Posted on 03/06/2014 3:11:31 PM PST by SJackson
On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation” to respond to Russia’s invasion of the Crimea region of Ukraine. “You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext,” Kerry stated. He added, “It’s an incredible act of aggression. It is really a stunning, willful choice by President (Vladimir) Putin to invade another country.”
So, what would the United States do about Russian aggression? America would consider dropping its scheduled attendance at the G8 meeting in Sochi, Kerry said: “He is not going to have a Sochi G8, he may not even remain in the G8 if this continues.” And on Monday, the Obama administration got truly tough: It announced that it would not send a presidential delegation to the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi.
Which, of course, had Putin quaking in his boots. Because if there’s one thing a Russian autocrat fears, it’s faculty lounge-style sneering about his unsophistication followed by symbolic withdrawals from meaningless events.
But this sums up the Obama administration in its entirety: When it comes to dealing with America’s enemies, the Obama White House simply assumes that there is no true conflict. After all, who could disagree with an America that has spent five years on bended knee to the rest of the world, that has minimized its influence in the world, and that is planning to slash its military by 30 percent over the next several years? Who could oppose an administration so dedicated to harmony that it is willing to undercut its own allies for the sake of a humbler America on the global stage?
This complete incapacity to understand America’s geopolitical enemies dominated the 2012 election cycle. With the help of the media, the Obama campaign scoffed its way to victory by tut-tutting Mitt Romney’s designation of Russia as America’s chief geopolitical challenge.
That acidic jeering, which cloaks a pathetic naivete, underscored America’s unwillingness to place armed troops in Benghazi.
And that same desperate and ironical urbanity reared its ugly head last week when National Security Adviser Susan Rice blithely informed David Gregory, “It’s nobody’s interest to see violence return and the situation escalate.” When Gregory asked whether Putin sees the world “in a Cold War context,” Rice ignored the question entirely: “He may, but if he does, that’s a pretty dated perspective.”
But that’s the point: If Obama and his staff disagree with a perspective, that doesn’t mean it isn’t real. Wishful thinking won’t make the Palestinians an Israeli peace partner, no matter how much President Barack Obama pressures Israel to make concessions; caustically mocking Putin’s worldview won’t make it any less real or mitigate the Russian threat.
In the ivory tower inhabited by the great intellects of the Obama administration, however, no problem is too big to be thought or talked or surrendered away. If Russia won’t change its perspective, we will simply cut our military more to convince them we mean well; if the Palestinians or Iranians don’t change their perspectives, we will force Israel to negotiate with them in order to prove our goodwill.
Meanwhile, our enemies laugh. And they should. The global battlefield is no place for the Kennedy School political science grad students who inhabit our White House and believe that a well-aimed, snooty barb is a substitute for a muscular foreign policy presence.
“You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext,” Kerry stated.
Like Libya or Syria by proxy for example?
“You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext,” Kerry stated.
Second thought: No, you cut their funding until they install a terrorist group as a government. See Egypt and the attempt at Israel for example.
I call this the "Jon Stewart Liberal." It's all they know how to do.
It’s worse than that. Most of them are faculty lounge wannabe’s, not having the intellectual horsepower to cut it on a real faculty. It’s more like a bunch of freshmen fresh onto campus, newly arrived from their red diaper baby cocoons, gathering after orientation day to smoke a few joints and sort out the worlds problems.
.....While a quiet revolt is underway by the people they claim to rule.
Amateur Hour five years in.
Those who can’t do teach. Those who can’t teach become community organizers.
This administration is a very, very bad joke...a clown car administration running on empty.
But funny, the world's undomesticated wolves don't ever seem to be attuned to the curriculum.
Ben nails it.
These are elites who look down their noses at you from their faculty lounge, ‘ You just don`t get it. Since you`re not one of us enlightened few you never will.’
They are Solipsists .
The only reality there is is between their ears. All other facts, reality, are wrong,irrelevant. Only they possess the truth.
But, if you pin down their definition of truth ( radical totalitarianism ) they`ll deny it and use semantics to deflect by redefining the words they are using and then claim you are wrong. If you nail the definitions they are thinking of again they will once more re-redefine their words.
There is no use or advantage to be gained by engaging or debating these solipsists, you`ll never win.
Actually Kerry’s attitude is pretty racist when you think about it. It’s like he’s saying, “We thought the Russians were white, civilized Europeans.” They’re acting like those Arab and African guys.
When you get to the core of it, white libs are like that with everyone/thing not ‘like them’.
Ever notice they push the ‘all are equal’ meme but refuse to hold them to any standards? It’s because they believe they are too stupid. And they believe they are not capable of behaving to the ‘white standard’ of liberalism. So they treat them as stupid children and pets to be used when needed but given no respect.
No one seems to realize that. But think about it in every day situations from black crime to muzzie terror. Why are they not held to standards and instead excused/rationalized? Because libs are displaying racism.
Racist. Racist. Racist. Racist. Racist. Racist. Racist. Racist. Racist. Racist. Racist. Racist. Racist. Racist.
Man, I just had to get that out of my system.
This is what happens when the good guys don't have gunboats.
Years ago, Newsweek did an article on how candidates for the White House come up by various distinctly-outlined roads.
One way is charisma and engagement with the public. They gave Pat Buchanan and Jesse Jackson as the best available contemporary examples of that kind of pol.
The other is by being part of The Club, the Rotarians they called them, guys who climb the ladder rung by rung and wait their "turn" to make a bid. Their example: Bob Dole.
The last and newest is what they called Mandarins (hat tip to Noam Chomsky, for his coinage "new Mandarins"). They substitute a check system (UMC parents and preschool? Check. Harvard? Check. Prep school? Check. Postgrad at JFK or Georgetown Law? Check.) that substitutes credentials, ticket-punching at the right times and places, for experience and judgment.
The "Mandarins" are basically hothouse Permanent Ruling Class waiting for their grants of Unanswerable Power, and they need to be systematically excluded from public office, elective or appointive.
think submarines
In the 1940's, Harry Truman used the Iowas in just this way. When the Turkish ambassador to the U.S. died in D.C. while the Turks were trying to fight off a Communist "war of national liberation" (so were the Greeks) started by the Soviets, HST made a point of sending the ambassador's body home with honors ..... aboard the battleship Missouri, which proceeded to swing at anchor in the Golden Horn for several weeks, as a message to the Russians.
It’s remarkable that a representative for the party of election fraud is caught off guard when it encounters a third party that is also unwilling to follow the rules of ethical behavior.
-— They substitute a check system (UMC parents and preschool? Check. Harvard? Check. Prep school? Check. Postgrad at JFK or Georgetown Law? Check.) that substitutes credentials, ticket-punching at the right times and places, for experience and judgment. -—
That’s part of it. Another part is the Democrats’ perpetual need for a secular savior. Since no one can meet that standard, a new one is always needed.
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