Posted on 10/09/2015 9:49:11 AM PDT by VinL
Over the last week, the world has once again looked on aghast as President Vladimir Putin has taken violent advantage of regional instability to re-establish Russia's influence, this time in the Middle East. Despite promises to join the United States in a counterterrorism effort against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Putin is on a mission to protect Russian assets in the Mediterranean by propping up his client, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Ted Cruz Ted Cruz
Meanwhile, the Obama administration has been caught flat-footed as Putin's actions threaten to inflame and destabilize an already acute crisis.
Enough already. We don't need a reset. We need a reality check.
Putin has been unmoved by the Obama administration's threats of isolation on the international stage, and economic sanctions have on their own been no deterrent to his opportunistic behavior. More of the same will not result in success.
We need a coherent plan to address both the specific crisis in Syria and the challenge posed more broadly by Putin's resurgent Russia. The good news is that America still has options -- if our leaders can summon the will to exercise them.
For starters, in Syria we can't double down on the failed strategies that have given Putin [snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Included among US allies, past or present, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq (Saddam Hussein), Lybia (Gaddafi),
Zimbabwe, Dominican Republic (Trujillo), Nicaragua (Somoza),
Haiti (Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier), Soviet Union (World War II), to name just the first few that spring to mind.
Succinctly put, and exactly correct sir. Well done.
Cruz - 2016!
I asked you on another thread whether you oppose only Russian internet trolling or all US trolling too.
“The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.
“A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an “online persona management service” that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.” . . .
“Once developed, the software could allow US service personnel, working around the clock in one location, to respond to emerging online conversations with any number of co-ordinated messages, blogposts, chatroom posts and other interventions. Details of the contract suggest this location would be MacDill air force base near Tampa, Florida, home of US Special Operations Command.”
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks
How about when the UK assigns 1500 soldiers to the task?
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150204/07545529907/british-army-to-create-1500-strong-social-media-propaganda-force.shtml
How about when Israel pays students to do it?
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/08/14/israel-pay-students-propaganda_n_3755782.html?l
Russia has armed and supported enemies while we (the US) were at war with them. And you, who claim to be an American, are ok with that?
“Something is wrong here. Assad is the evil tyrant who must be removed. But in every single measure, he is a child of the enlightenment compared to Saudi Arabia, who we slavishly love and obey. Treatment of women, religious freedom, etc.
Sounds like Saudi and Gulf state money has been sloshing around DC again.”
Nothing to do with “enlightenment”; all has to do with protecting own interests, and the old balance of power thing. If Assad was in the U.S. camp, similar to S. Arabia et al, we wouldn’t have a problem with him.
“Putin” did not shoot down MH17, even US intelligence admitted as far as back as within a month of the crash that it had no evidence of Russian involvement.
The US/Ukraine/NATO is engaged in a massive cover-up about the incident, which is why no ATC tapes nor cockpit voice recorder tapes have been released. As you know, such tapes are customarily made public within days of the such an incident.
Did “President Reagan” shoot down Iran Air 655 in 1988. No, but it is undisputed the US Navy did.
Well, I wish them luck. When they're done rehabilitating Putin, they can go to work for Charles Manson.
I think of all those innocent men, women and children who were on that commercial airliner. They were murdered by a screwball Russian president to divert attention from his domestic incompetence and failures. And, then he lied about it. The looting of the crash site was a special touch, too. What an ugly man.
Yeah, and then Putin lied about the whole thing in such an incompetent way that one would think that he was some sort of disabled child.
I don’t know what you are referring to. For one thing, we must distinguish between and Russia Federation and the former Soviet Union.
For another, if you are referring to Russia’s opposition to US illegal regime change operations such as in Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, Syria, etc., then it is perfectly understandable.
Among the victims were the President of Poland Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria, the former President of Poland in exile Ryszard Kaczorowski, the chief of the Polish General Staff and other senior Polish military officers, the president of the National Bank of Poland, Polish Government officials, 18 members of the Polish Parliament, senior members of the Polish clergy and relatives of victims of the Katyn massacre.
The group was arriving from Warsaw to attend an event marking the 70th anniversary of the [Katyn] massacre, which took place not far from Smolensk.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Polish_Air_Force_Tu-154_crash
**********************************************************
April 2014...
Did Putin Blow Up the Whole Polish Government in 2010?
A Second Look
A plane crash at Smolensk in Russia four years ago wiped out the Warsaw leadership. It used to be seen as an accident. Now, after Putin’s games in Ukraine, people aren’t so sure.
