Posted on 11/21/2017 1:12:37 PM PST by NRx
...Vladimir Vladimirovich is not the president of a feminist NGO. He is not a transgender-rights activist. He is not an ombudsman appointed by the United Nations to make and deliver slide shows about green energy. He is the elected leader of Russia—a rugged, relatively poor, militarily powerful country that in recent years has been frequently humiliated, robbed, and misled. His job has been to protect his country’s prerogatives and its sovereignty in an international system that seeks to erode sovereignty in general and views Russia’s sovereignty in particular as a threat...
...When Putin took power in the winter of 1999-2000, his country was defenseless. It was bankrupt. It was being carved up by its new kleptocratic elites, in collusion with its old imperial rivals, the Americans. Putin changed that. In the first decade of this century, he did what Kemal Atatürk had done in Turkey in the 1920s. Out of a crumbling empire, he rescued a nation-state, and gave it coherence and purpose. He disciplined his country’s plutocrats. He restored its military strength. And he refused, with ever blunter rhetoric, to accept for Russia a subservient role in an American-run world system drawn up by foreign politicians and business leaders. His voters credit him with having saved his country...
(Excerpt) Read more at imprimis.hillsdale.edu ...
The article states what I have been criticized for years for saying by the tried old FReeper cold warriors.
Putin’s job is to save a dying mother Russia. She’s better but still not well
Read
Excellent. And accurate.
Vladimir Putin’s job is to do the best he can for his country.
Xi Jinping is trying to do the same for China.
I don’t think there is anything evil in this, they are looking out for their countries’ best interests, just like we are.
It’s kind of baffled me why we, Russia and China don’t get all in the same room, agree that all 3 countries benefit when they use their collective efforts to enforce peace and stop terrorism and Islamic crazies.
“This is something that really aught be read in its entirety.”
I second that.
Bump for later.
Rose, see if you can get through this without fainting.
Without yet reading the article, what you state Putin is doing for Russia, and Jinping is doing for China, is EXACTLY what I voted Donald J. Trump to do for the USA.
“Christopher Caldwell is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard.”
The Neocons there must hate him, and will likely expel him for writing this piece.
Yes. And I think that is why Trump has been fairly successful in his dealing with other countries, because he is looking at it pragmatically from a business context of what is best for my country? How can I accommodate the other countries’ goals while still getting what we need for our country? That’s how a businessperson would look at making a deal. Instead of an ideological perspective.
Obama was totally incompetent in part because he had no idea of what was going on in the real world and how to deal with other people with other interests. All he could do was make speeches, but had absolutely no idea how to actually do something. In the end he was reduced to issuing illegal executive orders, all of which are pretty much being nullified now by Trump.
Adolf Hitler tried to do the same for Germany... Need I continue?
Xi is no Hitler. But all you have to do is spend time in China to see the pressures, People, people, people, and more people. All those people have to be fed, have housing and be kept relatively content, or you will have big problems. It’s a situation that could easily spin out of control if there is not a firm hand on the economy and the society. So that is what is driving China, improving its economy enough so that the people are kept happy.
If you listen to Putin speak, in any of the many interviews or press conferences or panel discussions, you’ll see that he isn’t anything like he is painted by establishment politicians here. Good, bad, or otherwise, he is nothing like them. He speaks clearly, frankly, knowledgably, and whether you agree with what he says or not, he means what he says and doesn’t mince words. There isn’t really another politician on the world stage like him, except maybe Trump.
Which is why, though they come at things from very different perspectives and purposes, they seem to see kindred spirits in one another.
I remember one discussion, a foreign college girl (if I remember correctly) asked him about his role as a world leader on the world stage. He said, I am not here to be a world leader (or something to that effect), I am here as the leader of the Russian people; That is my job, to represent them. Sounds familiar.
No doubt that is the job of a leader to look after his/her people first. I question the methods.
Good read. From article, regarding new capitalists that sold Russia resources while enriching themselves...
“” Putin came to call these people “state-appointed billionaires.” “”
In the US, these people are The Swamp.
ping for later.
BTW, I have nothing against Xi, for the lack of knowledge.
But I feel very strongly about white-washing Putin and his regime. Russia never was over-civilized, and quickly turning to cavemen with nukes. Don’t let their state-sponsored “Religious Renaissance” fool you: they are still primitive superstitious savages like in the days of Stalin.
Obama was totally incompetent in part because he had no idea of what was going on in the real world and how to deal with other people with other interests. All he could do was make speeches, but had absolutely no idea how to actually do something. In the end he was reduced to issuing illegal executive orders, all of which are pretty much being nullified now by Trump.
I hereby invoke Godwin's Law to officially end this thread.
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