Posted on 01/01/2016 1:21:39 AM PST by elhombrelibre
It didn't take long for western media to lose focus. After Russia began its military campaign to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the world largely stopped paying attention to Ukraine. It shouldn't have.
Over the last few months, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been busy trying to deepen the quagmire he created in Eastern Europe. A United Nations' report released in November detailed the degree to which his proxy war in Ukraine has turned the country into Russia's killing field. More than 9,000 people have died since the spring of 2014 after Russia-backed rebels began fighting Kiev for independence, with some 20,000 people wounded. Between Aug. 16 and Nov. 15 alone, 47 civilians were killed and 131 were injured. At 9,000, the death toll in Ukraine is approaching the 13,000 killed during the war in Kosovo.
(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...
You are a disgusting troll. I suggest you disappear fast.
Its the climate that is the number one problem. Remember that!!!
If you wanna know my opinion, ask for it nicely, take your keyboard fingers out of your backside, wash them before posting a comment to me, and wash out your foul mouth. You may then get a civilized conversation.
Can't answer the question, eh? I didn't think so. How you creeps are allowed to remain on this site doing what you do is a mystery to me.
Grain of salt for that one. But it is true that the Shiite Iranians, Assad, Shiites Iraqis, and Hezbollah are all pretty much on one side and Russia is supporting that side. The other side is the rich Sunnis like the Emirates and Saudis and Turkey and of course, ISIS. There is no difference really between the Saudis, our so-called allies, and ISIS other than the Saudis have institutionalized the Islamic State and have no more opposition. The question is whether we tolerate Russia's expansion into the Middle East when it takes the side of the Shiites.
I would argue yes for now. The alternative is the old status quo of Sunni authoritarians suppressing the Shiites and every other religion. If it is contained in non-expansionist regimes like Saudi, that's ok. They have run out of Christians and Jews and people of other religions to kill. But not ISIS, that has been completely unacceptable and we have done little to stop it. Not Muslim Brotherhood and Obama promoted them.
OTOH Shiite dominance isn't good for the long run and nobody knows that more than Israel. They have been threatened by Assad in the past, are threatened by Iran in the present and for them the stable Sunni governments like Jordan's are the least worst alternative. Russia could eventually upset that balance. But it's a longer term threat than ISIS and Muslim Brotherhood and all the other Sunni-funded Sunni extremists are right now.
It's likely that Netanyahu green-lighted Russia's expansion into Syria when he went there last Sept: With Moscow Visit, Netanyahu Signals Era of post-American Middle East where Haaretz says "And yet, one of the most significant geopolitical moments in recent years, Israel's acknowledgement of Russia's return as a major player in the region, took place without American participation"
And as I've pointed out above, they continue to this day, arming and supporting various Marxist dictatorships in Latin America. In addition, they have forged a very close military and economic alliance with the ChiComs, who have also been flexing their muscles of late. They and the ChiComs have been conducting joint military exercises since 2005 in preparation for war with US and our NATO allies.
At least with Ted Cruz we'd have someone fully aware of the complexities of this situation. Trump is either grossly naive or in cahoots with Putin.
"If we want to actually dismantle ISIS, we need to dramatically change course. We need a real, robust campaign that maximizes our overwhelming air advantage.
We need to focus our efforts not on trying to create friends, but on supporting our real ones, especially the Kurds in Iraq and Syria who have actually had success against ISIS."
-snip-
"We can redouble our efforts to develop the defensive weapons that neutralized the offensive Soviet threat -- particularly missile defense, which has seen a 25% budget reduction under Obama, according to an analysis from the conservative Heritage Foundation, and has been constrained by bad arms deals like New START.
We should not only move quickly to install the canceled interceptor sites Putin opposed in Poland and the Czech Republic, but also to develop the next generation of systems that will only increase his discomfiture.
These options do not entail a ground war in Syria, yet would effectively shake us free from the failed policies that have brought us to our current impasse.
These options set us on a new path that puts Putin on notice that the United States is reclaiming our traditional role as leader of the free world."
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/09/opinions/cruz-syria-putin/index.html
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"I think it would be a mistake to get involved in the Syrian civil war. There have been voices in Washington eager for us to send our sons and daughters over to fight that civil war for some time. I haven't been one of them. I think the touchstone of U.S. military policy should be protecting the national security of this country."