Four years ago this week, Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed in a plane crash near the Katyn Forest in Russia where he was flying to honor the 22,000 Polish officers, lawyers, priests and professors slaughtered there by the Soviets 70 years before. Ninety-five other military, political and public figures including his wife died on that plane. One of the more heartbreaking details to emerge was that First Lady Maria Kaczynska’s body could be identified only by her nail polish and the inscription inside her wedding ring.
Less than two years before the crash the late president had given a speech warning that if Russian aggression was not stopped in Georgia, which Russia had invaded, it would extend to Ukraine, the Baltics, and possibly Poland as well. “We are here to take up the fight,” he said. And many Poles still believe that their president died in the cause of that effort. Physicist Kazimierz Nowaczyk is one of them. ...”
(BIG SNIP)
He makes the case at the link...
Did Putin Blow Up the Whole Polish Government in 2010? A Second Look:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/11/did-putin-blow-up-the-whole-polish-government-in-2010-a-second-look.html
If a human being cannot be moved by the murder of children, what is going on inside that person's head? It has to be a very lonely sort of sickness, one that can't be shared with others because no one else can possibly comprehend it.
Typical KGB/FSB mindset. They have a long history of committing atrocities. Putin was with the KGB for 16 years before being placed head of the modern equivalent of the KGB, the FSB. He served in that position for a year.
The US president is a Russian KGB puppet. How is this fact unknown? What bunch of ignorant people, could deny this fact?
Nice swing. Got any takers?
“If a human being cannot be moved by the murder of children, what is going on inside that person’s head?”
A lot of different people can be, are and have been “moved”. Though, apparently, we are selective what we feel “moved” about. Seems we are “moved” about Polish or even Afghan (muslim) kids when it suits our govt to endlessly publicize their ‘moving experiences’, not when it doesn’t suit.
“Typical KGB/FSB mindset. They have a long history of committing atrocities. Putin was with the KGB for 16 years before being placed head of the modern equivalent of the KGB, the FSB. He served in that position for a year.”
So has the CIA.
I understand your anti-KGB/FSB sentiments. But, over the last 35 yrs, the U.S. has turned a blind eye to atrocities committed (kids included) by the Mullahs Regime in Iran, since Carter supported the Mullahs’ transition to power in Iran, and Reagan didn’t do anything about it either.
As the article says: ““The unique combination of power and principle that has made the United States the greatest force for good on the planet has historically posed a grave threat to repressive bullies.” needs to be applied, in practice and uniformly, to shape perceptions that USA is concerned equally about her interests and ‘human rights’, in that part of the world, and much more compared to Russia.
President Vladimir Putin has taken violent advantage of regional instability to re-establish Russia’s influence
And if Russia doesn’t establish influence in the Middle East, ISIS will. I’d rather have Russia ruling the ME than 8th century fanatics.
Russia moving in under the pretense of ridding the region of ISIS is like the Mafia moving to your neighborhood under the pretense of moving out a violent street gang, then setting up a permanent base there to do Mob “business”.
Russia will grow wealthier, more powerful, more aggressive in their overall expansionist agenda (Eastern Europe, eventually elsewhere), and much more of a threat to the US and its allies throughout the region and the world.
Sure it’s great IF they actually do get rid of ISIS (we shall see). But having a country like Russia step in and gain such huge strategic advantage over the US and its allies is nothing we should be cheering about.
If Obama was serious about wanting to take out ISIS, which I don’t believe he ever was—I think him and Putin are actually in cahoots on this whole thing despite his and Kerry’s public moans and groans about it, it might not ever have come to this. But then Russia would likely have come up with some other rationale or excuse for moving into Syria and taking control of it, and ultimately the entire Middle East. Makes me wonder if ISIS was a KGB-like invention of the Russians, created to give them cover for expanding.
Putin has stated that he believes the demise of the (mass-murdering, communist [my words]) Soviet Union was the "worst geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century". He has also said he thinks Stalin deserves to have statues in his honor. He clearly seeks to restore the old Soviet Union, or something not too far different from it.
So Isis is rabidly Sunni wanting to wipe out the apostate Shia Islam. Assad is Shia, although 70% of his country is sunni. Iran is Shia. The Saudis are Sunni. Isis has taken advantage of Syria’s civil war. Russia wants Assad to stay in power. Our President is partial to the Shiites. And this situation is even more complicated than I think I’ve stated so far.
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