Posted on 04/14/2014 12:39:54 PM PDT by tcrlaf
About as weak as Yanukovich :-)
For a polar example look into how the Egyptian strongman, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, dealt with a similar situation:
During the August 2013 Egyptian raids, the Egyptian military under El-Sisi's command joined with the national police in removing camps of Muslim Brotherhood supporters from sit-ins being held throughout the country. This action resulted in rapidly escalating violence that eventually led to the deaths of 638 people, of whom 595 were civilians and 43 police officers, with at least 3,994 injured.
The end result? El-Sisi is still there, and he is not leaving any time soon. This is what a real strongman does to his opponents. Yanukovich is not even close. And besides, why should an elected President be brave and ruthless? He is not a dictator who fears for his life. Democracy presumes voluntary acceptance of things. It was a good decision to walk away; now the population of Ukraine will figure out who came to power, why, and what should be done about that.
Just under half of of voters voted for Yanukovich, the president who was overthrown in the coup. Some of the those people are in Crimea and some of those people will tolerate the new, unelected gov’t, but no one should kid himself that there are not a lot of Ukrainians who do not accept the current gov’t as legitimate. These folks are not all Russian agents.
How would Democrats or Republicans in America act if a coup overthrew their president? Many would not accept it and some would get militant.
This is why fomenting a coup was such boneheaded move.
There is no good reason for America to be involved in Ukrainian politics the way it has been. We have no vital interests there. Our policy of pressuring Ukraine into the EU and NATO has no benefits for us, only liabilities.
“There is no good reason for America to be involved in Ukrainian politics the way it has been. We have no vital interests there.”
The “Interest” was to put pressure on Putin, after he embarrassed Obama, and made him look like a fool, in the wake of the Syrian Incident last year.
Remember all of the articles stating that they would “Get Back!” at Putin for that?
Well, as usual, everything the Radical Obamunist Administration touches turns to crap, just like this.
You sum it up very nicely but sadly will get the usual "Putinista" "Putin Buttboy" or "Westboro member?" from the usual suspects.
I see no love for Putin in your post, just common sense that sadly many here seem to be lacking on this issue.
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