Bush faces down Putin at Beijing Olympics over Georgia
Posted on 03/01/2014 10:38:19 PM PST by Jeff Head
Here's how you stop and deter Putin. it is how George Bush got the job done in 2008 in Georgia.
Bush started out by talking to him face to face in Beijing and letting him know, man to man, that it was not going to go as Putin imagined.
We had military advisors already on the ground there. Bush immediately expedited the return of 2,000 members of Georgia's 31st Light Infantry Battalion who had been fighting beside US Marines in Afghanistan.
He then sent in more US personnel and material on C-130s and C-17s...direct to Tiblisi and immediately (which is what we should be doing right now to Kiev). When those US C-17s and C-130s went in, they had a lot of US personnel on them in addition to the supplies and material...and that was in addition to the military personnel we already had there.
Bush did not pull those out...he added more to it and made it clear to Putin that a push into and through Tiblisi was going to put the US Military in the line of fire and that Putin DID NOT WANT TO DO THAT.
In addition, in short order, three US warships and three NATO warships entered the Black Sea. Some brought supplies, others stood by and defended them. The three NATO warships and one of the US warships were top of the line surface combatants with two AEGIS vessels and two other guided-missile vessels.
Putin knew that Bush meant what he said. He had seen it already time and again over the seven years prior. He consiodered the cost of rolling over those US personnel and what the consequences would be, and he knew there would be very severe consequences with a heavy interest payment.
The following are all pictures from the events of the day, during the Georgian crisis, of us material, more advisors, equipment flowing in. Of US advisors already on the ground and training Georgian forces immediately prior to and during the crisis, and US and NATO warships all sent into the Black Sea during the crisis.
Bush drew a stark line in the sand...and he did it with the US military even as the Russian forces were nearing the capitol...and Putin paused, and then stopped, and negotiated.
Now THAT'S how you deter a man like Putin. Stop talking and start acting.
Senseless to continue discussion with this individual. They have no desire to reasonably discuss the issue and will resort to ad hominem, name calling, shouting, etc., etc. when faced with the reasoned and clear counter position they have taken.
Putin is a strong Russian leader who is shrewd and taking abject advantage of the intentionally weak President and administration we have.
He is playing high stakes poker with a decent hand, but able and willing to dead pan worjk a bluff and make it stick.
We have a strong hand if we would use it...but we have a leadership that is intentionally playing a game of tiddlie winks in response. We will have to wait for a decent coupld of elections here in 2014 and again in 2016 before we are going to be able to stand up against this.
I pray God the Ukrainian people themselves will show Putin that should he go further north or west than the Crimea, that they will make any occupation a living hell for him.
As is it...the Crimea is lost to the Ukraine and gone back to Russia, with whom it resided up until 1954, Nikita (himself a Ukrainian) ceded it over to the Ukraine.
Here’s a great vide of an American girl, with family ties to the Ukraine, who resigned on Russia Today. Did it live on air.
RT Anchor Resigns on Air
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3dSuVUdzgs
Khrushchev was an ethnic Russian.
He was boss of Ukraine, under Stalin, and wanted to win over the Ukrainians, when he was locked in a power struggle, after Stalin’s death.
I don’t think Putin is going to leave Crimea. It’s too rich in Russian history and mythology.
However, the west needs to make it so painful that he won’t risk another adventure in NATO countries like Poland or the Baltics.
So far the west has projected weakness. That will only encourage Putin to play the same game in Latvia or wherever else it suits him. A shooting war with Russia in a NATO country is just one step from WW3. No thanks. Better to deal with the KGB thug now.
Thanks. I thought that the village he was raised in was Ukrainian at one time.
Whatever the history, when he was alive (and now) it is indeed in Khomutovsky District, Kursk Oblast, Russia, about five miles from the border.
Thanks you for the correction and the info.
Odessa will be the next flashpoint.
If Putin intends to carve off more of south eastern Ukraine, to conitnue what he is announcing as his “protection,” of the ethinic Russians in south eastern Ukraine, then he may well move on Odessa next.
However, I think it may also be likely, that he will seek to get the provinces further to the east too order to establish a land corridor to the Crimea from the Russian border. That would mean any or all of the following would also be at risk. Luhans’k, Donets’k, Zapurizhzhya, and Kherson.
Just depends at this stage on what Putin thinks he can get away with wothout major consequences.
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