Putin is not America’s friend. Because that’s not his job.
Russia’s main geopolitical rival is the U.S.. His job isnt to subordinate Russia’s interest to ours.
With the incompetent leadership in the White House that has sworn itself to be the enemy of us, we have no hero in this Ukraine mess. For me I laugh at the farce he is making of Obama (while not being thrilled that this is what it takes to wake people up), and recognize that we have little to no abilities to halt the moves that have been made. This is the result of past sloppy chess moves on Obama’s part, not an excuse to go to war now. Both Palin and Romney warned of this, and now the SHTF.
As for myself having studied lots of Russian history (1770-now) I have grudging respect for these guys. Not “love” but respect. They aren’t idiots, or slow-talking fat people that drink too much and wear furry hats. Reagan got that very well too, calling them out as an “evil empire” but not being as stupid as Hitler or Napoleon thinking that these guys are a pushover, and all you had to do was start shooting either a gun or your mouth off. He knew there weakness which was the godlessness of Communism and the suppression of the individual spirit to the will of the state.
Obama is cut from the same Communist thinking that should have died in the 90s. Putin learned, and while still the same old USSR strongman under the skin, put forward a narrative of God, country, and national pride (as well as repression of dissent) to win the Russian hearts and minds. He makes the U.S. look like a schizophrenic nation of perverts and wimps that cant agree on what day it is while Russia is by appearance a country on the same page with Putin whom has “restored” Russia to a superpower with the might of the USSR and the gilded splendor of Czarist era. Look at his previous inauguration as president on YouTube. It’s that lavish!
You dont have to like this guy (you actually shouldn’t), but many here on FR as I said, have no friends in either government so it isnt a stretch to see many here not really be up to burning effigies of Vlad over the Ukraine when he is doing a great job of exposing what we had said about Zero since 2007 without the pain of having it be done through an actual shooting war. At least not yet.
Excellent summation on your part.
the incompetent leadership in the White House
It's incompetent AND evil. 0bastard and his peeps WANT to destroy the US on purpose, they're not just doing it due to incompetence.