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Obama, Ukraine and the Price of Weakness
Commentary Magazine ^ | March 2, 2014 | Jonathan S. Tobin

Posted on 03/02/2014 2:42:09 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife

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1 posted on 03/02/2014 2:42:10 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Monroe Doctrine Dead; Putin "Sudetenland" Corollary to Brezhnev Doctrine Alive and Well
2 posted on 03/02/2014 2:57:25 AM PST by ScaniaBoy (Part of the Right Wing Research & Attack Machine)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

We could begin by dealing with this Russian warship now sitting in Havana harbor. Why is no one incensed by this?


3 posted on 03/02/2014 3:42:37 AM PST by wayoverontheright
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To: wayoverontheright

So, who do you think will take “Best Director”?


4 posted on 03/02/2014 3:46:24 AM PST by NY.SS-Bar9 (Those that vote for a living outnumber those that work for one.)
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To: wayoverontheright

Considering that Putin (a brutal dictator who more than dabbles in communism) is less anti-freedom and anti-American than Obama, I’m happy to see just about anything Putin does that weakens Obama further.


5 posted on 03/02/2014 3:47:14 AM PST by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

The First Moslem Tyrant-by-Pelosi’s-Perjury
is ONLY interest in Islam and his Caliphate.

The US position in the world under the Tyrant-Fraud
means nothing to his Excellency
except as a way for his Moslem Brotherhood
to murder/rape/behead more Americans
and Christians/Jews EVERYWHERE.


6 posted on 03/02/2014 3:51:50 AM PST by Diogenesis
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Yeah, our communist in chief really put the fear of God into Putin by gutting our military strength.

Now he comes for our guns while increasing the militaristic power of his favored liberal agencies like the IRS, Homeland Security....etc.

What’s up is down.......


7 posted on 03/02/2014 4:03:38 AM PST by DH (Once the tainted finger of government touches anything the rot begins)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Russians don’t think like Americans or anyone else for that matter.

I’m shocked Obama is simply allowing this to happen. A revitalized Russia is so dangerous, especially with China’s assent. One day Russia and China will fight over Siberia and eastern Russian, but for now, they have common cause and are making the most of a weak US.

Last week, a Chinese admiral said there would be blood. They don’t say these things for squeeks and giggles. He meant it. They have too many males and a big rural poverty problem besides a soon to be noticed yuan devaluation, banking problem and derivitives exposure.

This is a bigger move than just Ukraine. It’s geopolitical chess and Obama is still learning to match puppies and kittens with flashcards. Those pipelines are going to be owned by our enemies and so will the oil. Iran is playing with the US and Syria is part of this board.

Obama and Jarette are so far out of their depth, we are all going to drown.


8 posted on 03/02/2014 4:13:13 AM PST by OpusatFR
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To: DH

“Now he comes for our guns”

Note first thing the Ruskies did in the Ukraine. See any difference? I don’t. His excellency does it by stealth, Putin did it directly.


9 posted on 03/02/2014 4:14:33 AM PST by Mouton (The insurrection laws perpetuate what we have for a government now.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

10 posted on 03/02/2014 4:16:26 AM PST by Diogenesis
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
The first, middle and last question that should be asked about this latest and all “foreign crisis” to beset the Obama regime is; WHAT IS IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE UNITED STATES?

It has been a long time since question has been asked by anyone sitting in the White Hut. At least 4 administrations.

11 posted on 03/02/2014 4:25:13 AM PST by Tupelo (I feel more like Philip Nolan every day)
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To: OpusatFR
......This is a bigger move than just Ukraine.....

Obama and his WH adviser John P. Holdren (they're all of like-mind) believe that the world will be SAFER when the U.S. is de-developed and diminished on the world stage; that it is desirable that other countries gain while we lose status. [I guess Russia and China didn't get that memo. In reality they recognize how to fill a power vacuum when it is gift wrapped and sealed with big wet kisses].

12 posted on 03/02/2014 4:58:30 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

The Crimea is a special case - after all, the territory IS mostly ethnic Russian and Russia does have a case in protecting its interests and the people who live there.

A Russian attack on Ukraine itself would be a completely different matter but the West would be powerless to respond - its decadent, flabby and weak. People who want to be its friends are advised not to repose a great deal confidence in it.

That was the Maidan revolutionaries and the Western Ukrainians big mistakes - for which they’re now facing Russian wrath. Moscow’s not too subtle message is reject us and face the consequences. Join with us and you will have influence, peace and security.

Its one not being lost on the Ukrainians. In the end, they may have to capitulate to the Bear because they have no real options and the West isn’t going to be there for them. But the reason they would want to choose a future with Russia is because Russia is the only country that can protect as well as punish them. In a dangerous world - an enemy as good as his word is also the kind of ally you want to have as a friend.

