Posted on 03/10/2014 12:54:40 PM PDT by McGruff
WASHINGTON -- The rallying cry at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference here last week was that President Obama had failed to show strength on foreign policy, but a new CNN poll found that even among Republicans, few support U.S. military involvement -- or even military assistance -- in the Ukraine crisis.
A plurality of respondents (48%) approved of Obama’s handling of the situation in Ukraine, the poll found. That figure was higher than the president's overall job-approval rating, which has hovered in the low 40s.
Russia has sent troops into the Crimean peninsula and encouraged what Obama has called an “illegal” referendum on March 16 that is to decide whether Crimea secedes from Ukraine to become part of Russia.
About 59% of poll respondents said they favored imposing economic sanctions on Russia -- a move that the president put in play last week when he authorized the Treasury secretary to freeze the assets of people found to be involved in subverting Ukraine's democracy or invading its territory.
However, fewer than half, 46%, said they favored providing economic assistance to the Ukrainian government. Secretary of State John F. Kerry traveled to Kiev last week to offer $1 billion in loan guarantees, part of what the administration hopes will be a larger aid package led by European nations.
Some Republicans, most notably Arizona Sen. John McCain and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, have argued that the administration should be taking a more forceful approach. But CNN’s poll numbers indicate there is little public appetite for any sort of military involvement in Ukraine, even among Republicans, after a decade of intense engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
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When she was campaigning and received criticism for fake braids her campaign produced T-shirts that said “the braid is on the inside” meaning she is at heart Ukrainian.
My wife got the opposite treatment when working at TGI Fridays. She would overhear customers remarking that her long braid down her back was fake but it was real.
I have common sense. What would the extra ten thousand troops do for a few years that could possibly have handed a decisive defeat to the insurgents? Hold down a few more districts? Train a few more ANA? Please explain. I’m sure if you ask Petraeus now he would say it wouldn’t have mattered much.
The problems in Afghanistan are political more than military. Our troops have defeated the the Taliban every time they have fought them. The reason the Taliban still has so many supporters is largely because Karzai’s regime is so corrupt and incompetent.
I honestly can’t tell you what a third more troops in the surge would have done. I said upthread that I am not a military person, let alone a General, so I just don’t have the knowledge. All I can say is the Generals (Petraeus) told him they needed 40,000 or it would fail and he only gave them 30,000. He knowingly guaranteed failure right there by supplying only 75% of the requested troops. I not putting blind faith in Generals, but one needs to defer to their requests in matters like these, and not second-guess them as Obastard does to everybody, always (he’s the smartest guy in the room, remember?)
I agree that the biggest problems were political. Politicians lost wars already won by the military plenty of times in history, so this wasn’t the first time. I blame the ROE as the primary factor for the massive increase in casualties. One needn’t be a military expert to know that if you give orders forbidding the return of fire, belligerents will take advantage of that.
I agree 1000%. I worked for and voted for Romney because he was the nominee, but he certainly was not my man.
Not to mention the lessons of history.
Ever since WW II our government has left wars unfinished. Our leaders have left our foes unvanquished.
Unfinished wars never end. We are still at war with North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan and probably Iraq.
If you are going to war it should always be with the uncompromising goal of unqualified victory. I the end your foe should want peace at any price. Anything less is simply a temporary pause in hostilities.
Our war strategy of proportional retaliation is an unqualified failure. I makes us appear weak and foolish to our potential enemies and increases the chances of war.
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