Posted on 07/30/2014 12:14:52 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) echoed Ronald Reagan's famous challenge to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Tuesday when he officially called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to return territory Russia annexed earlier this year back to Ukraine.
"Mr. Putin, give back Crimea," Cruz said at the Young America's Foundation in Washington. "Why is it so unimaginable for President Obama to utter those words?"
Cruz, a potential 2016 presidential contender, has made foreign policy hawkishness a key part of his political brand. Speaking before the group of conservative college students Tuesday, he repeatedly accused Obama of being unwilling to aggressively challenge the United States' geopolitical foes.
"We need to stand up and speak out for freedom," said Cruz. "The words that come from the president of the United States matter. President Reagan demonstrated that. One of the saddest things is President Obama doesn't do that."
Cruz cited Ukraine, where Russia took over Crimea and separatists backed by Moscow are continuing to fight the government, as a specific case where the United States should have a bolder foreign policy.
"Ukraine is a good example to use," said Cruz. "I think we should have done several things immediately. Number one, I think we should have gone forward with installing the anti-ballistic missile batteries ... that were scheduled to go into effect and that President Obama canceled in 2009 in an effort to appease Putin."
Cruz suggested Obama's reluctance to more forcefully fight Putin's push into Ukraine was tantamount to "appeasement."
"It's pretty clear that appeasement didn't work," he said.
Maybe you could set aside the data in front of you and actually travel to the region. You might learn something. And while you're there, you can get your passport stamped, get married, save some souvenir money, buy a coffee mug and a nice refrigerator magnet as I did.
And maybe you should stop repeating yourself, because you are not more persuasive the third time. I will stick with the data, and not someone who, apparently, does not question the results of a clearly fraudulent vote.
And I will stick with the observations I have made from actually traveling there and speaking with the locals.
To each their own, I suppose.
My polls and your stroll are not really opposing, actually. What you say cannot disprove a poll, and a poll would not disprove your neighborhood. If the poll is correct and 56 percent of people oppose annexation, then that means maybe 40 or more percent support it. That is a lot of flags, maybe, and a lot of locals for you to interrogate, and that is pretty close. But you do not prove your majority just by saying you came and saw all this. You can only prove it through an actual legal vote, without which you have no way to confidently claim anything.
That is why Nixon lost in 1972.
Pauline Kael of the New Yorker "I only know one person who voted for Nixon."
Crimea is part of Russia now. As it had been for a long, long time.
It was only by one of Kruschev's diktat that it was assigned to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954.
It is worth noting that when Ukraine voted for independence with 92% in favor, the vote carried Crimea by only 54%.
I'm not willing to dismiss the idea that the current inhabitants are in favor of being part of Russia over Ukraine, even as they preferred being part of Ukraine over being part of the USSR.
Pretty soon most of the southwest will favor being part of Mexico too, that doesn’t make it right
Kael never traveled out to speak with the locals.
Mexicans aren't fleeing Mexico to claim the southwest back for Mexico.
Wouldn't this kind of defeat the purpose of leaving?
I didn’t know that, what was she, quadriplegic and deaf, or something?
She didn’t walk on two legs and talk to humans like you?
I would say that she spent her time talking to people and not keeping up with the polls.
If most of the Southwest does favor being part of Mexico, what does the Declaration of Independence suggest is the proper course? Whence comes your sense of what is right?
From 1845-1854 do you think we were doing to Mexico was right?
I think a substantial part of the people that go through the trouble of migrating here do prefer to be in the U.S. as opposed to where they have taken such pains to leave. In my own opinion the 'Reconquista' propaganda is real, but deserves as much genuine concern as the neo-nazis, etc.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.