Posted on 11/24/2004 10:09:53 AM PST by West Coast Conservative
Chastised? The election results have been rejected .. the rest is details. No, we're not looking for a war with Russia and we also cannot ultimately resolve the situation without at least passive cooperation from Russia. So, what's your point?
The chastisement is your fantasy, and nothing more.
Yup real bad: no oil or gas for Europe in winter. Real bad real quick, maybe even an EU civil war?
A Western EU bloc checked with an Eastern EU block suits our long term interests.
A Russia-Ukraine-Belarus axis does not suit our long term interests.
Hmmm lets review: EU ruled by non elected officials, a socialist super state with a failing economy. Russia, ruled by elected officials (not the best in democracy by far but freely elected) with an economy that is booming. Oh and under Kuchma in the Russian sphere this year Ukraine had a 13% growth rate. EU max ALLOWED growth rate is 3%.
If the Cold War is really over then Russia can stop trying to maintain control over the former Soviet Empire.
So how has the average Ukrainian fared under Kuchma's stellar growth? If they are lucky enough to have a job, they're making $68 a month instead of $60 a month?
Russia no longer has free & fair elections. They are semi-free and quasi-fair...
The EU max allowed deficit for euro states is 3%, and that's likely to get reformed. I don't know how you turned that into max allowed growth rate, but your statement is patently false.
I support the best interests of America's national security and the ideals of socioeconomic freedom.
They've got nukes. Lots of em. I would think that should be a pretty important consideration as to whether one cares or not.
Even if you did check Soros position: wanted to break up Russia and keep it that way? Sounds fine to me.
That's assuming that all ukrainians want to stand up against Russia. Most of the opposition is in Kieve and Catholic western Ukraine. Yanukovich's (?sp) supporters are in the central/south/east Ukraine and are about 60% of the population. Guess where the exit polls were not taken.
I believe they still have nukes.
On second thought, I wonder if Bush is going to use this to get Russian concessions on Iran's nukes...
Here is Powell's transcript:
Briefing by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell (TRANSCRIPT of full statement on Ukraine)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1287801/posts
What we have here is a hyped up twisted reporting by the US media, which hyped up part of Powell's statement, and didn't report on the rest. Sadly, the Chinese press was indeed more accurate in reporting on Powell's statement, than the US media.
The Central Election Commission has just announced official results and declared the current prime minister the winner. We cannot accept this result as legitimate because it does not meet international standards and because there has not been an investigation of the numerous and credible reports of fraud and abuse.
Hype that..
Our orbit? How do you figure? It would be a socialist super sized EU orbit. As for the eastern europeans, they are being actively muted by the Western and Central Europeans and last I checked, most of them were planning on exiting Iraq too, especially after French "persuasion". So you'd rather expend a known non-elected Socialist super state of europe? Even if Ukraine was absorbed (and I highly doubt this) into Russia. Russia has an elected government and a capitalist system. EU lacks both and EU has flatly stated they plan on absorbing the Ukraine.
As I said, read his ENTIRE statemtent.
Briefing by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell (TRANSCRIPT of full statement on Ukraine)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1287801/posts
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, given the Russian role in the election process, do you see any negative consequences for U.S.-Russian relations in view of the fact that they have overtly support Yanukovych?
SECRETARY POWELL: Well, I had a good conversation with Minister Lavrov. What we are both interested in right now is finding a solution to this problem, a solution that is based on the law and using legal procedures to resolve these allegations of fraud, well-substantiated allegations from Senator Lugar and OSCE monitors and other monitors, and what we are trying to do now is to use diplomacy and use political actions to resolve this.
We're not looking for a contest with the Russians over this. We're looking for a way to make sure that the will of the Ukrainian people is respected and when we get an outcome that will truly reflect the desires of the Iranian* people for who their next leader should be.
Who do we hear say that he could look in the eyes of this Putin & see he was one that we could deal with? The one that gave Teddy hic 11 Billion EXTRA dollars to pollute the children.
Since Western Europe has gone completely pacifist and socialist, what is stopping Russia from rolling to the Atlantic? Besides our one or two divisions of course. Do we still have the Peacekeepers in place?
Hitler won an election too. If you think Russia is more democratic than just about any other place in Europe, there's no point in arguing.
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