Posted on 11/24/2015 8:27:56 AM PST by Enlightened1
“You don’t do stupid, but you do a good imitation of it.”
If you don’t mind, I may borrow that quote from time to time....lol
ahhh....well I guess that answer depends on what came first, the chicken or the egg..
IMO, it appeared to me to be a extension of the Arab spring media stories. I think that and years of angst against the Assad regime, was responsible.
I think it was after that that we got involved, ie: Benghazi arms shipments.
If you have not yet noticed, the US CIA and State department is not that smart, plus they are being led by a idiot.
If we got involved at the start - we should have bailed once the FSA proved to be just a front for sectarian jihadis. I get wrestling Syria away from Iran may have been a good payoff but the plan went FUBAR.
I’ll one up you here...
Nearly everything we have tried since the initial wars with Muslims during the Barbary pirates days, has essentially failed.
The religion is essentially a cult. It has nothing to do with peace. They are running on auto pilot...there is no persuasion.
My arguments today are about priorities, clear and present dangers, and reality. What I have said it that this danger of a clash with Putin’s Russia is much more of a danger to us then these nutcase religious zealots.
I can fight them and I don’t need a tank....just my hand guns and rifles..
Not the case with the Russians and Chinese.
Just a matter of what is really important and what is the end game of our potential adversaries...
I might add that Russia is not a potential adversary, it is and has always been number one for nearly 100 years.
And I see all these color revolutions as originating from the outside. I don't see any that has paid off yet and made their country better off.
You can apply that same exact logic to the Russians as well and the Germans for that matter.
It's not a matter of religions or sects...not even color.
When I was stationed in West Germany as a young dummy, I found the Germans to be obstinate, deceitful, untrustworthy, but on the surface they appeared totally normal. (this was in the late 60s..)
The Russians are very much the same. Particularly regarding deceitful.
Funny thing about history is that we discover that the Russians and the Germans have the same ancestral roots.
They are repressed warriors. They see themselves as being essentially screwed out of their legacy. WE, in the US offend them and appear weak and a easy target.
As I said earlier, you don't really get them.
In the post Russian revolution period there were many in the US who supported them and their yearning for a better way. (communism)
During the cold war all this reversed, but now it back with a vengeance..."it's like dejavue....all over again..."(credit to Yogi)
I have to watch this stuff, and it's so frustrating to see it again. Putin has not changed Russia. They simply went from a authoritarian government with a communist party head, to a authoritarian government...without the communist party head. There is no difference and china is in the process of transitioning to the same thing. They just are having difficulties getting rid of the party.
Both countries are natural enemies to the US and the west just as Venezuela was, Cuba, Argentina and a host of other miscellaneous crap holes. But all this considered we have to clap for this guy when he busts a Muslim's chops?
Not me....No way.....
Since I am neither ethnicity I am not going to characterize them.
I will say post war Germany has been the best thing that ever happened to Germany in terms of wealth, peace and prosperity for her people and Europe in general (Euro problems notwithstanding) and under Putin Russia has been the freest and wealthiest it has ever been even under the Czars. That may not be saying much but it is the truth for most of her people. The average Russian under Putin at his most despotic is more free and has more wealth than they did under the Czars which is the last time Russia was prosperous to some degree (even with the current freefall from oil and gas).
I can, and do. I have spent enough time with both to have come to some basic conclusions.
I have explained some of that to you.
Take it or leave it.
That had nothing at all to do with the war. It was totally related to the Regan/Thatcher/ Pope John, administrations and the merging of East and West Germanys. It gave them a labor edge against their competition and they really exploited it in manufacturing for which they already held a expertise and education base.
Russia's economics are similar to our Canadian brethren to the north. The price of oil and raw material dictates their wealth. Today, their wealth is essentially gone.
Again, under Putin as of right now with their poor performing economy the Russians are still living better and more freer than they have ever lived ever in recorded memory (or slightly less free but more rich then when Yeltsin ruled).
Once you ponder this fact then you can move on with your assessment of modern Russia and why Putin is seen differently at home and by border states than he is in the west.
Why is it, that Putin is looking outside Russia to keep his population engaged with something other than their current situation?
For years now, American analysts have postulated that because their economy is so tied to natural recourses and not banking, or intellectual property, that their only recourse was to sell weapons systems, and take additional manufacturing regions that once were part of the USSR but have since gone independent.
They, the Russian govt. spends most of their time now disturbing the peace in their one time holdings in a effort to get them back and take some of the debt load off of the reserves which are dwindling fast.
There is no modern Russia.
It's the same as it always has been. State controlled. Inefficient. And periodically broke and in crisis. But they know how to control it in terms of the populace.
Cheap vodka and nationalism.
BTW.....
Obama apparently studies what the Russians and Chinese do to keep their populace from turning against the government.
This is why the democrats are today refraining from adding more sin taxes, and they are also ignoring laws designed to curb illegal drug use.
Gambling, prostitution and porn also have been largely ignored..
What’s good for the goose is also good for the gander.
Rather, I think Putin will avenge his pilots and has the capability to destroy the nation of Turkey, who shot down Russia's aircraft over Syrian territory. Can you spell Kurdistan ?
You are welcome to it sir!
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