for Poroshenko, the billionaire confectionary magnate who was elected less than three months ago.
But the German leader is also expected to use the trip to try to persuade Poroshenko, and nationalist hardliners in Ukraine who want to press their military advantage and crush the separatist rebellion in the east, to think hard about the consequences of such a course.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
So, the Ukraine should just remain in a state of civil war rather angering Putin by crushing the rebels?
Putin respects only strength. The Ukrainians shot the hell out of a Sov, er, Russian armored column and Putin did nothing. Crushing the rebels is more likely to earn his respect than worrying about making him mad.
Angela, not Andrea Mitchell, NBC news.
A half-assed way to fight a war! Is this what the krauts would do if a chunk of East Germany longed for the good old days of Russkie rule and decided to breakaway and join Vlad and his boys?
Of course he did nothing when this never happened.It was Potroshenko's cover up of debacle - all destroyed Soviet-era tanks and APCs belonged to Kiev forces :-)
There is a bunch of video material on Youtube for analysis to confirm it.
Germany is in no way qualified to tell anyone not to resist an invasion by an aggressor.
Merkel and Putin go way back to their days in Dresden. I wonder what her angle is?
Let’s see: if you win a war, it might make the losers angry, and so actually they will win.
I will have to think about that a while. The logic is beyond me.
Angela means, I guess, that you should throw the match, and then your opponent will be so impressed at your fine sportsmanship, that ... what?
This is the sort of thing EU people believe? I am beginning to think that Western Europe is a lost cause.
Shades of Molotov-Ribbentrop.
Plus ça change....
Until Stalin screwed Poland and got too close.
Smells like just another iteration of propaganda BS. Lots of “anonymous” sources a no hard facts. Amazingly, some just lap it up as if it were fresh milk.
“The Ukrainians shot the hell out of a Sov, er, Russian armored column and Putin did nothing”
Kiev has been forced to admit that may never have happened.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3195562/posts
Yes Ukrainians just lie down and let the Russian tanks run you over. Change the name Europe to Cowardstan.
You can't say this as a German politician, but they know this too. That doesn't mean all Germans are this way, but the majority is.
The Germans are weak, they are depleted from WWI, the pre WWII exodus, Holocaust, WWII, post WWII exodus, post war allied pacification programs and socialist indoctrination in the East. While cliché perceptions persist, Germany is in reality unGerman today, a secular nation with a weak national identity and little pride, a near pacifist society that is nihilistic and hedonistic. Everything from their once powerful pious world view to their Prussian military tradition is gone... This society no longer has the will nor the stomach to fight. Germany won't do anything regards Iran being a nuclear power, Putin's endeavors, North Korea, Libya, ISIS, Syria... They will sell arms, make speeches, engage is so called “negotiations,” and they will elevate themselves, pretending their lack of action is somehow intellectual or moral for their own electorate, but all the decision makers in Iran, Russia, Egypt... know the truth. They are so nihilistic that even their own death (their cultural demise and the rise of Islamic culture within their society) doesn't bother them or is suppressed since this causes discord. Germany will NOT stand up and deal with the threats out there, even if it's a threat to them!
Realize, the West essentially promised them protection, and the Russians promised to honor their autonomy and borders “if” they surrender their nuclear weapons. So... how did that go for them?
You can't say this as a German politician, but they know this too. That doesn't mean all Germans are this way, but the majority is.
In the past, I use to argue against you on this point but sadly I now agree with you.
More Deutsch than you are.
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