Posted on 09/11/2013 9:37:04 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he was worried about the insufficient communication between Russia and the United States, decided to speak directly to the American people.
In a new opinion piece for The New York Times, he made the case against military strikes in Syria, arguing that the potential conflict would result in more innocent victims and escalation and spread beyond Syria. The Russian leader tried to protect his ally (though he said he was motivated by respect for international law, not concern for Bashar al-Assad), by urging the U.S. not to bypass the United Nations Security Council.
We are not protecting the Syrian government, but international law. We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in todays complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos, Putin wrote.
The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not. Under current international law, force is permitted only in self-defense or by the decision of the Security Council. Anything else is unacceptable under the United Nations Charter and would constitute an act of aggression.
Putin characterized the conflict in Syria, a longtime client state, as an armed conflict between government and opposition in a multireligious country.
The Russian president raised the specter of al Qaeda using Syria as a breeding ground for future terrorists. There are few champions of democracy in Syria. But there are more than enough Qaeda fighters and extremists of all stripes battling the government. The United States State Department has designated Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, fighting with the opposition, as terrorist organizations.
(Excerpt) Read more at tv.msnbc.com ...
From comments:
>>>>Get Real 04commented 52 minutes ago
#6
The Last Word’s “discussion” of Putin and his op-Ed was appalling and left me wondering about your ability to offer any sort of thoughtful treatment of contemporary Russia. You are 2-3 decades behind the times. I am a professor of Russian politics at a major U.S.university, I have lived in Russia and have been regularly visiting it since 1982. I had the good fortune to be the 1st American to conduct an uncensored, live, across-theUSSR, call-in radio program in July 1989, and since then, countless Americans have been heard or read uncensored on TV, radio, and in newspapers. This is true for U.S. leaders and politicians, as well as academics and average citizens like me. To The Last Word’s sarcastic comment about President Obama being able to author an op-Ed in a Russian newspaper that would go uncensored I would reply: YES! Russians have access to our ideas and perspectives, even granting there are real problems with their media! Time to GET REAL about today’s Russia. Having just been in Russia a few weeks ago, I can tell you Russians are aware and upbeat, the middle class is growing, the IMF just moved Russia past Germany as the world’s #5 economy, and even the birthdate is up! We need to move beyond the sort of cartoon-character stereotyping of Russia that was dominant in today’s The Last Word presentation.
I am a regular viewer of The Last Word, I think it is the best political analysis program on American TV, and its treatment of American politics is sophisticated and nuanced. However, its treatment of Russia has been stunningly outdated ad primitive! I am so disappointed.
Watching The Last Word on 9/11/13 reminded me of watching Soviet tv news in September 1982. Russia is not the USSR, and Vladimir Putin is not Leonid Brezhnev!<<<<
Publius911 to Putin : You're right.
Haven't been, for almost 5 years now. But that will change.
Check back around November 2016...
That's right, it is up, the Russians who celebrated their birthdays during cold winter months during Communist times are celebrating them in July now.
LOL, he was probably using his tablet or smartphone:)
Putin does an end-run around President Narcissus Obunga...
Putin is a lot smarter than Bork Obunga.
Putin’s an insincere bastard, but you have to give him credit. He’s trolling all of us with a cold, straight face. This article looks like it could be written by Barack Obama himself, circa 2007.
The only thing exceptional about America today is that we have a government that is running it into the ground. The rot never stops and almost every action is guaranteed to have us asking, What the eff?
Friends from Russia have told me that they refer to V. Putin as “Shark Eyes”. It’s that cold straight face...
When we fail, the world fails. Badly.
Sadly, your nation and its predecessor succeeded in corrupting our institutions. You were part of those efforts, weren't you? The result: the low information voters who elected Obama twice.
Well, the whirlwind about to reap millions of lives across the world is partially your doing, Mr. Putin.
To bad we can turn back the clock, eh?
Can’t turn back the clock. Sigh...
America used to be “exceptional.” But that was back before the country slid into the gutter of corrupt, one-party statism and a noxious culture of depravity. Socialism, fag-marriage, dope, and open-borders. America is a pathetic, embarrassing shell of what it used to be.
President Obama ,needed only to be reminded of Libya Still Struggles
Here’s a look at where things in Libya stand today:
Zeidan’s government appears to be on the verge of collapse. Critics say he has failed to rein in militias and Islamist groups, or to end a strike by workers and guards at oil facilities that has crippled the economy of North Africa’s largest oil producer.
Security
Security is still fragile. A car bomb went off Wednesday near the Foreign Ministry building in Benghazi. There have been drive-by shootings, bombings and kidnappings. The Washington Post reports:
“Even minor disputes escalate into frequent gun violence on the streets. Kidnappings and armed robberies are increasing, and government officials and others have been assassinated with guns and bombs. Militants and arms smugglers easily cross poorly protected borders shared with Niger and Chad.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/npr.php?id=221358412
Is Egypt repeating the same mistakes that led to its political impasse?
A body appointed by Egypt’s interim government to rewrite the country’s constitution met for the first time today. Critics are warning it looks set to repeat the mistakes of the past few years.
Obama Destroyed Egypt,Obama Destroyed Libya.Now imagine if Obama fire missles into Syria ,he will have created another civil war there and nobody will know who are the good guys/bad guys. Obama should stop while he is behind.
“Putins an insincere bastard, but you have to give him credit. Hes trolling all of us with a cold, straight face.”
When the Ex-KGB Officer President of Russia is undeniably holding the moral high ground against the Peace Prize-winning President of the United States, you know that we, as a nation, have completely screwed ourselves.
Putin is trying to send a message directly to the American people about how close Obama has pushed us to WW3. The problem is, the vast majority of the American People won’t be seeing it. It doesn’t fit with the Administration/Academic Radical Socialist/MediaMatters agenda.
Oh, America is still exceptional. Still the economic center of the world economy. Still the most powerful military (by a LOT). We also feed over half of the world.
And we are infested with a totally ignorant and useless majority who elected Obama. Twice. Truly exceptional stupidity.
Finally, when we finally fully fail, the misery around the world will be beyond “exceptional.” Even many of the oligarchs won’t survive. In fact, it will be truly Biblical.
Putin is a professional.
Obama does not even rate “rank amateur” status.
Absolutely...Many are finally realizing nearly every single problem in America today is caused by bloated, controlling corrupt government at every level.
The funny thing about Putin saying that is that collectively we all know he’s full of s***
It kinda makes me feel better about the world.
I think he knows it too.
Putin doing to the United States what Ronald Reagan did to USSR.
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