Posted on 03/17/2014 12:46:18 AM PDT by kingattax
Sen. John McCain returned from a trip to Ukraine on Sunday, calling for "a fundamental re-assessment" of the United States' relationship with Russian Vladimir Putin.
“No more reset buttons," McCain told Candy Crowley on CNN's "State of the Union." “No more reset buttons, no more ‘Tell Vladimir I’ll be more flexible.’ Treat him for what he is. That does not mean re-ignition of the Cold War. But it does mean treating him in the way that we understand an individual who believes in restoring the old Russian empire.”
McCain, who has been critical of the Obama administration's response to the crisis in Crimea, said the White House should target Russia's oil exports.
"Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country,” McCain said. “It’s kleptocracy, it’s corruption. It’s a nation that’s really only dependent upon oil and gas for their economy. And so economic sanctions are important. Get some military assistance to Ukrainians, at least so they can defend themselves. Resume the missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. Look at Moldova and Georgia, both of whom are occupied by Russian troops as we speak, a path toward membership in NATO.”
Speaking in Kiev with a delegation of fellow U.S. senators on Saturday, McCain called for the United States to provide long-term military support — both "lethal and non-lethal" equipment — to Ukraine. "[It is] the right and decent thing to do," McCain said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
What a diplomatic moron. And this guy wants to tell ME how to be a Republican?
Go join the Democrats, mckook.
If anyone alive today deserves the title of warmonger, it’s He’d invade Canada to get snow.
Gee, I hope McCain is proposing a more adversarial stand-offish relationship. Only an “ignorant” individual who doesn’t understand the genius of “smart policy” would take that position.
Not “is”, Isn’t.
Yeah, a gas station run by a bunch of paranoids with more than a little show of hostility...
Ethnic Russians have such an impeccable pedigree when it comes to being both paranoid and hostile. That they now have a highly valuable commodity with which to exert economic pressures and blackmail is, for them, just a plus.
No, the territory that was once known as “the United States of America” should not and does not have to engage in a distance-and-direction urination contest with the territory once known as “the Soviet Union”. Invariably, we end up facing into the wind on that one.
Simply keeping it as a competition for whom is better able to supply natural gas to northern and eastern Europe at an economically feasible price (by vastly expanding LNG as a transportation medium), the North American continent could greatly undercut the Eurasian conglomerate on both price and influence in the local hegemon.
LNG is going to be the bridge fuel that takes the world well into the 22nd Century, as petroleum took us through the 20th Century. Thorium molten-salt reactors for power generation and processing of sea water into potable supplies of fresh water, and plasma-arc trash reduction technology, are the means by which the environment will be cleaned up. Present-day accumulation of various waste streams will be converted into new sources of economic growth and plenty, the greatest means of reducing poverty the world has ever seen.
Now we have a thread criticizing McCain not for the merits of this position but directed against the man. No one is more opposed to John McCain that I am but we must get out of this dangerous habit of dismissing opinion and even fact because of we repudiate the source. I've read McCain's remarks and find nothing to repudiate even as I repudiate the man. McCain was careful to say, "That does not mean re-ignition of the Cold War." In that context, who can argue with his main point:
"Crimea has exposed the disturbing lack of realism that has characterized our foreign policy under President Obama," McCain wrote. "It is this worldview, or lack of one, that must change."
Pat Buchanan can be right about domestic or foreign policy issues even if he is wrong about Israel. John McCain can be right about our policy being exposed for a "lack of realism" even as he is wrong about Syria or about domestic policy issues too numerous to catalogue.
Whatever happened to debating the merits?
Gee, Juan McLame, spare us your puerile insights.
I have been there many times. Many times. They are an incredible people. You cannot admire a wall hanging in their home, or they take it down and insist you have it. They will prepare so much food that you would get sick trying to eat it all. They would give you the shoes from their own feet if you looked like you needed them.
Do not confuse the leadership with the people of Russia. You simply have no idea. They give new meaning to the word hospitality. While there adopting a child, this child told people at the park that she was being adopted and was with her new parent from America. That night tons of food showed up at the apartment where they were staying - many babushka knocked on the door holding steaming dishes of food they had prepared. In a poor region too.
Yes, Yes, Yes. Come on Michigan. You can do it.
No Republican in his right mind would talk to that biased blimp.
I am embarrassed to say I once voted for this clown for President.
I did not say all Russians were paranoid and hostile. I said the “gas station” is run by individuals who were paranoid and hostile.
The faction that has both these characteristics normally gravitates to the leadership positions within the region generally known as “Russia”. In Sicily, the general population of people is also extremely generous with what they have, but the locality is controlled by the members of the Mafioso, and the reputation far precedes them. As Sicily is controlled by gangsters, the current Russian Federation is also controlled by gangsters.
Much like Chicago, home base for the Current Occupant now squatting in the White Hut.
Chicago is the next Detroit. And Detroit and all of Michigan are coming back. Thanks to the comeback kid. (sorry, I grew up there and am so happy to see the progress in Michigan)
You nailed it.
The problem is he thinks Obama is Ronald Reagan.
McCain must be kidding, right? And Russia is more than an oil producer, its a leading industrial and military superpower.
We’re slashing our military to the bone while Putin has been rebuilding the Russian armed forces. Plus, he humiliated the West without firing a shot.
Finally, what is McCain going to do about it?
It is funny. I do wish he (McCain) didn’t have any power, though.
This is the guy who wouldn’t lay a glove on Obama during his election campaign and who told us we had nothing to fear from him.
I am still waiting for McCain’s apology and I don’t think I’ll ever get it.
In listening to him, I just wish he would shut up and go away. Tha’s how I feel about debating his views on the merits.
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