Has Obama Given Up on Crimea? What One Top GOP Rep. Says the President Told Him

theblaze.com ^ | September 11, 2014 | Fred Lucas

[Tailgunner Joe]

President BarackObama touted American leadership on several fronts during his primetime speech Wednesday, including with Russia.

In a major reversal, Obama ordered the United States into a broad military campaign to “degrade and ultimately destroy” militants in two volatile Middle East nations, authorizing airstrikes inside Syria for the first time, as well as an expansion of strikes in Iraq.

“It is America that has rallied the world against Russian aggression, and in support of the Ukrainian peoples’ right to determine their own destiny,” Obama said in a speech that was primarily about combatting the Islamic State.

But several weeks ago, Obama told lawmakers that Crimea – the Ukrainian territory that Russia claims to have annexed, is “gone,” said Rep. Buck McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

“I was in a meeting in the White House a few weeks ago, and the president was giving us a synopsis of the problems around the world, and I said, ‘You didn’t mention Crimea. Is that just gone?” McKeon (R-Calif.) said during remarks Thursday at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, the Washington Examiner reported.

“Yeah, that’s gone,” Obama responded, according to McKeon.

[RinaseaofDs]

Somebody probably already brought this up, but at the time, the German’s invading the Sudetenland was probably not an issue either, and others may have pointed out that the Tories had bigger fish to fry that carping about the Germans and their adventurism.

History rhymes, you see.

[billakay]

The dead in Chechen and Georgia now Ukraine don't count in minds like yours.

Georgia was a *war* where Russia didn't fire the first shot. Wikipedia puts the Georgian death toll at 405. Hardly mass murder when each side had roughly 10k soldiers in action.

Chechnya? I understand. Its ok for Poroshenko to use force to rein in a breakaway region, but when Putin did it, it was evil and mass murder. I get it. (Also keep in mind that Chechnya is/was an Islamist hotbed).

[billakay]

Russians are taxed by high energy prices that Putin and the other thugs control, taxes have to be low Russians have little left.

Citation please? Gasoline in Russia is cheaper than in the USA. Natural gas? Domestic price is < 25% of what they charge Europe.

[jpsb]

"We should instead realize that our cultures have more in common than different and start working with them to counter the Islamist threat that is common to both of our nations.

Bump!

Has nearly everyone forgotten this?

I haven't. And we want to arm in Syria people that commit these horrid crimes? Really? Russia should and would be our ally if we had a sane leaders not crony globalist criminals in D.C.

[bert]

What would you suggest?

It is a fiat accompli.

Crimea has been reabsorbed.