What does the West offer Ukrane really? And Moscow’s other side is it can offer a lot of money, inducements and trade to sign up with them. Poor Jonathan Tobin and a lot of Westerners who wax high on platitudes need to go back and read their Machiavelli. “Its better to be feared than to be loved.” The bottom line is Vladimir Putin knows exactly how win respect for his country.

We should give it a try sometime.


13 posted on 03/02/2014 5:00:05 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: NY.SS-Bar9

Best Dictator? I didn’t know that was a category. There would seem to be a clear front-runner, though.


14 posted on 03/02/2014 5:00:52 AM PST by 22202NOVA ("Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage." -- H.L. Mencken)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
But it is not too late to reverse the U.S. retreat from the world stage that has been going on in the last years. President Obama can begin to regain some of his credibility by taking a strong stand on sanctions against Russia and sticking to it.

He's joking, right? This is Zero we're talking about here.

15 posted on 03/02/2014 5:02:04 AM PST by Hardastarboard (The question of our age is whether a majority of Americans can and will vote us all into slavery.)
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To: goldstategop
South China Morning Post: Russia facing 'second Chechnya' if its military invades Crimea, expert says "..................Russia has put its combat planes on alert and has begun new training exercises, moves that prompted speculation of an impending invasion similar to the one into Georgia in 2008.

But all-out invasion of Ukraine appears unlikely at present given that even if Russia were to win, it would face years of costly and bloody insurrection.

Taking over just Crimea appears, at least initially, to be less risky given that more than half the population is ethnic Russian. As a peninsula, Crimea would be theoretically easy to defend.

But a Russian takeover of Crimea could be disastrous in the long run. The Kremlin would be underestimating the impact of the sizeable population of Tatars who were forcibly deported from Crimea by Josef Stalin in 1944 and not allowed to return until the beginning of political and economic reform in the 1980s.

Sutyagin, who is at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, said: "The Tatars are very anti-Russian. They will do anything not to be under the Russians. They will be determined to fight for Ukraine. It would be a second Chechnya."

Many of the soldiers fighting in the Ukrainian army are ethnic Russians but Sutyagin said loyalty to the idea of an independent Ukrainian state would top their ethnicity. "The entry of Russian troops would be a deep humiliation for Ukraine. Ukrainians do not want to be occupied. It is a mistake by Russian politicians who think ethnic Russians are Russian," Sutyagin said."

16 posted on 03/02/2014 5:09:03 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Hardastarboard

America will do nothing. Ukraine is the Russians’ backyard - if they want to slap it silly, who is going to stop them?

And what is amusing to the Russians is the high minded dungeon from countries that once ran empires. The Russians still know hard power ultimately is the best instrument of asserting real influence.

They don’t care if they burn their bridges to the West - but they will obtain the respect they think they rightly deserve and aren’t about to let upstart Ukraine spit in their face. There is a method in Vladimir Putin’s seeming madness and its one that may pay them dividends.


17 posted on 03/02/2014 5:12:24 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Hardastarboard
"One of the leaders of Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Cemil, said that the Majlis, the Tatar's ethnic parliament in Crimea, would never negotiate with illegitimate Crimean separatist authorities.

Moreover, according to him, Crimean Tatars have already begun to organize themselves into voluntary self-defense units, who may be given weapons.

"The Majlis will fight, even if we have to be engaged in a violent confrontation with the invaders. We are now creating units of Crimean Tatars who are ready for an active fight.

These units will be armed if they get the status of an Ukrainian state formation. They could be put under command of some Ukrainian police or army department. Then they will get weapons. Negotiations are underway on this", said Cemil.

It is to be recalled that on February 26, thousands of Crimean Tatars seized all approaches to the local Crimean parliament, counteracting Russian extremists and separatists.

Meanwhile, for the first time since the invasion of Crimea by Russian troops, western officials acknowledged the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

"Obviously, there is a Russian military intervention in Ukraine. Their likely immediate aim is to set up a puppet pro-Russian semi-state in Crimea", said Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt.

Until then, no western leader, including Obama (whose position looks frankly shameful), has admitted the obvious the fact of Russia's military attack on Ukraine by their seizure of Crimea." Kavkaz Center

18 posted on 03/02/2014 5:15:48 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

If the Tartars fight the Russians will just expel them to Ukraine.


19 posted on 03/02/2014 5:17:34 AM PST by lodi90
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Consider 1864 when Lincoln sent troops south to recapture the secessionist states. Is Putin marching into Ukraine different than yankee Sherman burning Georgia?


20 posted on 03/02/2014 5:21:29 AM PST by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... History is a process, not an event)
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