There is one aspect to this whole thing that has been mentioned before on other threads but not (I think) on this one, and I’d like to get your take on it:
Russia sat by and watched the US bomb its ally Serbia in the 1990s, bomb Serbia and kill a lot of Serbians. All to achieve what goal? To allow a bunch of Albanian Muslims to conquer a huge piece of Serbian territory. Russia sat back and let it happen, and did not threaten war with the US.
Now the shoe is on the other foot and many of us in the US are outraged. In fact, when I think of things from the Ukrainian point of view, I myself am outraged. I feel for the plight of the Ukrainians and view the situation as a Russian boot on the neck of the Ukrainians.
But from a geopolitical perspective, what the US did in Kosovo was far worse. We facilitated the MUSLIM takeover of NONMUSLIM land. And we slaughtered a bunch of NONMUSLIMS, raining death from the sky.
While I feel bad for those Ukrainians who are losing their sovereignty, at least they are not losing it to a bunch of USA-facilitated MUSLIMS.
What we did in Kosovo is far worse. Whether that means we should sit back and do nothing now (the way the Russians did then) is open to question. But what is not open to question is this: we should recognize our own duplicity on the subject of territorial annexations.
In general, I think it comes down to two leaders of global superpowers doing what leftists do. Clinton was acting long term seeing the growth of islam and thinking he could harness it. Obama does nothing unless told by whatever force controls him...likely still thinking they can harness Islam and Putin is half Russian patriot, half power lust with an eye toward becoming the man who reunites the Russian, not Soviet Empire.
I think he has his own plans that may draw from communism, but are not communism. Just good old powerandcontroluism.
America cannot take moral high ground anymore. Clinton and Obama flushed it. that is the reality it will take decades to mitigate. And we will never again hold any trust because of it.
It pisses me off to say it, but I believe it and I think the facts show it. People can whine “oh thats hate America crap”. No. I don’t hate my country. I hate what libs did with it and the GOP allowed to happen.
Well, I didn’t vote for Clinton. I never supported the airstrikes in Serbia either. Not only that, but Clinton was exceeding his Constitutional authority at the time. My only regret is that the American people chose such a President to lead my country.
So I reject the idea that I or some conservative President succeeding Obama can’t take the moral high ground because someone we never supported did something we never supported. Reagan didn’t let Carter’s old policies tie up his Presidency, Bush didn’t get strung up by Clinton’s misdeeds, and neither will I.
In my view, only Constitutional treaties and legislation ratified by Congress and signed by the President are not transcient between Presidential terms. Clinton never got Congress’s permission for Kosovo, he just invoked executive authority and did it himself. Breaking the War Powers Resolution passed by Congress along the way.
He also ignored Congress and intervened abroad repeatedly even when Congress explicitly told him not to. Haiti, anyone? Clinton was acting unconstitutionally beyond the Powers he was granted upon electoral victory. Because of this, I wouldn’t feel duplicitous at all supporting a different President who did everything he could to stop other countries from doing what Clinton and Obama did.
I fully expect a future conservative President to refuse to apologize for past Presidents and do whatever he can to stop countries from supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, support the return of secularism in the Middle East and prevent other countries from doing their own Kosovo’s and Arab Springs.
Would it seem duplicitous on the part of the United States when just a few years ago, the United States itself was doing the opposite of these things? I would say...not at all. Because the President was abusing his authority, lacking Constitutional power or explicit permission from Congress to do what he did. On top of that, conservatives never voted for him, nor did conservatives ever support what he did.