"What we're seeing Putin in Russia do is a direct response to the profound weakness of Obama over six and a half years.
Putin views Obama as weak, as ineffective, and frankly, as a laughingstock. And, as a result, he is moving in, he is invading his neighbors, like Ukraine, he's kidnapping Estonians, and he's moving into Syria to gain a stronger foothold in the Middle East."
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Ted Cruz:
"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 his opportunity to intervene.
We are now two years out from President Obama's proposed intervention after al-Assad used chemical weapons against his own people. ..."
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/09/opinions/cruz-syria-putin/index.html
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Republican US presidential front-runner Donald Trump is apparently "honored" that Russian President Vladimir Putin considers the real-estate magnate a "flamboyant" and "very talented" man.
"It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond," Trump said in a statement, according to Politico.
He continued: "I have always felt that Russia and the United States should be able to work well with each other towards defeating terrorism and restoring world peace, not to mention trade and all of the other benefits derived from mutual respect."
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
They need a copy editor to check the facts before they go to press:
” More than 9,000 people have died since the spring of 2014 after Russia-backed rebels began fighting Kiev for independence,”
should read:
More than 9,000 people have died since the spring of 2014 after Western backed rebels overthrew the legitimate Kiev government,”
"Romanian intelligence defector Ion Mihai Pacepa alleged that an operation for the removal of chemical weapons was prepared by the Soviet Union for Libya, and that he was told over thirty years ago by Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, KGB chairman Yury Andropov, and later, Yevgeny Primakov, about the existence of a similar plan for Iraq.
It is 'perfectly obvious', wrote Pacepa, that the Russian GRU agency helped Saddam Hussein to destroy, hide, or transfer his chemical weapons prior to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. 'After all, Russia helped Saddam get his hands on them in the first place.'[13]
John Loftus, director of The Intelligence Summit, said in the November 16, 2007 issue of FrontPage Magazine that many documents from Iraq point to WMD being transferred to other countries such as Syria: 'As stated in more detail in my full report, the British, Ukrainian and American secret services all believed that the Russians had organized a last minute evacuation of CW [chemical] and BW [biological] stockpiles from Baghdad to Syria.'
His researchers allegedly found a document ordering the concealment of nuclear weapons equipment in storage facilities under the Euphrates River a few weeks before the invasion.[14]"
Brown bear in the backseat? Oh, that’s a great metaphor. Thanks for the insight.
Is English your first language and how long have you been speaking it?
So you’re all in for Putin and the Ukrainians have no right to chart their own future? You believe that the Ukrainians couldn’t possibly want to be free of Putin’s influence without the West forcing them or tricking them to want to be an independent nation, right?
Cruz's strength is that he would stand with our allies. Trump said this yesterday "Donald Trump gave South Korea a tongue-lashing on Wednesday, accusing Asia's fourth-largest economy of giving "nothing" to the United States while "making a fortune.""
What you are missing in your calculation is that Trump is borrowing ideas from Cruz (more than from other candidates) and Trump is steamrolling the media. The steamrolling is perfect for Cruz. It clears the path for him. I would not diss Trump, let him do what he wants the way he wants.
They seem to be doing ok with old fashioned knives and bullets. They obtain some of that from McCain and the US army.
I can’t for the life of me understand why these blankity blank Putinistas are allowed to remain on this site. It’s bizarre.
They seem to be doing ok with old fashioned knives and bullets. They obtain some of that from McCain and the US army.
You left off the part about the chemical WMDs being snuck there by Russia.
"ISIS might already have their hands on the WMDs that our 'friends' (according to the FR Putinistas) in Russia snuck out of Iraq and into Syria just prior to the war."
Nor can I. I guess one of the downsides of the collapse of the Soviet Union is that favoring a Russian Empire and the end of human liberty in Russia and its new satellites doesn’t cause the same outrage that being a communist once did. At least on the Right there was little tolerance for communist sympathizers. Now, we have some “conservatives” who apparently favor empire, a Putin-ruled Russian one.
A far bigger threat is Russia giving those chemical weapons back to Assad. They have supplied them in the past, and they blocked attempts to remove Assad's chemical weapon before finally agreeing to help.
With even a minimal amount of imagination one could easily devise ways in which to disperse chemical or biological agents.
Niiiiiiiiiice
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