Posted on 03/19/2014 7:01:33 PM PDT by tcrlaf
Surrendering to Russia's inexorable seizure of Crimea, Ukraine announced plans Wednesday for mass troop withdrawals from the strategic peninsula as Moscow-loyal forces seized control of Kyiv's naval headquarters here and detained its commander.
Attempting to face down the unblinking incursion, Ukraine said it would hold joint military exercises with the United States and Britain.
Hours after masked Russian-speaking troops forced their way onto Ukraine's main naval base here, forlorn Ukrainian soldiers streamed out carrying clothing and other belongings in bags. A group of local militia and Cossacks, later joined by officers from Russia's Black Sea Fleet, looked on.
Just how many retreating troops Ukraine will have to absorb in what amounts to a military surrender of Crimea was unclear. Many servicemen have already switched sides to Russia, but authorities said they were prepared to relocate as many as 25,000 soldiers and their families to the Ukrainian mainland.
(Excerpt) Read more at vancouversun.com ...
One thing is clear - the Ukrainians are not Chechens.
Thanks for the ping. Wonder how many will stay in Crimea. Tough situation for them.
Looks like Putin has marched into his Rhineland, next into his Austria, then his Czechoslovakia, and God help him if he thinks he’s going to go into Poland again. Clinton already gave us “peace in our time”, like Chamberlain did. That funny guy with the uniform and mustache said later; “He was such a nice fellow, that when he asked for my autograph, I gave it to him.” So many parallels here. Anyone who is elderly in the Ukraine is probably thinking, “these are not the same Americans that helped us in the early 30’s.” They would be 110% correct too.
If Putin plans to rebuild the Russian Empire and make himself the new Czar, and tries to rebuild the Russian Empire with Orthodox Christian values and displace the Muslim invaders from the south, and godless atheist from the west, I wish him the best of luck, but if he wants to rebuild the atheist paradise, the Soviet Union, we’ll have to stop him.
So yeah, I’m a white Russian conservative, who doesn’t like Bolsheviks.
In the first years following Glasnost, there was chaos - and an abundance of 'Western crony capitalists, including Americans..." with Al Gore at the head of the list.
Ole Al had/s many less than stella Russians and communist connections, inherited from his father - one of whom was often in the Gore home when he as a boy - Armand Hammer.
These 'crony capitalitsts' oozed into Russia to establish businesses, syphoning/pocketing the profits while paying their Russian employees a pittance.
It took time, but most of these scumbags slowly got pushed out...
Buchanan, if he were in Russia during those first years, could hardly have missed seeing JUST what he said he did...a mad influx of foreigners in a grab for the gold.
It’s just history repeating itself, as it does so often.
I can’t get upset about the Crimea. (Charge of the Light Brigade. Been going on since 1853.) Some regions of the world are just perennial hotspots.
No, we should not commit troops here. Or anywhere.
Good old George Washington: “Avoid foreign entanglements.”
No more Wounded Warriors. No more armless legless vets. No more young dads who can’t recognize their own children.
I am sick and tired of foreign wars.
Who said “I looked into Putin’s eyes and saw his soul”?
GWB did.
However George didn’t report if he saw flames too.
Why?
the Crimeans have had 'tough situation' under the Ukraine.
THe Crimeans history is as Russians, They speak Russian, consider themselves Russian.
Ukraine was moving to put Ukraine AND Crimea under NATO and the EU.
The Crimeans petitioned Russia to protect them and let them again be made part of Russia.
Did Putin 'invade' or 'occupy' Crimea, or, at Crimea's request, enter the country and align the troops along the Ukraine border to protect the Crimeans, giving them time to have their LEGAL Referendum?
Question: If Putin had 'invaded' Crimea as an enemy, why was there not one shot fired? Why did he position his troops up along the Ukraine border?
Why does everyone still dutifully swallow whatever the politicians and their lap dog media spout? Is there no independent thinking or research - or knowledge of history anymore?
And why is our dear leader so adamant against this and so protective of Ukraine? Could it be connected with Turkey's call to all muslims to come to the aid of their Brothers (the Muslim Brotherhood) in the Ukraine?
Putin fights AGAINST these jihardists. Our dear leader fights for them.
Our media covers for dear leader.
Our Sheeple swallow the hogwash.
We were never going to get involved in a war with Russia.
And Crimea is simply not a vital interest for us. The Ukrainians are in the same position Finland found itself in after it lost two wars to Russia. Like Finland, it will have to live without some of its territory.
But that beats being carved up by Russia.
We are a superpower; Crimea just is not worth sacrificing American lives over. And unless we want to take over the naval base at Sevastopol in perpetuity, there is no way we could defend it. We’d be occupying a primarily Russian population that would hate our guts. After Iraq and Afghanistan, Americans are in no mood for another draining foreign occupation.
What is worse is that Russia ain’t much to write home about either.
That’s a part of the world we would do well to stay out of. There is a time for war but that time hasn’t arrived. What the Russians did is well what countries do when they have a score to settle and while we don’t appreciate their brute force falling upon a weaker country, we really couldn’t do anything about it. And I’m reminded here of the old, true and trite saying to the effect, “God helps those who help themselves.” No one ever said the world was fair.
Pretty much the same as the Balkans...”Not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian Grenadier.”
The Crimean is Russian only because the Soviets moved the Tartars out and Russians in, mostly in the 1950.
Crimea is Russian like Burbank is Mexican
Stalin did that in the 1940s by deporting all the Tartars and resettling the peninsula with ethnic Russians. Its kind of a Little Russian Island. Its demography, history, language and culture are vastly different from mainland Ukraine. Kiev held it with great difficulty in good times but the Maidan upheaval in February gave Crimean Russian separatists their long-sought after opening. Khruschev could not undo Stalin’s handiwork.
There have been reports of mass defections of Ukrainian troops in the East as well (especially Russian speakers and those who are Russian, as well as Communists). However, it appears that the Maidans are raising a National Guard and militia units to replace those who defected to Russia.
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