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How Obama’s White House Lost Ukraine in a Few Stupid Steps
Yahoo News ^ | 4-22-2014 | Patrick Smith

Posted on 04/21/2014 10:05:06 PM PDT by tcrlaf

No one wants to say so, but the Obama administration has backed the wrong horse in Ukraine, and the misguided wager is a big loss. It is hardly the president’s first failure on the foreign side, but it may prove the costliest of his many to date.

For a while it was possible to pretend, just barely, that supporting the coup against Viktor Yanukovych, the elected president hounded into exile in February, would prove a sound judgment. Obama always came across as a welterweight in the ring with Vladimir Putin, simply not up to the Russian leader’s command of all available moves. But one could imagine Secretary of State Kerry clearing an exit corridor with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

For a while it looked as though the provisional government in Kiev might prove worthy of bailout funds from the U.S., the European Union, and the International Monetary Fund, despite the new regime’s legitimacy problems. Putin took (back) Crimea and prompted little more than impotent bleating, true. But there was hope that this new bunch could hold together what remained of the nation at least until the elections scheduled for May 25.

It is all by the boards now. Regardless of how you may construe these past six months in Ukraine, we have just watched a failed effort to wrest the nation straight out of Russia’s sphere of influence and insert it into the West’s. It is now easy to conclude that the second-term Obama White House has not one foreign policy success to its credit and none in prospect.

Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Mideast, Syria, China, and probably Iran in coming months: Nothing ad hominem here, but figuratively speaking, the failure-prone Kerry has crashed more helicopters in the desert than Jimmy Carter ever ordered airborne.

(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: agitprop; obama; obamaforeignpolicy; obamaukraine; putin; putinsbuttboys; russia; secstatekerry; ukraine; ukrainecrisis
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Reality is starting to intrude into some US media coverage of events in Ukraine.

They must all be racist enemies of the Obamunist State that hate the idea of black president, right??

1 posted on 04/21/2014 10:05:07 PM PDT by tcrlaf
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To: tcrlaf
No one wants to say so, but the Obama administration has backed the wrong horse in Ukraine...

Has he ever backed the right horse (Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Syrian rebels, etc.) ???

2 posted on 04/21/2014 10:07:53 PM PDT by BlessedBeGod (Democrats are Cruz'n for a Bruisin' in 2016.)
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To: tcrlaf

I’m not about to hogwash Obama, but it is kind a difficult to choose if your choices are either communists, nazis and a boxer of undefined affiliation.


3 posted on 04/21/2014 10:11:47 PM PDT by wetphoenix
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To: tcrlaf

We been backing the wrong horse. Putin is not the villian here. Ukraine gov was exiled by fascist forces and we were backing that


4 posted on 04/21/2014 10:11:52 PM PDT by 4rcane
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To: tcrlaf

Rocket Scientists. Feel the Africa. How could they ever make a misstep?


5 posted on 04/21/2014 10:14:11 PM PDT by FreeperCell
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To: tcrlaf

There was no need for this BS. No matter what agreement Ukraine planned to sign with Russia, the EU could have simply stopped charging Ukraine any tariffs or unfavorable trade conditions, demanding nothing from Ukraine in return.
They could open their borders to Ukrainian immigration, demanding nothing in return.

NO one sided deals you say? The free market could have done its magic and the EU would have watched their Ukraine trade explode. And the EU owes Ukraine a one sided deal based upon the way the Nazis ravaged what was left of that nation after the 1930s soviets.
A generous move like that would have also pressured the Russians to offer Ukraine even better terms.

But of course, this was never about making life better in Ukraine, was it?


6 posted on 04/21/2014 10:16:44 PM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: tcrlaf

Aka obama is not acting stupid — he is entirely anti-American on purpose. In his mind we all are deserving of punishment and should be taken down several undeserved pegs in affluence and world standing.

Aka obama is a treasonous b@astard who should be arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced and executed for high treason against the Constitution and the American people, all per the rule of law, natch’.


7 posted on 04/21/2014 10:19:00 PM PDT by elengr (Benghazi betrayal: rescue denied - our guys DIED - treason's the reason obama s/b tried then fried!)
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To: tcrlaf

It was never his to lose.


8 posted on 04/21/2014 10:19:21 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: All

“No one wants to say so”

so we have decided to no longer be critical of the president. how friggin sad.


9 posted on 04/21/2014 10:24:07 PM PDT by willywill
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To: tcrlaf

boxed obamas ears...


10 posted on 04/21/2014 10:27:31 PM PDT by Understand the stimulus
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To: 4rcane

Putin IS the villian here. Putin is at the least an autocratic dictator, at worst a neo-Soviet communist KGB thug who is hell bent on not only restoring the USSR but achieving what the USSR1 could not... Subjugating the West.


11 posted on 04/21/2014 10:28:42 PM PDT by Thunder90 (All posts soley represent my own opinion.)
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To: tcrlaf

You can’t lose something that you never even had the skills to be in the running for in the first place.


12 posted on 04/21/2014 10:29:22 PM PDT by Free Vulcan (Vote Republican! You can vote Democrat when you're dead...)
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To: Thunder90

What is left of the “west” in Europe? The EU is more commie than Russia is. Urkraine is not our problem. If we want to get riled up about a foreign dictator, we should focus on what is happening to the people fighting tyranny in Venezuela.


13 posted on 04/21/2014 10:31:31 PM PDT by Pining_4_TX (All those who were appointed to eternal life believed. Acts 13:48)
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To: tcrlaf

Real simple, Putin hates muslims!!

The one in the White Hut and the ones in Ukraine!


14 posted on 04/21/2014 10:32:40 PM PDT by dalereed
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To: Pining_4_TX

~The EU is more commie than Russia is.~

It is a big secret here. As far as Obama is on full steam to make US more commie than Russia too, you just can’t say this or some local ‘conservatives’ would declare you a putinsbuttboy.
On the other hand, they are happy when McCain is siding with Russian communists on Occupy Moscow, down to submitting a Putin-bashing article to Pravda.


15 posted on 04/21/2014 10:41:41 PM PDT by wetphoenix
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To: wetphoenix
but it is kind a difficult to choose if your choices are either communists, nazis and a boxer of undefined affiliation

Sometimes the best move is no move. Pick one of the above choices and you'll automatically make enemies of the other two.

It's sort of like a citizen seeing three drunks yelling at each other in front of a bar. Best to stay out of it.

16 posted on 04/21/2014 10:42:16 PM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: 4rcane
We been backing the wrong horse. Putin is not the villian here. Ukraine gov was exiled by fascist forces and we were backing that

Exactly. I also wouldn't be surprised if we encouraged the fascists to stage their coup.

17 posted on 04/21/2014 10:47:41 PM PDT by Cementjungle
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To: Cementjungle
I also wouldn't be surprised if we encouraged the fascists to stage their coup.

I wouldn't be surprised either. Ukraine couldn't be a pro-US puppet unless it had a pro-US puppet government. And why should Obama care if that pro-US puppet government also happened to be fascist? A win is a win, and after Syria Obama needed a win.

18 posted on 04/21/2014 11:00:30 PM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: Thunder90

Putin is much better than Obama in every way. Putin is no commie. Have you checked out Russian taxes? Western Europe is more Commie than Russia


19 posted on 04/21/2014 11:42:58 PM PDT by 4rcane
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To: 4rcane

Putin is pro Christianity, anti abortion, pro low taxes. So many US Conservatives still throw around Commie label against Russia/China as if we’re still in the 1980s. Today’s Russia/China is more capitalistic than America.


20 posted on 04/21/2014 11:47:22 PM PDT by 4rcane
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