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.
“You guys act like Reagan is president. The number one value this laughing stock nation of ours now exports is gay rights. Take off your Cold War glasses. We are the commies now.”
No sh*t.
It is political opportunistism. Odinga, Kerry, Hillary, McCain, etc., etc., have no clue about anything, and have no capacity for leadership. They are all just weasels in search of another crisis to exploit for their own gains.
They see a bunch of people moving along with some sense of purpose, however chaotic, and they jump in front pretending to be leaders of some sort.
The people of the Ukraine have every right to govern themselves, without the commies of Russia, and without the commies of the USA interfering.
Putin does not consider Ukraine as sovereign Ukraine economically and strategically is too important to Russia to let go
This will not end well for anyone
Very interesting question.
Yesterday, from Russian sources it was revealed that an Ukrainian navy ship had defected to Russia. It was in the Mediterranean on its way to Crimea. Apparently the new Ukrainian government had asked Turkey to stop the ship's passage through the Straits.
I haven't seen this confirmed by any neutral sources, but if it is confirmed Turkey's response will say a lot of its position in this conflict.
If US troops go into Crimea then they will be attacked by local civilians, since the civilians are pro-Russia. This is not the time to be a Hawk.
Bump
Sasha Beliy - a Ukrainian gangster and a lieutenant of Dimitri Yarosh - a Maidan protest leader.
Here he is attending a session of Vilno regional parliament. Note AK and knives he is using to back his ‘advice’ to vote in a certain way:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xpVXi3kPbAs
This same person again visiting a district attorney. Note how he is using necktie to suffocate attorney and beats his deputy in a face:
Sasha is ‘famous’ for traveling into Chechnya to fight along terrorists. He is advocating ‘Greater Ukraine’ expanding further into mainland Russia and Poland, including killing local Polish and Russian population ‘to make sure no Jews left alive anywhere near’.
I guess Ukies are now happy with their protests. These are guys running the show now.
The only area in which Russians are a majority is Crimea. Ukrainians could give Russia serious problems merely conducting an insurgency, given the size of the country. If Ukraine decides to fight, Russia has just grabbed a hold of a tar baby. Given the capacity of Ukraine for resistance, this might be the war that finally cures Russia of its knee-jerk territorial acquisitiveness. Russia would neither be fighting a band of irregulars (Stepan Bandera) nor the nomadic raiders (Cossacks) of the past, but the organized military of a 50m strong population, with a Russian military that's a pale shadow of its Cold War peak.
Agreed.
Put yourself in Putin’s position.
Look what is to their South and realize how important Crimea is to Russian security.
Look at access to the Black Sea and the route of natural gas supply lines through the Ukraine and tell me Putin is doing anything we wouldn’t do.
Opposed to them are the Russian empire-builders who have never seen a piece of land they did not want to annex, before, during and after Bolshevik rule. Russia's eternal ideology isn't monarchy, communist dictatorship or democracy - it's universal empire under direct Russian rule, under the pretext of a quest for greater security. We were fortunate that they latched on to Afghanistan and, if the Ukrainians are willing to fight, would be well-advised to provide them with the equipment they need to rack up a serious Russian body count. In Afghanistan, they drew the line at 13K dead. I expect today's Russia has a much lower pain threshold.
All of these people have views we can agree with, such as opposition to Putin's statement that "the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century". They presumably wouldn't agree with Lenin statues still being located in Russian public places. Why is it so hard to conceive of other areas that they might have in common with conservatives, such as opposition to Russian empire-building?
That's like saying WWII was an American defeat because the Russians got to install compliant communist regimes in Central Europe. It's a distinct possibility that Putin was looking to overrun and annex Georgia and Bush stopped him. Only Putin knows for sure. In that event, it was a partial victory for both sides.
Thought-provoking post. Thought-provoking thread.
American foreign policy - BIG MESS. From Arab spring to Eastern Mediterranean to Eastern Europe to EU a convoluted quagmire.
Let’s examine their charters of negative liberties side by side with ours and proceed from there.
Band manager Obama. John Kerry on lead guitar, Victoria Nuland on background vocals, (you can fill in the rest of the band)...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuUBCF3KKxc
Send troops to Ukraine. Are you serious?
The Russians aren’t trying to rebuild an empire as you suggest, they’re trying to maintain a perimeter fence line to protect themselves from a bloc of countries with a long history of trying to invade its territory. Russia has legitimate national security interests in the Ukraine, and the United States shouldn’t let itself get drawn in to the middle of what is essentially a European squabble.
Why do we want to stop Putin here? This isn’t the same. Crimea is Russian. Ukraine is the cradle of Russian civilisation and needs to be split in two.
Yeah...Bush, what a great leader. Muslim jihadists take down the WTC and while that gravesite was still smouldering, this idiot responds by taking his shoes off in a filthy DC mosque to declare Islam the ‘religion of peace’(a Brotherhood mosque, we found out later). Then he lets the Saudis off the hook, and starts a beautiful friendship with the Taliban’s BFF Musharraf, yanks a respected hardass general who offended local Muslims in Iraq, and replaces him with the pussy Paul Bremer, lets Al Sadr live, wussifies the ROE....and on and on. Sorry if I am NOT wistful for this neo-Progressive clown.
Thanks for the ping!
True. Very sadly true.
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