Posted on 07/28/2011 10:08:57 AM PDT by Kaslin
The president has sacrificed American honor in service to a political agenda.
The lawyer for a major foreign investor in Russia is arrested on bogus charges while attempting to expose corruption by the Kremlin. Once in jail, he’s brutally tortured to death. A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators introduces legislation to block the high-level Kremlin officials who were directly involved in the murder from setting foot on U.S. soil.
What response do you expect from the president of the United States?
For some time now, I have been expressing outrage at the fact that Barack Obama did not actively support the Cardin-McCain Magnitsky Act, named for Sergei Magnitsky, the attorney in question. But I never dared dream that Obama would take the Kremlin’s side and aggressively seek to derail the legislation for his own personal political gain.
Yet that is exactly what the Washington Post reports he has “quietly” done.
The Financial Times immediately noted that the United States was “toning down” its action regarding Magnitsky. That’s a mighty understatement. Acting as if it were a lobbyist for the Kremlin, the Obama administration first issued an ominous warning to the Senate:
Senior Russian government officials have warned us that they will respond asymmetrically if this legislation passes. Their argument is that we cannot expect them to be our partner in supporting sanctions against countries like Iran, North Korea, and Libya, and sanction them at the same time. Russian officials have said that other areas of bilateral cooperation, including on transit to Afghanistan, could be jeopardized if this legislation passes.
Vladimir Putin couldn’t have put it better himself!
Then Hillary Clinton went to work “quietly” behind the scenes to strike a deal in which the State Department would “quietly” ban a certain number of Russian officials administratively if key senators would withdraw their support for Cardin-McCain.
One could almost see Putin grinning from ear to ear, like the Grinch who stole Christmas.
According to Freedom House, the level of democracy and liberty in Russia has declined each and every year since Putin has held power. Young Russians are fleeing the country at breakneck speed to avoid persecution. Opposition figures who are not murdered outright (like Magnitsky, journalist Anna Politkovskaya, and legislator Galina Starovoitova) are subjected to relentless harassment: First the Kremlin tried to revoke former first deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov’s passport to keep him in the country, then it considered revoking his citizenship to keep him out.
As if to remove any doubts about who Putin really is, Anders Behring Breivik announced he was a big fan of the dictator.
And through it all, the Obama administration has remained silent at best. At worst, Obama has actively supported the Kremlin in exchange for assistance with his foreign policy agenda. Even if it were somehow proper to sacrifice basic American values, Obama is not actually achieving anything with Russia’s support. If he were, would the Tehran Times be running headlines like “Iran Welcome’s Russia’s Positive Attitude” as Russia openly touts its support of Iranian nuclear activities?
The notion that Russia could have a benign attitude towards the United States is utterly belied by the recent report that the Putin Kremlin bombed the U.S. embassy in Georgia, and by the obvious fact that a man like Putin who has spent his entire life in the KGB is not, and cannot be, America’s ally or friend.
But regardless, it is not proper to sacrifice basic American values, to dash the hopes of thousands of Russians who are risking their lives to defend them. It is not proper to sit and watch as Putin consolidates a malignant dictatorship and sets the stage for a whole new cold war conflict. It is un-American, a foul besmirching of American honor, one for which Obama’s name must live in infamy.
Torture in pursuit of fundamental transformation is merely interrogation.
What response do you expect from the president of the United States?..........................................
We don’t have a President right now , we have an illegitimate Usurper, who would rather kiss Putin and have an affair with him than oppose him.
Obama wants to destroy the United States entirely, and Putin wants to destroy America's economic and military power.
Having a toadie nation to profit immensely from, is perfectly fine with Putin.
Sigh, the old democracy crap is thrown around, as well as the "terrorist idolizes Putin" crap, tell me, was that Bill Ayres, the police station bombing murderer?
Obama fears Putin. Obama respects Putin. They both hate America.
Remember that Putin is still a hardline Soviet, and has displayed Marxist tendencies from time to time.
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I'm not so sure.
I think Putin is a hard line Russian Nationalist, and has displayed organized crime tendencies from time to time.
There was NO way for Putin to advance in Russia, at the time, without being part of, and closely cooperating with, the Communist Party.
As of now, the Russian Communists remaining, hate and undermine him, so I doubt he's very Soviet.
The article is weird, there is effectively no point, the conclusion is expected, it trashes Putin by association to someone he never met, and passes on Obama's similar but proved more serious faults and connections. Way too much one sided disinformation.
Excellent graphic
Excellent point, and you said it
He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.
- George Orwell "1984"
Obama and the dems have displayed Marxist tendencies - from time to time - too...
He is systematically molesting Americans at the airports and he says nothing while some police officers brutally murder Americans in our streets. He set up rules of engagement for our soldiers that endanger their lives on behalf of pleasing the enemy - which he supports. He armed Cartels and zeta gangs who used those arms to murder Mexicans and Americans.
Why would he care about the Russians killing an American? American life is cheap to the Kenyan Marxist.
Barry O acts like he is on the Kremlin’s payroll.
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