Lots of examples of Putin honoring the Christian faith. Not one, that I've seen, of him bowing to a muslim leader.
Posted on 03/22/2014 2:58:38 AM PDT by No One Special
Sit down and shut up while Putin takes eastern Europe and south America?
You really think that is going to benefit the US?
Lots of examples of Putin honoring the Christian faith. Not one, that I've seen, of him bowing to a muslim leader.
Buchanan is not a conservative.
You do not have to agree with an adversary to respect them.
Do you think Grant was a cheerleader for Lee? Did Montgomery cheer lead for Rommel?
Both Grant and Montgomery respected their foe, but still opposed them. I think most of us here oppose but still respect Putin. That said, I cannot help but wonder if Putin respects Obama. I also wonder if Obama "rspects" or fears Putin
No lots of cheerleaders. Posting dubious Pravda like propaganda, twisting into pretzels to deny the fact that Russia violated its word and invaded a sovereign neighbor. Making scurrilous moral equivalents between the US and Russian history. I have no problem with people recognizing Vlad is an effective tough cookie. I can’t stand the ass kissing. And there’s plenty of it.
I couldn't agree with you more.
Truthfully, it is not “apologetic” to look at Putin objectively, for what he is and what he wants to do. But you must observe the ground rules.
1) Putin is a Russian. Russia is his country. He is not an American, does not have American values, and sees America as a competitor, not an ally.
2) As leader of Russia, he puts Russia first, and tries to do things that make it stronger, if he feels he can get away with it.
3) Since the time when the Czars wrested Crimea away from the Ottoman Empire, Crimea was part of Russia. They saw it as strategically vital, because it gave Russia a warm-water port. Though Stalin enigmatically gave it to Ukraine, when the Soviet Union broke up, Ukraine had to offer that port to Russia on a very long-term lease, or, even in its weakened state, Russia would have tried to take it.
Okay, so add this together, and it should be no surprise that when the pro-Russian government of Ukraine fell, the Russians took the opportunity to snatch Crimea back.
But this being said, there is still great risk here. To start with, eastern Ukraine is heavily Russian, and a tempting target for Putin to snatch as well.
Likewise the Baltic states, importantly, *not* just Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, but also Finland, only gained independence from Russia after WWI, and only Finland kept theirs after WWII. They know all too well that Russia may try to eat them again.
Look into Radosh’s background, he is an “ex” communist neocon. Look into what causes he spends most of his time advocating. A google search on Radosh will quickly turn up where he is coming from — it ain’t about American patriotism.
Hatred for Russia's stance on gays doesn't just come from the left either, considering the author of this article is citing homosexual neoconservative activist James Kirchick as a rebuttal witness to Pat Buchanan.
Competitor does not necessarily mean "enemy."
It is a good question as to whether or not Putin sees the US as an enemy. It is a question of degrees. He might see the US as an obstacle, a variable, or all sorts of other things, but “enemy” is too cut and dried.
The reason most nations have foreign services is because only rarely are other nations totally friendly or totally enemy. But once the label is applied, it creates obligations.
As a competitor, Putin can haggle with the US, cooperate in some things and oppose in others. It is a more flexible position.
Nations don’t have friends, they have interests.
Just think of Churchill and Roosevelt had been friends!
And we have plenty of cheerleaders for the EU/banker oligarchs too. Neither are worth getting one American soldier killed over OR further bankrupting the US. Or perhaps economic collapse is a good thing only if its done thru militarism?
H.W. Bush, I suspect when he was in charge of the CIA, got his hands on some software of a known class, but far more complex and unique.
Police departments use similar software that is so effective, that some police brought it to Iraq during the occupation and used it to great effect against the insurgents.
What it does is collate and data mine information, and thus establish connections between suspects, events, and criminal acts. The more data you feed in, the better it gets, until you start seeing “linkages” that even brilliant analysts miss.
H.W. Bush publicly referred to “linkages” in foreign affairs, but only a few people realized what he really meant. Basically that nations have tens of thousands, often millions of connections between them; and that by manipulating some of them, you can affect seemingly unrelated connections.
Importantly, this goes way over the head of strategic analysts, like playing 3D chess when they are playing checkers. It was how he was so quickly to mobilize a coalition against Iraq in the first Gulf War.
However, he seems to have taken this software with him when he left CIA, and now it is wholly owned by the Bush family.
W. Bush used it to sweep away primary competition before he ran for office, by locking up all the big party donors. He was so confident that he ordered construction of his ranch a year out.
Sadly, it is likely that Jeb Bush has it, too, which is going to mean an incredible fight for the Tea Party to prevent him from being the nominee.
The man has done nothing but sow chaos at home and abroad that has only harmed us. I don’t believe it was done out of stupidity.
Obama is loving this Ukrainian "crisis". He's just itching to go all in with his pen and phone.
Excellent observance there. When dealing with the left, never ignore the least common denominator.
“ex” communist neocon
***********
Not a far step. Neocons are leftists who can count.
Troops for the transnationals: our final export.
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