Posted on 10/05/2015 5:31:50 PM PDT by Twotone
A few months ago I attended a two day conference on the subject of the future of U.S.-Russian relations, attended by an impressive array of officials from Administrations past and present and experts on things Russian. One of the subjects discussed was the possibilities for additional, even more dangerous crises between our two countries. There were lots of potential flash points identified, beyond the current crisis in Ukraine, ranging from the Baltics to Kaliningrad, Moldova, Kazakhstan and the Arctic. But for each of these there were also “cooler” heads who argued that it would be stupid for Putin to initiate a new crisis in any of these places.
(Excerpt) Read more at realcleardefense.com ...
We need to be friends with Russia. It’s time, in fact 25 years in the making.
He doth bestride the narrow world like a colossus.
Yeah, but his Gumby impression is nowhere near as good as Hussein’s!
Putin thumbs his nose at obummer and his administration the same way that the ayatollah thumbed his nose at jimmah carter.
This will change in Jan 2017 as it did when Reagan was elected in 80.
We don’t “underestimate” him. We just don’t stand up to him.
When I was a kid in the ‘60’s I read in the newspaper that a highly placed Administration official said the Chinese would never develop a nuclear weapon because it wasn’t in their interests to do so? I remember being startled by the idiocy of the statement. (Just weeks later, they exploded their first nuke.)
People underestimate Putin because they are hopelessly blinded by their bias about what such a person “should” do. Well, what we think somebody should do is almost never going to be what they think is in their best interest.
We shouldn’t think about what a person should do but think instead what they might do if they could. Nobody was ready for what Hitler did, even though he telegraphed every move in a book years before he did the actual deed. I think Putin has been open and honest in his desire to reestablish Russia and the Soviet empire. We should take him at his word and predict what he can do next.
There's one thing wrong with that clause. Can you spot it?
Amen-
However 1980 was a different time, when people were more clear headed, moral, strong, patriotic, rational, and less self loathing.
Mr. Reagan’s resolve and direction was greatly complimented by the adults who served him and fellow countrymen who wanted America to thrive.
He was even more right of center than Ted Cruz, IMHO.
People, the media, academia and Democrats are so E’ffed up, he’d be marginalized with little chance of gaining office.
These are such bizarre deceitful times we live in.
Who is “we” kimosabi”?
The word that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck was ‘experts’. That’s usually where things start falling apart.
You have got to be kidding?!
How can we be friends with a country that has nuclear missiles pointed at you from their land bases, and nuclear submarines and bombers that fly right along your borders?
How can you be friends with a country that’s allied and supplying a nuclear Iran?
How can you be friends with a country that is taking over Ukraine? They gave up their nuclear weapons when the USSR split up and we promised we’d protect Ukraine from Russia.
How can you be friends with a country that has been conducting joint military invasion exercises with China for the last 18 years?
You have got to be kidding?
RE: “We need to be friends with Russia. It’s time, in fact 25 years in the making.”
we could have still been pretty good friends with Russia, but remember Hillary “reset” our Russian relationship for Obama
It’s his competition that makes him look good. Putin against Obama is like the Harlem Globetrotters against the Washington Capitols.
Soviet Russia gave itself to Satan and Satan fed her his poison. She's dead, Jim.
God revived Russia, same as with Lazarus, and today's Russia enjoys His favor.
Or so I've read...these days I'm watching to see if those Russian prophecies I've read have come or are coming true.
So far, so good...and way better than I can say for US, which is probably one of the reasons why our GuvCo oligarchs and the rest misunderestimates the Russians now.
We are busy looking in the history books for our former glory, while at the same time we and the leaders we vote for are following a similar path to the place where Satan killed Soviet Russia.
Confused much? Yes, much!
"But resist, we much...we must...and we will much...about...that...be committed."
You forget that post-Soviet Russian hostility toward the U.S. has been reactive — under Clinton we completely disregarded Russian interests in the Balkans, attacking Serbia, which had been a Russian ally from the time of the Tsars, and beginning under Clinton and continuing under Bush pushed the borders of NATO east into the former Soviet Union, all during a period of weakness when Russia should have been wooed as a partner on the world stage, rather than treated as if the Cold War were still on — after all, remember that the Soviet Union fell because Russia seceded!
Let me ask, how would or should the U.S. react if a friendly, elected government in Mexico or Canada were overthrown by street demonstrations in the national capital and replaced with a hostile, anti-American government, and the electoral base that had most strongly supported the elected government happened to be in a state or province contiguous with the U.S. and that state or province declared independence rather than submit to the anti-American rebel government?
That’s analogous to what happened in Ukraine — I know someone from Luhansk, the separatist movement is real and indigenous, even if it is backed by Moscow.
I would hope that in my contrafactual analogous circumstance, the U.S. would come to the aid of the pro-American separtists, and do not fault Russia for doing the same.
Mind you, I think Putin is wrong in thinking he can use the lunatic Ta’ajili Shi’ites who run Iran as pawns in a game of balance of power politics vis-a-vis the U.S. and NATO. This is the one serious misstep he has made in my estimation. Of course, Russia has simpler relations with the Muslim world than the U.S. because it has only Sunni enemies. Thanks to Carter’s fecklessness and the historical circumstance that the Shah was one of “our bastards” during the Cold War, we have Shi’ite enemies as well as Sunni, so it would be a reasonable move vis-a-vis the Muslim world for Russia to align with Iran. The problem lies in the fact that the Iranian regime cannot be relied upon to behave as a normal actor in international politics because of the apocalyptic doctrines many of their leading clerics hold.
Seems to me it’s leftist pussies who are doing the underestimating. Guess they don’t have any real men on the left to help them figure it all out.
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